[YWCS]

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[formb]

Go to Currys you'll get a 240v fan heater for £9.99 you might need to leave it on for a bit, but it should do the trick without buying a pricey oil or parrafin heater.

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

I had the same issues when I came back from holiday the week before xmas. The main issue is the pipes from the tank. If you can detatch these and thaw them, then pour hot water down them it may help. You need to raise the temperature by 10 degrees even to have a chance. I had a gas heater in there for 2 days before mine thawed however the outside temp was -4 during the day.

You could also pump in some hot water and discard it when thawed.

[rg1]

I removed all the pipes before so they are all fine its just the tank outlet and the tank,

I was thinking maybe flushing it with hot for a while, but i dont want to put 100's of ltrs of water all over the road in case it freezes.

Can't you connect a length of hose and run it to a drain close by?

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

not until the four inches around the outlet have thawed I cant, but that might be the way to go,

its gonna be another day now anyway, you lot are rubbish, I thought someone would have a tip for me that would thaw it out in ten minutes 

You would have thought with all the hot air on here you wouldn't have a problem.

[daz1977]

what size tank is it

[Sunshine/Cleaning]

Hot water bottles around the outlet?

[russ_clark]

use the wife's hairdryer around the outlet 

[[GQC] Tim]

What I've done before in the past is put a liter of ISO in it, use a 240v fan heater aswell. I've got a 1000/2000w dual setting fan and can heat up a couple of rooms.

[daz1977]

drain water out of tank with a hose pipe, you might have to suck it out,   then either get it out of van if you can if not leave in,  and pour a load of hot water in the top untill it is full, and leave for about 30 mins as this will melt some of the water,  then drain again and repeat,  it is pretty easy once you get hang of it,   hope this helps, as this is what we use to do to tanks that had frozen

[daz1977]

after 2 or 3 times with hot water, most of the ice should be gone,  fill with hot water again and just leave to melt,  nut before you go bed  to nite drain it all off

[stephen s]

if you do manage to get a heater in there and you have a screw cap on top of your tank then take the lid off and the warm air will soon will help it thaw out a lot quicker

[michael papworth]

It will cost you a HUGE amount of money on electricity or gas to heat it up and melt the ice.

A fan heater is out of the question. Very little of the energy will actually get to the ice. First of all, there's always a thin layer of air that sticks to the surface - and air is an excellent insulator - so most of the hot air will simply bounce off and heat up the surrounding atmosphere. The tiny bit of heat that does get through to the tank will hit the plastic, another good insulator. And then the little heat that struggles through the plastic (probably less than 1%) will have to melt the ice. Forget it.

A radiator is little better. It radiates from two sides, only one of which faces the tank. And that heats up the plastic - same as above.

An immersion heater of some sort will at least get all the expensive heat straight into the tank. But you have to supply about 333 kJ to melt 1 kg of ice. That's going to be a little bit expensive - and pushing the capacity of any fish tank heater. The biggest fish tank heater I've seen is 300 W. So it would melt about a maximum 3 kg of ice per hour.

That's possible. But painfully slow when you consider how much ice you have if it's really 2 to 3 inches thick.

And don't use a hair dryer. It's a complete waste of money and time.

Is the tank in your van? If it is, park the van with the back doors open and facing the Sun. Move the van as the Sun moves. That will get all the Sun's heat in there and melt the ice much faster. Even a weak and watery Sun will give you some heat.

Just one man's view.

[Window Washers]

use the wife's hairdryer around the outlet 

I have done this loads of times, she still does not know I have bought a new one 

[Clive McDonald]

Halogen lamp overnight.

[jefftemperley]

is it worth a go at getting one of the small space heaters blowing thru some ducting straight into top of tank that way heat is fired directly on the ice in the tank should melt it quick time

you can hire it or buy a small one from
 http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/categories/search/gas-fired-space-heaters

[mci services]

started defrosting yesterday morning finally finished this afternoon. i insulated the roof to relect the heat back down as most heat goes straight out the roof. i used a oil filled radiator. by late morning today i had enough liquid to fit two fish tank heaters and last i checked the water was up to 10 degrees

[Small but perfectley formed]

boil pure water in kettle pour in tank probably need 6-7 kettles full 

[michael papworth]

Did it!

Syphoned off as much of the water as I could, then removed the tank and emptied it over a drain, then kicked the sides to get the ice off, broke it up with a hammer and pulled handfulls out of the top. 

Very clever. Don't bother defrosting at all!

Note to Jason. 1 litre of boiling water will melt about 1.25 kg of ice. If you've just get ice round the outlet, for example, that'll work fine. If you've got lots of ice up the sides, it's slow and quite expensive.

[gary mallett]

blow torch should do the business.