severe winter

[tomatoada]

A very cold Winter is forcast.   If we do get one will full  plastic water butts be OK?   I would be most upset if mine split.   

[tomatoada]

[grannyjanny]

One of ours split last year but it was 10 years old ;D.

[lottie lou]

Why keep it full over the winter?

[TEL]

mine have been OK over the last 7 years its a 50 50 Chance

[Robert_Brenchley]

They'll be OK as the ice can expand upwards. If you fill them to the brim a lid could be forced off but that's the worst that can happen.

[Obelixx]

Two of my watering cans split last year.  I foolishly left them out and they filled with rain and snow and that expanded and they burst despite having no lid.   I would empty the water butts by at least half.

[tomatoada]

Thanks for replies and advice.  I like to keep some water handy to wash  veg and clean tools.

[Digeroo]

I have put my water butts beside my PSB I am hoping that this will help to get a few plants through the winter this year.

[BarriedaleNick]

The problem is that water freezes from the top (ice being less dense than water) and can effectively make it's own seal - so that when the rest of it freezes it expands outward instead of upward.

[Chrispy]

Water expands in all directions, but it is a liquid so it will flow, so no extra pressure is caused as the water flows up to fill the gap above it.

Problems only occur once the water is frozen, and then as the temperature drops further below zero the solid ice continues to expand in all directions adding extra pressure to the sides of the container.

[jimtheworzel]

no doubt the winter will be cold with frost and snow- but i think it will be a wet winter

[Deb P]

The waterbutt near my little lottie greenhouse usually isn't very full, but despite that over last winter it expanded when it froze, lurched slowly sideways and broke 3 panes of glass in the greenhouse....... ::) :-\ :'(

[Robert_Brenchley]

Ice will flow under pressure, and there's not much friction inside a barrel. The one outside my shed has survived at least a dozen years - it was there when I arrived - without splitting, and there are plenty more like it on the site. My piss barrel has likewise survived several cold winters. In the old days of milk deliveries the bottles occasionally froze. The milk would be sticking out of the top, frozen solid, but the bottles never broke.

[Digeroo]

I remember milk at school with the silver foil cap pushed off by the ice. 

[Duke Ellington]

My piss barrel

Errrrm....... ??? Your what?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Piss barrel. Every time I go on the allotment, it goes in the barrel. It's my supply of liquid manure.

[goodlife]

Code Select Expand

Errrrm....... Your what?
Piss barrel.. ;D..straight talk..nothing like it.. ;D I don't save mine but I use it as and when the supply arrives..well diluted first though.. ;) ;D
Uh..it could be quite a mess if the barrel like that should split.. :-X

[pumkinlover]

I think people who save their household liquid fertilizer should get a refund on the water rates, as also use less water as not flushing the loo all the time :D

[1066]

How about putting something in the butt to float - to keep the ice from completely freezing over - like a rubber ball, or milk bottle filled?

[Robert_Brenchley]

It would work in an ordinary winter - when it's not really needed - but I'm not sure about the last two. The barrels survived anyway.