Freezing plastic pipe

[bathroomboy]

Yep. Even on copper I use a bit of wet blue roll and if it's a humid/hot day I try and do it first thing in the morning and wrap a dry towel round the lot to help the freezing process.

On another note I once froze two pipe tails to a rad in a packed office, for some stupid reason when I took the knackered TRV valve off I decided to switch off the pipe freezer and shortly afterwards created an indoor water feature. To this day I still don't know why I switched the machine off

To this day I still don't know why I switched the machine off , lol iv'e done quite a few things like that in my time, the brain switches off sometimes

 

[SJB]

Clamp it if it's plastic, won't damage the pipe.

I tried all sorts of diy heat transfer pastes with my old electric freezer, toothpaste, moisturiser, nappy cream etc. Best results I had was with silicone grease. Messy tho.

 

[1Steven]

I use face cream , cheap as chips. Quicker on hot pipes.

 

[Last Plumber]

If you're just freezing one place put both heads on next to each other.

If you're freezing two point you obviously cannot do that but whatever you do, use the paste on the pipe and between insert and head as well, wrap a damp rag around the heads leaving the temp gauge on show and wait till its minus 20 deg before you cut into it.

 

[bathroomboy]

Hi All, Tried again to freeze some plastic pipes, they were again hep2o as before, the pipe freezer is a rothenburger electric turbofrost. I wrapped wet j cloths round the pipe before clamping, the probes on the clamps read -20c and was on for 25 mins, but did not stop the flow.
Tried again with damp paper towel and some conductivity paste to no avail. There is no flow through the pipes which are feeding a shower mixer valve. Any other suggestions anybody. Thanks

 

[ShaunCorbs]

yea get wet and fit some valves you might need to leave it on longer if you dont want to get wet

 

[Millsy 82]

I hate freezing. The last time I did was a hotel and I didn't want to turn the hot and cold off and drain it all.

Anything domestic I just drain not worth the hassle to save an hour.