Can you tell me what they used to freeze the pipe? I am in the same situation and trying to change the gate valve to ball valve.

Hi jaindesi and Welcome to The Plumbing Page. At AskMeHelpDesk.com. You're responding to a 1 year old dead thread so I gave you one of your own. Look in then upper left hand corner of the first post form the date in the first post before you post, Thanks, You have a plug of ice in the pipe with over 40 PSI trying to push it out. If that ice should happen to melt, even a little bit, what do you think will happen. That's right sports fans! It's shower time! Wouldn't shutting off the water art the house stop work better for you? Good luck, Tom

Actually, pipe freezing machines have become quite sophisticated nowadays... ;) See video below:

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Of course, if you can locate a shutoff or curb stop as Tom has suggested then that would certainly be the way to go!

Back to you...

Mark

Can I get lot of Dry Ice and put it around the pipe to freeze it or even slow down the pressure. I can put one of the Compression fitting type ball valve?? I read up on other forums about dry ice. It will take about 10 minutes to freeze/slow down the water.

BTW.. thanks for you help with this. Found this on a different website.
http://www.terrylove.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-36933.html

I saw dry ice used by a highway contractor who hit an abandoned house service unexpectedly. It worked well for his situation. They put a valve or cap on the copper line and solved the immediate problem. The only other option available was to dig up a newly paved road to get to a corporation stop (if that's the right term-long time ago). I am not a plumber by any means, just an experience I had as a highway construction inspector, for what's it's worth.

Interesting, so this is a solution for not finding a shutoff valve?
If so, I would think their to be a ?Maximum flow rate to be able to freeze? I am sure with no flow, it would freeze faster?
Anyone?

I guess you're never too old to learn. But I agree with stratmando. I'm a shut off valve guy myself. But that's good to know in case it ever comes up again so I don't make a fool of myself like I did in post#1. Cheers, Tom

As a last resort I have froze water lines with dry ice wrapped in rags if there is no flow of water, if there is a flow of water dry ice will not freeze the line.

I seen the Shark Bite fittings, and think you could install a valve on piece of pipe with sharkbite, push on with valve open and then close valve.
This might be for closing off a broken waterline and valve can't be located?

I should have mentioned in the case I described. The way they discovered the line was when a front end "tooth" snagged it when they were starting into making about a 20 foot cut (excavation) so there were several feet of copper line exposed at that point and a stream of water shooting about 30 feet in the air. So they just bent the pipe and got the flow down to a trickle. Long time ago but I think they then froze it in about 20 minutes or less after somebody found the dry ice and got it back to the site. I don't recall what they did to make a permanent disposition of the line but we didn't open up the new pavement over top of the main. Maybe just installed a meter which would never be used at the level where the grade wasn't going to be changed?

I think I didn't explain myself. I have a shutoff valve which doesn't work. Valve is located before the meter. What I want to do is use dry ice to slow down or freeze the what coming from the main line from the ground. I don't have a corporate point outside my house. So I am thinking about trying dry ice. Trying to save money by not hiring a plumber. I don't know myself if dry ice will work or not as water pressure will be tremendous. I am attaching the picture to this post.

I want to change my old valve with this.

You need to contact the city water department and have them come locate and shut off the curb stop out side. They should do this at little or no charge. YOu can then change out the valve and have them turn the curb stop back on. This way, you don't have to worry about freezing at all. And trust me, you don't want to be experimenting with freezing even with online suggestions. If you are going to have a line frozen, you best hire someone with the right equiptment (and there are a few different ways to do this) and knowledge, not to mention insurance, so this doesn't turn into a real mess in a hurry. You need to know that if you try to do this yourself, and things don't go according to plan, you can and will flood you home. Contact the city water and let them help you. Or, even call in a plumber. Trust me, it will be worth the cost vs the worst case senario.