Yesterday at the Headwaters Park Ice Rink, the chiller was turned on and put through it’s paces to demonstrate it’s abilities and help freeze the base of the ice rink.
If you are not familiar with it, the outdoor ice rink at Headwaters Park is built each year on the plaza underneath the Lincoln Financial Pavilion. A huge sand box is first built which is carefully levelled. This sand box gives a level base for the ice and also holds the tubing which carries the refrigerant which makes the ice.
In years past, we’ve limped along with our chiller and a couple of problematic compressors. This could present problems with keeping the ice intact if temperatures rose too high for extended periods. This past summer, two of the compressors were replaced.
Yesterday, the chiller was kicked on, the outdoor temperatures reached 68 degrees and the rink held a good cover of frost until the sun angled down enough to reach the inside of the pavilion and about 85% of the rink. Even then, there was visible frost on parts of the rink. Within an hour of the sun sinking low enough that it was no longer affecting the rink, there was visible frost over most of the rink, again.
This first photo shows the air temperature a few feet above the surface of the rink. 23 degrees.
The next photo shows the air temperature facing the boards and outside the rink. 52 degrees.
Very exciting! We should have a good season this year – as long as we don’t suffer the extreme, severe winter weather than is always a possibility.
This afternoon, when I go back to the rink, I’ll try to post some photos of the ice progress.
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