I finally got around to commenting on this thread.
I have had a Heights tower (upside down construction if you recall previous
notes on the Heights) up since 1971. I did experience one catastrophic
failure due to water in one of the legs. (QTH is Minnesota). Water entered
at a junction high up the tower and then trickled down on the inside of the
legs. When the temperature reached a critical point the water trickle began
to freeze --- much the way that wax 'freezes' as it flows down a lit candle.
When enough trickles had frozen they blocked flow out of the bottom section
of the tower. (The bottom section is mounted on brackets that hold it
slightly above the concrete base). When the bottom section became plugged
with ice it held back additional flow. Eventually there was a thaw followed
by a freeze. Some of the water in the bottom section melted, but the ice dam
did not and when the water filling the leg froze again the leg split. I had
to replace the damaged section -- at great expense in effort and dollars
because it was at the BOTTOM and everything had to come down and then go
back up.
I prevent reoccurrences of this problem by using a bathtub type caulk to
seal each junction from the top section to the bottom section. This seal is
sufficiently flexible that it moves slightly with the tower dimension
changes resulting from wind and temperature. Each year I inspect the seals
once again. After more than 25 years the seals are not broken. There has
been no repeat of split legs even though Minnesota weather has continued to
be the same --- anywhere else in the US is warmer in January. March sees
many consecutive days of thawing in the daytime and freezing again at night,
but so far there has not been a repeat of the previous leg splitting.
Tod, KOTO
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-towertalk@contesting.com
[mailto:owner-towertalk@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Tom Martin
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 10:03 AM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Water in Tower
Since I started this thread, I will comment on a few ideas shared on
this subject. My tower is aluminum. Each leg is supported by a
stainless steel tube in each leg
above the concrete base. I suppose that I could just remove a bolt in
each leg before the freezing season begins and drain each leg of any
collected water. I really
don't like the antifreeze idea. I'm sorry if I misled anyone into
thinking this was a steel tower with the legs in concrete. The original
post, I believe, mentioned that
fact.
73, Tom W8JWN
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