Fast, Hard, Beautiful (and Way Way Warmer) Ice

You'd be forgiven if you thought the ice in this picture is wet. It's not.

"It's not wet, it's frozen,"says Zion Cruz, arena manager at the C.H. Foote Memorial Arena in Fraser Lake, BC.

Okay, but that's gotta be brand new ice, then. Brand new ice always looks good, and this ice doesn't look like there are any skate marks in it at all.?

You'd be wrong there too.

"That picture was taken two months into the season," Cruz explains. "We have amazing clarity and incredible shine. Out of town teams always comment on our ice because it's like a mirror."

Colder floodwater, warmer brine temperatures

You might also be surprised that they're running their cold floor at 25°F and their actual control set point is at 26.6°F giving them a surface temperature typically at 27°F. That's 6°F?higher than what they used to run their brine at back in the old days when they did hot water floods. Back then it was a pretty typical 19°F flooding with 160°F water. Today their floodwater is between 62-67°F. That's almost 100°F colder floodwater.

For the celsius buffs out there, here's the simultaneous translation of °F to °C. They're running their cold floor at -3.9°C; their actual control set point is at -3°C, giving them a surface temperature typically at -2.8°C. That's 3.3°C higher than what they used to run their brine at, back in the old days when they did hot water floods. Back then, it was a pretty typical -7.2°C, flooding with 70°C water. Today their floodwater is between 16.7-19.4°C) That's almost 55°C colder.        

How can they do that? Run the ice so much warmer, and make it look so good?

Cruz says it's all because of the?REALice floodwater treatment system. The forestry town on the Yellowhead Highway has been using REALice-treated floodwater since 2017. He says if they were still doing hot floods, they wouldn't be able to sustain the temperatures they do.?

"If we were hot flooding and running our ice surface at 26°F or more, it (the ice) would melt. But not with the REALice. It's insane!"?

Cruz says REALice has made a?big difference?to their facility. That difference spans the gamut of operations, from lower run time hours and lower humidity to lower costs.?And better ice.

Run time down 30%

"The REALice changed a lot of stuff for us," Zion explains. "Like run time. Our run time is down about 30% compared to before by not adding so much heat to the ice. We used to run about 120 hours on the weekend and that number fell to 60, 70 or 80 hours. Before our REALice system, in the month of November, we ran 265 hours. November with REALice we ran for only 119 hours."

By using REALice at lower floodwater temperatures and higher brine settings, their natural gas and hydro costs plummeted.

Hydro consumption fell from 386,000 to 222,000 kWh

"The year before REALice, we used 386,000 kWh for the season, which is goes from mid-September to the end of March," says Cruz. "The year we put REALice in, our hydro consumption went down to 222,000 kWh." (A reduction of just under 60%). "Aside from that, our natural gas consumption went down quite a bit too."

One of the stories Cruz told me about REALice is how they're now better able to deal with condensation when building the ice at the beginning of the season.

Managing the drips from the beams

"We don't have a dehumidifier here, and we typically have condensation issues building the ice, like this past September when it was so warm," he explains. "We've done a better job in sealing the building, too, but because the REALice floodwater freezes so quickly, we're able to build fast enough to shave the rust drips on the ice before they become a problem."

Hard ice

"Our ice is fast and hard and one hundred percent it's because of that REALice system," says Cruz. "You can flood with 180°F water, but it's not going to be as hard as the REALice ice. The technology they've come up with is pretty incredible."

Getting Buy-In from Staff

Cruz says changing staffs' attitudes is the biggest hurdle with the REALice.

"I think the hardest thing is to get buy in from the older rink attendants," he explains. "It's tough to wrap your head around raising the brine settings when you've got 19°F stuck in your head from doing it that way for years. That temperature may be perfect for hot water floods, but for REALice, it's way too cold. Get them on board and you'll have great ice."

In many provinces including British Columbia, utility incentives may be available to lower your ROI. If you'd like to know how you can put REALice into your arena, contact me.