Melt or thaw ice on the cold room floor

[gwapa]

Dear frieds
I would like to post again the following . Any help will be appreciate
In a cold room working at -25ºC, one evaporators drains clogged. The evaporator tray overflow and plenty of water felt on the floor forming a mountain of about 20 cm high and 80 cm in diameter . It do not allow circulation of the forklift or elevators to repair the drainage Electric resistance.(heater)

The client do not want to use salt (NaCl) to thaw the ice for corrosion problems on metal shelves.
What other ways could be used to melt or thaw the ice block ?
It has to be food grade and suitable for workers perform i in a closed and cold environment.

The costumer do not want use a chisel and hammer to do the job becouse the workers could damage the floor.
Thanks
Gwapa

[RANGER1]

http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/industrial-heater

Gwapa what about something like in link, electric or gas.
Probably 20kw one, may have to warm up gas bottle though.

Mop up water as you go.

[jonjon]

Oxy acytalyne torch !

[hookster]

Unfortunately there is no simple solution and mechanical means is usually the only option. Chisel and hammers is a no no! Repairing a slab once damaged at -25 is a nightmare. I recommend using large flat blade scrapers.

Salt would not have worked anyway and gas powered means would not be accepted in a store.

I have had frozen evaporators defrosted with steam to replace drain tapes but it does add an excessive amount of moisture to the room that then requires a lot of defrost to remove.

[Segei]

Some people repair concrete floor at -18C freezer. They install tent structure and heater inside to create positive temperature inside It is additional heat load but you can warm up floor and melt the ice.

[FreezerGeezer]

Warm water. Not hot - you don't want to thermally stress the floor.
And a couple of large wet vac's and squeegee brooms to deal with the runoff.
If you have access to a pressure washer, that'll chop the ice up in no time. Take care with your cut though, or you'll get water fountaining everywhere. Slow and easy is the trick, don't get impatient.
This was our normal procedure for defrosting evap's etc. when I worked in commercial fridge.

[McFranklin]

Use a hand scraper and manual labor to remove the majority of the ice. Then take a warm food grade glycol and mop it onto the ice. As the glycol melts and mixes with the ice, scrape and mop it up.

[gwapa]

Dear friends
the job is not easy I live in a tropical country and the lowest ambient temperature is +20 C
I think that in this forum there are many colleagues who live in four season countries where the ambient temperature lows to -30 C I am very sure the clean the ice from the sidewalk ,stair or garage
what do they do in the winter time? which product do they use to no damage the plant or poison the pets?
thanks for your advises