2009 MVRC Ice Arena Shutdown

Ice shutdown at Mount Vernon Ice Arena. Every 2 years we replace the ice, and it's a pretty big job. This video slideshow is a summary of the process in chronological order. I'm glad it's over and the ice came out pretty good, overall. 10 days of mayhem condensed into 9 minutes!

Skate on!

BTW, this video doesn't do the opening music justice. It was originally Vaulting Visions' B-team kur music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1yFMkqaShc

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Entertainment

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• MVRC
• Mount
• Vernon
• Rec
• Center
• ice
• arena
• maintenance
• shutdown
• replace
• not
• wanna
• drive
• the
• Zamboni
• Olympia
• york
• compressor
• hockey
• figure
• skater
• skate
• Vaulting
• Visions
• team
• kur
• music

[theonemam]

Also not to mention 2 yrs ago we had to replace our dehumidifier, which cost about $60 grand. The old one had the dessicant wheel blow to pieces, and the part was no longer available. The unit was a des champs only 10 yrs old, so we got and arrid ice unit. Oh the joys of owning a rink. I have always wanted to own my own, but I think I might be better off owning a inline roller rink instead.

[GFVagent007]

@theonemam Yes, that's happened at this rink before, but parts were not a problem. It runs a munters unit with heating, cooling, and a gas fired dessicant wheel. There's also two desert air condensor dehumidifiers as well. If I end up making alot of money, I'd just build one in my back yard.

[theonemam]

Last summer I had to overhaul one of the brine circulating pumps, it was a hard job, but paid off. for the last 3 yrs I have been convincing them to get a Trane rotary helical chiller. Also Olympia ice resurfacers are CRAP! The GMC engines SUCK, and are always breaking down. We have 2 Olympias at our rink, as it's a 2 sheet rink, and they are always having to be serviced. I like Zamboni the best, it's the origional, Olympia is a knockoff.

[GFVagent007]

I have experienced absolutely zero powertrain problems with the Olympias, asside from needing a natural gas reg recently. I've never driven a zam, but have no complaints with the olympias..more capacity and automation frees you up to do more with the ice and with your resurfacing technique. Routine maint is important as is eliminating the idiot factor. What is crap is running 2 packaged York recip chillers designed for 40 deg 24 hrs/day trying to make 15 deg. That's what's always breaking down!

[theonemam]

I work at a ice rink, and I must tell you painting lines in the ice suck!! It's so hard to do. What we do is since we have seating that goes all the way up the back wall to a balcony, well we lay all the tape down, and we have a guy that stands on the balcony with 2 way radios telling us that our lines are crooked, and reposition your tape to left, or right. It sucks and it's no joke. I also repair the chiller, as we have a Cimco Ammonia chiller, which is on it's way out.

[GFVagent007]

@theonemam Yeah, that's one solution I thought of. They managed to do a much better job this past spring, but I wasn't there due to school. It really came down to using measuring tape effectively and not just eyeballing it... The rink near school runs a Cimco 180 ton ammonia system with 3 compressors...one of which is down and needs some sort of work. The facility originally had 2 sheets of ice, but they were bought out and reconfigured as a single sheet but the chiller is designed for 2.

[BrendanYankee]

@GFVagent007 I got a good laugh out of your lines, unfortunately it happens. The jet ice template kit will save you alot of aggravation in keeping all your lines straight. We use the same exact York chiller system as you except ours is air cooled and 400 tons, very rarely have any problems. The only major failures we have had was a broken crankshaft due to a failed TXV stuck open and a failed discharge valve on another compressor which was easily fixed.

[rockdrummer1226]

That is very interesting to see. Thanks for posting

[GFVagent007]

@Zamman4769 Good for you, and what we got we had absolutely no say in whatsoever...headquarters just ran us over...I won't go there... :p At least the technical end of operations has largely been left alone.