uneven residue on the ice. The more skaters there are on the ice, the more defects appear.
Our hero, of course, is Frank Zamboni, an Italian immigrant, who invented the Zamboni Ice Resurfacer to solve a problem of his own. He owned a rink, the Icehouse in Paramount, California, and realized how much time and labor was wasted with his maintenance men manually hosing and sweeping the ice—a process that took three to five men an average of an hour and a half. During hockey games, six to eight employees were required to scrape the ice between periods.
In 1942, the uneducated but mechanically gifted Zamboni took a Jeep and fashioned a riding resurfacer that could automate the process. After seven years of experimentation, he crafted an early version of the Zamboni Ice Resurfacer and used it at his rink. In 1950, the most famous ice skater in the world, Sonja Henie, who won gold medals at the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Olympics, saw Zamboni’s machine and wanted one for her tour. Zamboni hand-built it and Henie showed it off on her tour—rink managers clamored for the labor-saving device, and Zamboni found himself with a new business.
The genius of the Zamboni resurfacer is that the entire operation is handled with one pass over the ice, even though four separate operations are performed:
1. A planar blade scrapes off a layer of the existing ice.
2. Scraped ice that is left on the surface is collected and put into a holding tank, about 100 cubic feet, which is the bulk of the machine.
3. Water is fed from a wash-water tank over the newly cut ice. A squeegee-like conditioner then smoothes this water over the ice and a vacuum reclaims the water back into the tank. This does not create a new surface, but conditions the newly cut ice.
4. Clean water is then spread over the conditioned ice by a “trowel,” a clean board that contains a pipe bringing in the new water, and that spreads the new water in a thin, flat film. The “new” water is held in a tank with a capacity of about 200 gallons, although about 70 to 120 gallons are used in a typical resurfacing.
The poser of this Imponderable wonders why this “clean water” spread to form the topmost sheet of ice needs to be hot. Wouldn’t hot water just melt some of the ice on the surface and slow down the freezing process?
The conventional wisdom is that, compared to room temperature water, hot water creates a better bond with the existing ice. It does melt the existing ice a little more, but it fills in the cracks better. When it freezes, hot water creates a smoother temperature gradient from the top of the old ice to the top of the new surface—it “integrates” better and forms a smooth top-sheet of ice.
We spoke to Raoul Lopez, the maintenance chief at the Culver City Ice Arena in Culver City, California. His ice arena uses an Olympia resurfacer, one of Zamboni’s main rivals. Lopez showed us a manual from Olympia that addresses this issue:
For the best resurfacing results, your water supply should be 85 to 95 degrees Centigrade (180 to 200 degrees F). Hot water flows into cracks in the ice surface before cooling and freezing, and by slightly melting the ice surface before freezing, the best possible bond is formed with the existing ice. Hot water holds less oxygen than cold water and therefore produces a denser, harder ice. The hard ice does not get damaged as easily and therefore does not require the resurfacing as often or as deeply, resulting in minimal ice buildup. This means less time spent on ice maintenance and saves wear and tear on ice-resurfacing equipment.
We spoke to a few physicists, who confirmed that hot water would have slight advantages in resurfacing ice, but they wondered whether the small gain would really be worth the cost in heating? If scientists fielding a theoretical question wonder about costs, you can rest assured that the thought has crossed the mind of rink owners. In active rinks, resurfacing is performed every hour
Our hero, of course, is Frank Zamboni, an Italian immigrant, who invented the Zamboni Ice Resurfacer to solve a problem of his own. He owned a rink, the Icehouse in Paramount, California, and realized how much time and labor was wasted with his maintenance men manually hosing and sweeping the ice—a process that took three to five men an average of an hour and a half. During hockey games, six to eight employees were required to scrape the ice between periods.
In 1942, the uneducated but mechanically gifted Zamboni took a Jeep and fashioned a riding resurfacer that could automate the process. After seven years of experimentation, he crafted an early version of the Zamboni Ice Resurfacer and used it at his rink. In 1950, the most famous ice skater in the world, Sonja Henie, who won gold medals at the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Olympics, saw Zamboni’s machine and wanted one for her tour. Zamboni hand-built it and Henie showed it off on her tour—rink managers clamored for the labor-saving device, and Zamboni found himself with a new business.
The genius of the Zamboni resurfacer is that the entire operation is handled with one pass over the ice, even though four separate operations are performed:
1. A planar blade scrapes off a layer of the existing ice.
2. Scraped ice that is left on the surface is collected and put into a holding tank, about 100 cubic feet, which is the bulk of the machine.
3. Water is fed from a wash-water tank over the newly cut ice. A squeegee-like conditioner then smoothes this water over the ice and a vacuum reclaims the water back into the tank. This does not create a new surface, but conditions the newly cut ice.
4. Clean water is then spread over the conditioned ice by a “trowel,” a clean board that contains a pipe bringing in the new water, and that spreads the new water in a thin, flat film. The “new” water is held in a tank with a capacity of about 200 gallons, although about 70 to 120 gallons are used in a typical resurfacing.
The poser of this Imponderable wonders why this “clean water” spread to form the topmost sheet of ice needs to be hot. Wouldn’t hot water just melt some of the ice on the surface and slow down the freezing process?
The conventional wisdom is that, compared to room temperature water, hot water creates a better bond with the existing ice. It does melt the existing ice a little more, but it fills in the cracks better. When it freezes, hot water creates a smoother temperature gradient from the top of the old ice to the top of the new surface—it “integrates” better and forms a smooth top-sheet of ice.
We spoke to Raoul Lopez, the maintenance chief at the Culver City Ice Arena in Culver City, California. His ice arena uses an Olympia resurfacer, one of Zamboni’s main rivals. Lopez showed us a manual from Olympia that addresses this issue:
For the best resurfacing results, your water supply should be 85 to 95 degrees Centigrade (180 to 200 degrees F). Hot water flows into cracks in the ice surface before cooling and freezing, and by slightly melting the ice surface before freezing, the best possible bond is formed with the existing ice. Hot water holds less oxygen than cold water and therefore produces a denser, harder ice. The hard ice does not get damaged as easily and therefore does not require the resurfacing as often or as deeply, resulting in minimal ice buildup. This means less time spent on ice maintenance and saves wear and tear on ice-resurfacing equipment.
We spoke to a few physicists, who confirmed that hot water would have slight advantages in resurfacing ice, but they wondered whether the small gain would really be worth the cost in heating? If scientists fielding a theoretical question wonder about costs, you can rest assured that the thought has crossed the mind of rink owners. In active rinks, resurfacing is performed every hour
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