The Town of Sexsmith's new "Zamboni tractor"

By Shane Clausing

Community

Sexsmith’s Public Works department builds Zamboni using tractor

Jan 24, 2021 | 9:04 AM

The Public Works department in the Town of Sexsmith has come up with an innovative way to flood their skating rinks this winter, by building a Zamboni tractor.

Just recently, Public Works crew members got together and decided to build what they call the Henry Rink Flooder.

The Henry Rink Flooder is named after Henry Wiebe, who is mainly responsible for building the Zamboni style tractor.

Wiebe and other Public Works crew members found a tractor and borrowed some cloth as well as some other equipment from the local arena.

Once the proper equipment was found, they began to experiment and construct the Zamboni. The new piece of equipment would help flood the rinks faster, as the rinks throughout Sexsmith have been busy throughout the winter.

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Mayor for the Town of Sexsmith Kate Potter says the new piece of equipment works great.

“We love it, it’s been used a number of times already and it’s working very well.”

“It (the ice) freezes much faster, the ice is much nicer and smoother and having the hot water is also fantastic. It saves so much water.”

Potter explained there is a small water tank that sits elevated on a platform and it’s filled with hot water. There is also a small pipe that has tiny little pinholes so water can drop down onto the ice surface. In order to control the water, the Public Works crew also connected a switch to the tractor to turn the water on and off.

There is also a cloth at the back to make sure the ice can have that nice smooth finish.

A video of the tractor in action can be found here.

Potter ads that Public Works is happy to share their blueprints with other municipalities that are interested in building their very own Zamboni like tractor.