Current Wichita Ice Center News
October 10th Update
Dust off your skates, and get to stretching. We are happy to announce that we are planning to reopen on Friday, October 13th! In order to kick off our grand re-opening, we will be working on different contests, events, and specials for the month of October. Stay tuned to our social media and sign up for our marketing emails for more information! We will see you on the ice very soon!
September 27th Update
Work continues on the chilling system at the ice center. Additional testing last week revealed replacement of the ammonia chiller barrel is required to safely resume full operations. Expedited delivery of a new barrel should allow installation to begin in early to mid-December, and restoration of both ice rinks around mid-January.
However, we are pleased to share that we do expect to have one functioning ice rink around mid-October. The City has rented a temporary chiller which arrived today and is being set up in our parking lot. Please know that we truly appreciate your patience and understanding as we’ve navigated these issues. Our ice center community has largely been incredibly supportive and understanding, and we can’t wait to have you back at the rink.
August 28th Update
The Ice Center is so grateful for your patience. The new condensing tower install is now complete. While we are down, we are doing some needed work to various other systems involved with the chilling system. We are still waiting on other specialized parts to arrive and believe we are on track to have ice before October. Other things around the building have included the replacement of bench matting on the OLY side, replacement dasher pieces, along with various smaller odds and ends around the building. When we have more updates, we will let you know as soon as we can. Know that we are diligently working to make our community Icy-T again. We can’t wait to have you back on the ice.
August 14th Update
We understand everyone's frustrations and disappointment with this situation. Unfortunately, we continue to wait on specialized parts to be manufactured for the compressors. Previously planned work of replacing the condensing tower has started this week. We still do not have a planned date of re-opening at this time. The City of Wichita is continuing to work hard with AMS in an effort to minimize this from happening in the future.
July 27th Update
We continue to work diligently on getting ice back as soon as possible. We look forward to having you back as soon as we can. We appreciate everyone's patience.
July 17th Update
As announced last Thursday, the ice center compressors failed late afternoon on Wednesday July 12th. The heat was not the only factor that caused the failure. As you may know, plans were in place to replace the current condensing tower in mid August due to a lack of proper water treatment and maintenance in the years prior. With an already hurt and struggling system, the heat was just the tipping point. Our staff have been working with AMS (chiller professionals) to explore options to not only get the ice up quickly, but also what would be the most sensible option in an effort to greatly minimize the chance of this happening again. Unfortunately these are specialized parts that are not always readily available, and can result in a longer downtime than we would like. We can ensure that we will have the ice back up, however we just don't want to announce a timeline that we have no control over. We will continue to keep our wonderful skating community up to date and appreciate the understanding.
July 13th Update
Unfortunately with the excessive Kansas heat, we have experienced an issue with our ice chilling system. As noted below we are already facing a multitude of issues that are counterproductive to sustaining our product, the ice. Compounding with the issues below we encountered an issue with the compressors and are currently unable to maintain a safe ice temperature for skating. While our staff is working with professionals on rectifying this issue we do not currently have a timeline on when skaters will be able to get back on the ice. Please stay tuned to our social media pages and updates page on our website as we plan to update everyone as soon as we can.
Key Points updated 08.28.2023
-
At present, the WIC is working to complete needed repairs in order to restore ice to both sheets and expect to be fully operational in time for the start of the hockey season.
-
The condensing tower, which prevented having two sheets of ice last season, has been fully replaced with a new unit. Separate parts for the ammonia compressors were needed in order to bring both compressors back to a 100% functional state in preparation for the upcoming season
-
Ammonia refrigeration and dehumidification rooftop units are specialized equipment with long lead times and specialized design review, this has been an ongoing project for the City of Wichita since early 2022.
-
Both temporary dehumidification units will be reactivated upon completion of the work done to the chilling system
-
Work on the permanent dehumidification units is estimated to be completed between October 2023 and January 2024, dependent on equipment lead time