UGH...it happened again! Pipes frozen!

[Ravenlost]

So I did everything I could think to do - left the water dripping, opened the cabinet doors and put a light on the hot water heater in the attic.

My hot water in the kitchen froze anyway! Temp is 16 here right now, not supposed to get above 21 today and it's overcast. Not sure what to do at this point, other than be grateful that I still have cold water in the kitchen. At least it can be heated up!

[marinemomtatt]

The water you left dripping, was it a combo of hot and cold? Are all your pipes insulated? Water heater wrapped?

[Danaus29]

Heat tape. If it's a pipe that is exposed and easily reached just wrap it with heat tape. Plug in as needed. IMO, the heat tape would be cheaper to run than an electric pump and water heater.

[Curtis B]

You just lost hot water in the Kitchen? That should help you narrow down the location of the freezing pipe.

[Ravenlost]

Yup...narrowed it down to the west side outer wall of the house between the downstairs and the attic where the hot water heater is located. No way to get to the frozen pipes to thaw or wrap.

Thought I had the faucet set where a combo of hot and cold were drizzling last night...guess it wasn't enough hot to keep it from freezing. Darn fancy faucet!

[Bearfootfarm]

Try running some hot water to all the other fixtures.
Run enough to fill the pipes, and hopefully enough heat will transfer to thaw the kitchen.
You can also try putting a light bulb next to the pipe near the kitchen sink

Are they metal or PVC?

[Terri]

The houses in an area are insulated for the kind of cold that they USUALLY get.

In Iowa we got -10 every year and I did not worry: in my part of Kansas we do NOT get such cold weather! Tonight we are expecting -10 low and so I will be letting the faucets run and opening cupboard doors.

[foxtrapper]

A drip is not enough in your case. So it needs to be stream. But since it's the hot water side, that gets expensive. None the less, in the short term, it's effective.

The heat lamp needs to be where things freeze. Heating the tank won't do much, heating a line will.

I agree with the others about the heat tape. But it's got to be a good contact with the pipe in order to work.

[marinemomtatt]

And once the Heat tape is installed check it every Fall to ensure it's still in working order.

[Ravenlost]

To install heat tape where the pipe is frozen would require busting out the sheetrock wall...IF we could find where in the wall it is frozen.

Or, we could bust out the brick wall on the outside of the house to get to it.

It's PVC pipe. I just hope when it does eventually thaw out (probably next week when we hit the high 40s again) we don't have a leak.

Until then I'm letting the dirty dishes pile up! (Not really...but it seems like a good excuse to not do dishes.)

[Curtis B]

If you don't start attempting to thaw, you very well may have a leak, and with PVC especially it will be a big one. When PVC breaks due to a freeze it will bust, not just crack. I have seen single PVC breaks that were as long as 6-8". You have to have air coming in close to the pipe for it to freeze. Since it runs through the ceiling you may have a soffit vent close to the pipe it could be a simple as putting cardboard over the vent. Personally I would do more checking.

[Ravenlost]

Well, I'm washing clothes in hot water. The laundry room is next to the kitchen. Maybe that will help.

May go turn the heat upstairs a little higher. We keep it on 62 all the time. The back of the kitchen is covered by a porch, so I don't think there would be a vent near the pipes, unless it was in the eaves of the attic near the hot water heater.

I'll definitely do some more exploring as y'all have given me more to worry about! LOL...

[Sawmill Jim]

If i knew where the pipes were in the wall i would cut me a small square hole down low an set a heater there as the heat will go up . Some lumber barns have pvc or vinyl access panels i think ours is 14x14 .Just a thought as it beats cutting it all out later .

[AngieM2]

Can you put a space heater or even stand with a blow drier where you think the pipe is and direct warm air there?

Might help.

[Sawmill Jim]

Another wild idea put your vacuum cleaner on blow a small hole and blow room temp. air up the wall am sure it is between two studs .

[FL.Boy]

I have found here that it takes more than a drip to keep from freezing it take a nice little stream. Why is the hot water heater in the attic?

[Nancy]

We live in an old farm house and used to have frozen pipes sometimes too. But a few years ago DH wrapped all our pipes in some sort of insulation for pipes, not heat tapes as I think heat tapes might need electricity to work. Anyway when power went out on Christmas day and 1/2 the next day we were very happy that we still had running water when the power came back on. We do open our cabinet doors on very cold nights like we've been having.

[agmantoo]

If it is frozen now there is a strong chance that it may burst after the low temps of tonight. I would do everything possible to get it thawed now, even if I had to get a construction heater and put it in the kitchen and isolate the room and bring the room temp up to 90F+

[Sawmill Jim]

We ran a heater it the oil patch that had a burner eight foot wide and twenty foot long and i don't think it would heat this house right now

[MaggieJ]

We get frozen pipes sometimes and we use a hair dryer or heat gun (for paint stripping) to thaw it out. Leave the tap turned on... when it starts to drip you know you are close to success.

For prevention, until you get heat tape, run the taps for a minute every 5 - 6 hours. Surely someone is up in the night for something and can do this? It's routine here in very cold weather. Run the taps before bed, sometime in the night, first thing in the morning.