How do you unfreeze pipes?

Aw Boo I knew these folks have probably been through this.
motivated

Rent or borrow a kerosene space heater, one of those jet engine looking heaters. It will blow the heat where you want it and not damage your pipes and allow the heat to get where you want it without you crawling around with a torch or hairdryer.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Be careful with the kerosene space heater. They can cause a fire or kill you with CO.

Do you have a well, or is it piped in community water?

beemans got it right the space heater is the easiest.
I like the propane type as they dont put out the fumes .

Piped,good idea with that kerosene jet style heater,I would evac the house though for CO ,also good advice.

BooBoo

I am feeling bad for you. I hate frozen pipes. We used one of those Reddi heaters to thaw pipes. Eventually put straw bales around the cold side of the house (looked like squatter's rights) but it helped a lot. This is at the old farm house where I grew up. My son lives there now and keeps the heat up in the bathroom and that helps keep the pipes from freezing. He has not used the straw bales yet. We are having a very mild winter. So nice on the heating bills and no frozen pipes. But, it is not too late.

A few warnings on the dryer vent:
1) check life/safety codes
2) do NOT do it for gas-powered dryers (LP (propane) or natural gas) - it could vent combustion gasses to the area. If you still insist on doing this, make sure the area doesn't then vent into an area where you keep animals or people
3) watch out for excess moisture - if you actually dry clothes in the dryer as you do this or have a gas-powered dryers (LP or NG), you could find a nasty surprise of mold and/or ice in the area later...

Our sink froze and we turned on the hot water (nothing came out ) but we left it on and put a small heater on the pipe.When it thawed enough the ice came out.Saved the pipe.

__________________
"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend." Henri Bergson

careful with a torch under your house might have a pile of ashes if not careful it just takes one spark in a hidden place and your homeless. the hair dryer or clothes dryer is a much safer way to do this might take lil longer but would be worth the extra work. when ya get it going leave small stream running inside from a faucet until it warms bac up outside.

Then is it possible that the pipeline is frozen before it reaches your home? You need to determine where the freeze is because all the heat in the world underneath your home isn't going to help if the pipe is frozen half-a-block down the road.

WOW

great advice, but the welder / torch advice should be keept to the welder/ torch users. I like the dryer vent idea and someone touched on the subject that it could cause harm. I would like to hear more on the pros and cons on dryer heat. + I assume if she had a torch or welder or jumper cables, and had the know how , how the heat is transfered, I think she would have said I did this will I die if I fall asllep tonight>

But great ideas to all and thank you

No,its my house.Im the only schmuck without water.

BooBoo

Booboo, you have my sympathy, there's nothing I despise more than fighting with water issues when its cold out. I've found that the dryer venting idea may work well in moderate cold conditions but I would worry about mold and more so in a mobile home and it doesn't throw enough heat for extreme cold because the steam cools as it travels. I would recomend a space heater (preferably electric and new enough to meet safety standards) got get things going. If the area is relatively small and contained, it's even better. Try and stay away from tiger torches and such because we just went through a cold snap and the feedlot near me lost 4 mobiles used for staff residences because of an over enthusiastic hand with a tiger torch resolving a water line issue. Heat tape is a wonder, although it adds a bit to your electric bill, it sure resolves a lot of problems. I simply shut off the breaker for mine in the warm months. It is factual that running water doesn't freeze so it is very helpful, once the issue is resolved to simply turn on a tap, preferably farthest away from your water source but I can assure you that if it's extremely cold, dribbles or trickles can freeze up so if I have -40 (with wind or simply cold), I'll open a tap up a fair bit. If you have metal pipes and it's frozen fairly solid, you're going to have to find a way to get in there because it's very likely that the ice may cause a rupture in the pipe and will need to be soldered. For some reason, I can't seem to get the job done without smashed knuckles and some pretty creative cussing

Probably won't help with your situation but I'm going to throw this out in case there might be someone it could help. My sister lives in a mobile home and when it gets real cold and she forgets to plug in the heat tape the water freezes under the trailer where the plastic pipe coming from the well comes out of the ground.

There is a fitting there where the pipes join. I take the fitting apart and pour boiling water from a teakettle down the pipe coming from the well. What has always happened in the 8-10 times I've done it is after a few seconds a plug of ice spews out the pipe and she's good to go.

Dryer vent contains the moisture from the clothes. Pumping this moisture under your house will cause mold, mildew and other moisture related problems.

__________________
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Goody,its 16 degrees this morning,this is not going to be fun today.

BooBoo

When I worked for an apartment complex, we had numerous times when it got so cold in the plumbing walls that everything froze up. I talked them into buying a Lincoln Arc Weld 225 welder, about 100' of #4 welding cable and a electric stove plug.

It WORKS GREAT! Clamp the welding cables on either end of the frozen area, plug it into the stove outlet, start out about 140 amps and open the faucet. It is isn't running after 15 minutes, crank it up to 225amps and give it another 15min. After that, shut down the welder, unplug it, and put it in a snow bank to cool down. Repeat until thawed. Usually 1 or 2 times and it's running.

We did this on our farm when I was a little squirt to thaw out the underground water lines. That was when winters were REALLY cold in WI., and it would freeze down 4-5' - thanks to global warming, it'll probably never happen again....

__________________
Bill

Now a reply to using the welder using method--neighbor lady's pipes would free every winter because she saved on water she lived alone,they would always ask to hook one end of the welder in my cellar and the other end to her pipes in her house, nice, I was always complaining at work with other workers about my fausets being of low quality and crumbling when I would always shut off the water. One of the workers--a welder--asked me if we were using a welder to thaw pipes, I said yes neighbors water pipes, he said that is your answer, now when they ask, I politely say can you hook it on the street and her inside cellar, now I have no problem with crumblying stems when I turn off the water but I now have a neighbor that doesn't like me, win some lose some.

OK,heres what Happened,I dug out my truck and went to Ace.A LINE of people with frozen pipes,one had a plumber out,he torched it,poof,she had water.So go figure,I got the last Torch that uses MAPP,whatever that is? Bought 3 bottles of it too.Then I got the last heat tape,30 footer.Things are looking up.

Got some foam pipe covering too,they were just about out of that!

Went home and started heating.Got water to run.Right out of the burst in the side of the pipe.

Soooo....Looks like no water for a few days til I can get a plumber.

Oh well,such is life,we win some and lose some,eh?

BooBoo the snow melter,LOL.And melting snow for the toilet is NO fun,I can tell you that.