Top Five Ways To UnFreeze Your Plumbing Pipes
By If your plumbing has been properly installed and taken care of your plumbing should ever freeze, but if the weather gets really cold your pipes could wind up freezing. This guide will give you the top five ways to unfreeze your pipes.
There is a few things that you will want to do before unfreezing any pipe. The first thing to determine is if the pipe you are about to unfreeze has any pressure it it. This is common if the frozen pipe is a water line. If the pipe that is frozen is a drain line it won’t be full of pressure normally because drain lines are not meant to hold pressure. If you determine that the pipe that is frozen is a water line or another type of line that has pressure it in you will want to shut of the source. For example if the water main or another domestic water line is frozen in your home you will first want to shut the water off before unfreezing the line. The reason you will want to shut a pressured line off before you unfreeze is because if the pipe has cracked or split the liquid in the pipe will spray out everywhere when you thaw the pipe.
Unfreezing the frozen pipe ca be simple once you locate the section that is frozen, so if you have located the section that is frozen continue to the steps below so you can see the best and top five ways to unfreeze your pipes.
How To Unfreeze Your Pipes With A Piping Hot Machine.
You can use something called a “piping hot” machine to unfreeze your pipes. This machine works by using to spring loaded clamps that attach to the section of the pipe. Once you connect the spring loaded clamps to the pipe you turn on the machine and the machine heats the section of pipe between the clamps. This machine can be rented from a local plumbing supply house or off course you could also buy it new .
How To Unfreeze Your Pipes With A Heat Gun
If you have a heat gun you can use that to heat the frozen pipes as well. Just take the heat gun and point it on the frozen area of the pipe and move it back and forth spreading the heat between the two frozen points.
How To Unfreeze Your Pipes With A Plumbers Torch (Only copper pipe with water)
If you have a hand held plumbers torch or even a b tank you can use the torch to unfreeze copper or a metal based pipe that has water in it only . You do NOT want to use a torch to unfreeze anything that may be flammable. So make sure to only use a torch on lines that contain water. Also be careful because using a torch will heat the pipe fast and if you heat the pipe to much you can not only unfreeze the pipe but melt the solder out of the copper fitting if you are not careful.
How To Unfreeze Your Pipes With Electric Pipe Heat Tape
Electric Plumbing heat tape is not only a great way to prevent your pipes from freezing but also a slow but effective way to defrost or unfreeze the frozen pipe. You simply just have to wrap the pipe with the heat tape and then plug the end of it into a 110 outlet. Heat tape can also be directly wired in by an electrician if it is needed in any areas that pipe insulation will not work.
How To Unfreeze Your Pipes With A Portable Electric Heater
You can use a portable space heater to also unfreeze your pipes if they are in an area that is big enough to get the space heater into. The other down side to using a portable heater is that most of them have only around 1500 watts of power and that is not that much BUT it will work to unfreeze your pipes. This method will also take much longer then then other methods of unfreezing a pipe like we mentioned above.
Proper preventive maintenance can prevent the freezing of any type of plumbing pipe anywhere in the world.It’s actually really cost effective and could cost as little as $100 dollars to protect your plumbing. Using things like pipe insulation, electric pipe heat tape, electric space heaters and plumbing water lines in inside walls only helps to prevent your pipes from freezing. If you have to call a professional licensed plumber to unfreeze your pipes it could cost you hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars depending on what has froze and the damage that needs to be repaired after everything is thawed.
It’s 20 degrees outside and I have frozen hot pipes that are in the inside walls of the house. My hot water heater is in the attic. Pipes in the attic are insulated. Forgot to leave hot/cold water dripping last night. Touched the outside of hot water heater and it is very cold. Should I turn hot water heater off? Seems like that would cause tank to freeze too.
Don’t shut off the water heater. Get the heat turned up and see if you can find where the pipes are frozen. A hair dryer works well to warm things up.
Hi John,
If you need more help, we have set this forum thread up for you, Just visit this url and feel free to ask for more help.
http://wetheadmedia.com/connect/topic/john-says-it%E2%80%99s-20-degrees-outside-and-i-have-frozen-hot-pipes-that?replies=1#post-21
Happy Holidays!!
Frozen pipes are nothing to play around with. As soon as you realize that the pipes have frozen crank up the heat and try to find and warm the frozen area. Open cabinets and closet doors. Whatever it takes. If you have metal pipes call a plumber that has a pipe thawing machine and get on his to do list. you can always callback and cancel if you get them thawed. It’s important to get them thawed as fast as possible before bursting occurs. Careful with the torch! A lot of homes get caught on fire with torches thawing pipes! http://411plumb.com/how-to-avoid-and-thaw-frozen-pipes-safely
My hot water originally was not coming out at all now it is a slow trickle, but has been that way for about 2hours now. I was hoping that running the water would thaw out the pipes. The water coming out is still ice cold and slow. Will they eventually unfreeze running them as stated?
Hi Cody,
If there is a vanity or cabinet under the faucet you should open it up so the warm air from the room flows in.
What part of the house is the frozen pipe in? Is this the bathroom or the kitchen?
This is an e-mail I wrote my dad asking for advice. I think the pipe is frozen between the laundry room and the kitchen as they are connected and the water heater is in there. Maybe this will give you this gist of my concerns here.
I turned on the water about 6:00pm to make dinner and got nothing then eventually a trickle, but now the water has been on all night. I was hoping the water would eventually thaw out the pipe and be fine. Now, I think I might have a larger problem on my hands. I am going to have to go in the crawl space and see if it burst. I briefly peeked in there and saw nothing.
The cold water is running just fine which I find odd. I just sealed off the laundry room (where the water heater is) a few days ago because it was so drafty. I might have done such a good job sealing it off that it could be possible that it got below freezing in there over Monday night.
If I don’t notice any breaches in the pipes in the crawl space, I am going to see if I can get some heat tape at home depot and wrap that the length of the pipe. I think they probably make something like that with a thermostat.
However, could there be anything else wrong with the hot water heater perhaps. It is firing like if for instance I change the temperature. I don’t hear water running constantly from it so I am not convinced it is leaking into the crawl space. I really want to avoid calling a plumber. Not sure what are deductible on our homeowners insurance is but I bet its about $500.00.
Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to shut off all the water and check the water meter to see if it is ticking still.
Hi Cody,
I have started a new thread for you on the link below you we can try to help you with your problem:
http://wetheadmedia.com/connect/topic/cody-says-this-is-an-e-mail-i-wrote-my-dad-asking-for-advice
Happy Holidays !!
Joseph
I am not sure if the pipe is frozen or not. Our washing machine is in the garage, where it is obviously not heated, and the sink plumbing is attached somehow. When we run the washer it leaks all over the place, and garbles up into the kitchen sink. When we use the water in the sink for too long it just takes forever to drain. help us! how do we fix this?
Hi,
Do you know if you are draining into a cesspool or a city sewer?
How cold is the weather there>? Is it below freezing, and also did you have these issues when it was warmer?
Please let me know the above and I can try to help you more,
Joseph
hello, we had some really cold 10 days( down to -10f at night) and pipe from my well to my house froze. well is about 100 yards away from my house, and it’s 3/4 pipe going under ground. is there anyway to unfreeze it? or i have to wait till spring or who knows haw long before it gets warmer so it happens on it’s own?
Hi,
If you know where the freeze is you can dig up the pipe, unfreeze it and then wrap it with insulation so it doesn’t freeze again.
Let me know if you have more questions.
Joseph
Hi Joseph,
Whenever it gets really cold (ie. -10celcius or lower), the water that’s supposed to flow out of our washer to the outside backs up and flows over everywhere in our basement! Our Washer/Dryer is in the basement – which is a walk-out. We suspect that the pipe in our wall leading to the outside must be frozen which is causing the plug. We have no idea what to do as we can’t see the frozen pipe and therefore can’t reach to thaw it.
Would you be able to offer any suggestions? We’re afraid that it’d be terribly expensive to tear down the wall and try to determine and fix the problem.
Please advise if you could!
Thank you,
Melany
Hi Melany,
My buddy Redwood will also be responding with his own ideas but here are mine ;-)
The best bet is to try to find the area that is freezing and wrap it with insulation, However this is not that easy most of the time. The first thing I would do is to look for a main waste line near by and see if you could connect into that so you could insulate it properly and so on. If that is not possible and everything is behind the and in the ceiling then you will have to open the wall and find the “p-trap” and insulate that if the p-trap is in fact inside your wall.
Many times the water in the p-trap will just freeze up causing the pipe to be blocked up and then obviously the water will go everywhere. So know after I typed all of this I am thinking I should have just asked you firs if your washing machine p-trap is exposed in the basement or is it inside the wall?
If it is in fact inside the wall you could star by removing the sheet rock in front of the p-trap and then could unfreeze it and then insulate it so it doesn’t happen again,
If the p-trap is outside the wall you will have to find the area of pipe that is freezing, then expose it and then unfreeze it and then insulate etc.
Let me know if you have any more questions and hopefully this cleared something up for you.
Joseph
Hi Melany,
Depending on the heat situation in the basement the p-trap which is the u-shaped bend at the bottom of the washer drain stand pipe may be freezing however this is not likely unless the basement is very cold or, a cold draft is hitting it.
A far more likely reason would be the drain having a sag in the line or, belly where water remains in the pipe and in the colder weather it freezes and won’t drain. A drain line should be continuously pitched to the outlet so the only time there is water in the pipe is while it is draining. A properly pitched drain will almost never freeze with about the only it is possible would be with a continuous small flow of water which does not have enough volume to maintain its temperature until the point where it discharges.
One other possibility is a clog or partial clog where water in the line is held and freezes.
My recommendation would be to have the line cleaned and an inspection camera run through the line to see if there are sags or, bellies in the line. If there are and I suspect there are the line would have to be dug up and repaired or, replaced. If the line is a short run or shallow you may just elect to dig and skip the camera but the camera is usually a tool that is used to locate where to dig and save labor and costs.
Water lines are also often frozen underground between the well and the house. If you are on well water, check if there is water in your pressure tank and check for a spark on your pressure plate/switch. If the tank is empty, but you have a spark, then it may be frozen underground. Turn off your pump so your pump will not burn out. A pump company can check to see how many amps the pump is pulling and if it is working properly. If the pump is good, you will need someone to come out and thaw your pipes. Hopefully you have copper or galvanized pipe and can call a reputable welder/pipe thawing company. Pipe thawing with a welder can be dangerous, so always choose a company that uses proper equipment (amprobes and ac/dc machine) so they know exactly where their current is traveling.
i woke up this morning with water at 730 but at 900 my wife went to get a shower and we have no water at all in the house we live in a trailer
Hi,
Do you have any water in the trailer at all or is just the shower frozen?
Let me know and I can try to help you more,
Happy Holidays !!
Joseph
no i have no water at all
the funny part i turned on the water and heard a gurgle sound then it stopped
Is this trailer in a park or on a private lot?
I would go outside and see if the hose bibs work, If they don’t even work then your main could be frozen.
I would contact the park manager or call a plumber if the whole trailer doesn’t have water unless you are super handy and want to go under the trailer…..
I am not sure of your skill set.
Joseph
We were gone for a week and came back to frozen water line. Had city come by to heat water meter, and I’ve the line under the house, and lines at water heater. Guess water line underground is froze. .the line is a black plastic. Are there any ways to thaw water lines underground?
Rob
Hi Rob,
At this point I would call a licensed plumber to come out and unfreeze the pipe. They can use something called a piping hot machine that will defrost the pipe under the ground once they locate where it is frozen. That is off course of the water line is copper and not cpvc.
Do you know what you water main is made out of material wise…copper. cpvc etc?
Joseph
Hi Rob,
We also started a forum thread here for you as well.
http://wetheadmedia.com/connect/topic/rob-says-we-were-gone-for-a-week-and-came-back-to-frozen-water-line
Happy Holidays !!
Joseph
If anyone else needs help feel free to come on by the forums:
They are located at: http://wetheadmedia.com/connect/
Feel free to ask away.
Joseph
Our washer/dryer sits in an “addition” alcove in our 100+ year old house. Last January the pipes burst in this area and we had three sections of pipe replaced. In addition we added insulation to the areas that we could reach without ripping out the whole wall.
We’ve had temps in the teens with wind-chills to zero over the last 24-48 hours and another 24 forecasted. The water is running in all the other faucets in the house except our washing machine. We have tried running hot water in the other taps as well as using a hair dryer on the exposed pipe. Before calling a plumber to use a pipe warmer, is there anything else we can do?
Thank you,
Ruth
Hi Ruth,
I’d get the call into the plumber ASAP just to see if you can get on their list to get there tonight.
If you succeed you can always call back and cancel saying that you got it thawed.
Chances are if this room is heated it is not the pipes that you see that are frozen rather it would be ones in a wall or floor joist bay that are catching a draft in an unheated area.
I would recommend working at getting heat into the hidden areas where the pipes run any way you can.
Heaters in crawl spaces or basements below, hair dryers blowing hot air into the hole around the pipe where it goes into the wall, or blowing upward in the stud bay of the wall from the basement. Get hot air at the freeze any way you can and hopefully you can cancel the plumber. The real name of the game is to get it thawed before the freezing splits the pipe, even if it takes a plumber with an electric pipe thawing machine.
Good luck!
Thank you so much for the prompt reply. We were able to thaw the pipe and, unfortunately, we have a break. In the interim, we did call a plumber and he’ll be here soon. This is the first time I’ve used this site and I am very appreciative for the help.
Ruth
Glad we could help Ruth and sorry to hear you had a burst pipe.
Maybe when he opens things up to fix the leak he can come up with a way to keep it from freezing again.
Our kitchen sink is in the corner under two windows. We forgot to leave pipe dripping and now we have no cold water in the kitchen. The pipe is of course under the sink and goes down in between the finished basement and the kitchen floor or wall. We have left the hot water dripping now for 2 days in the kitchen and it hasn’t helped. We also have purchased a portable heater and left it on for hours as well as used a hair dryer. It must be frozen down further than we can get to and the pipe in question is PLASTIC! We had purchased a warming tape that you can plug in but we can’t get it to wrap around anything because we can’t get to the pipe and we once we found out the pipe was plastic we decided to return it. Should be allow the pipe to unfreeze on its own or call a plumber of do something else?
Hi Cindy and Tony,
Hopefully the pipe is PEX and not CPVC…
If you have PEX you can be reasonably sure that the pipe won’t break while CPVC will split for sure.
A plumber would pretty much do what you are already doing with the only thing difference being more aggressive in opening up access to pipes.
You need to get some heat into the concealed area where the pipe runs.
Hair dryers usually do well for this. You can often get enough heat just by focusing the air from the hair dryer into the hole the pipe goes through. Sometimes you can also cut the hole just a little bigger for even better results.
Does the finished basement have a dropped ceiling you can open?
Just wondering if by any chance this is a raised ranch home with a kick out between floors?
Also is there more of a description you can give me on the pipes?
Hello – This morning, I discovered that the pipe to my shower is frozen. However, I don’t know if it’s completely frozen because there is a small trickle of water that’s ice cold. And, the sink in the bathroom has full running water. The bathroom is an addition to the house (on the first floor) so I’m not sure how to get to the pipes. I have checked the rest of the faucets in the house and they all seem to be fine. So, do you think that I should just allow the water in the shower to continue to run (I’ve let the water trickle for about 9 hours now) and it will thaw itself? Or, should I contact a plumber? I appreciate your help. Thank you.
Hi Amy,
In many cases the trickle is a good sign as it usually means the water is trickling through the ice plug and it would soon thaw.
However, in your case I suspect that you have a relatively new single handle faucet that is pressure balanced. What the pressure balancing does is equalize the pressure between the hot and cold supplies to the faucet so that when someone uses cold water elsewhere in the house it closes the hot down and when someone uses the hot elsewhere it closes the cold down. This usually keeps the temperature you set within about +-3 degrees providing anti-scald protection.
What has happened is the hot supply line has frozen and now the pressure is zero so the pressure balancing valve has also closed the cold down to just a trickle and it won’t help.
Is there a crawl space under this addition where you can place a heater?
Is there an access panel behind the shower in a closet or something, not usually but it usually happens after a valve gets replaced? If there is a hair dryer directed in there may do something.
If the valve is on an outside wall you may loosen the escutcheon on the valve and direct a hair dryer in there.
Getting it thawed ASAP is critical and may avoid a burst pipe. If you have metal pipes a plumber may use an electric pipe thawing machine to thaw the pipe without even knowing where the freeze was. It’s probably not a bad idea to get a plumber called to get on the list of calls and try some of the things I have mentioned to see if you cn get it thawed. You can always call and cancel if you succeed in thawing the pipe and don’t have any burst pipes. Do you know what kind of pipes you have? Copper or CPVC will burst but PEX are probably safe from bursting.