Should have dripped the hot water too

[vicrider 0]

Super cold for us here right now thanks to Polar Vortex. Zero last night and sub zero for next 3 nights. I left cabinets open in bath and kitchen and left a small cold water drip. Cold water in kitchen popped right on. Hot water dead. Bathroom cold water popped right on. Hot water trickled, burped, coughed, trickled, then opened up. Got  heater blowing into the kitchen sink cupboard and hoping that will do it. Still got full water pressure so line shouldn't be splt and leaking anyway, I hope. Next three nights they all trickle if kitchen opens up, not just cold water.

At least we didn't get the blast of snow they predicted on this first storm yet. Maybe an inch or so but powdery cold snow and drifting all over with the big winds pushing it. Kind of funny that in 10 years down here it's the first time I heard them talk of lake effect snow from water still warm and cold winds blowing over it. Not a problem now though since waters are tightening up on the surface and there's guys on net talking about ice fishing by Monday. We should start hearing about drownings and rescue missions shortly thereafter. I worry a lot about kids who think ice is safe. 

Nick

[skeet3t 0]

Had cold air blow into the crawl space under my home in Louisville, KY, winter 1976-77. No hot water but when I got under the house, the vent was allowing cold, read that freezing, air right on the inlet water line. Wrapped my hand around the pipe and it broke loose. Closed the vent. But...the water heater started to leak!

[cphubert 0]

Nick,  good luck with the pipes hope it thaws without damage. When I was a kid never thought about going thru the ice and took a lot of chances for a few perch, now I need a solid 6+" before I consider it "safe". Conditions like you have I hope they stay inside on the internet, probably the only time in my life I felt that way.

[vicrider 0]

Right now there's several people on other FB postings talking about ice fishing on Monday. If they do there's going to be a lot of rescuing dumb white kids on Martin Luther King day. 

When they rebuilt this house from the rafters before we moved in the put in plastic lines that supposed to expand if frozen. Hope they're right. I had an old trailer house up north with hard copper pipes and when they froze they split. We're not supposed to get this kind of weather here. I actually hope we do get the 8-10" of snow predicted but it ain't happening yet. If it does snow a good shot I'll have the kid bank the entire crawl space in. Does wonders for insulation and is a big reason I never had much trouble on the doublewide. Kept it banked in all winter.

[Poopdeck 0]

I'm lost. How does opening cabinet and cupboard doors prevent frozen pipes? I live in a colder climate and I've never heard of this. We prevent frozen pipes by not running water pipes in exterior walls. Is this not true everywhere. 

[Steeldrifter 0]

3 hours ago, Poopdeck said:

I'm lost. How does opening cabinet and cupboard doors prevent frozen pipes?

Mostly applies to mobile homes. I believe Nick is in a mobile home if I'm not mistaken, so things are a bit different for those than non mobile homes. We've had to do some of these things at our place up north since its a double wide 60' mobile as well. It helps the heat get to the pipes under the sink and such. If the doors on cabinets under sinks are closed then the pipes are a bit more blocked from the heat that is circulating around the open living space and are getting colder due to the thin walls of a mobile.

[flytire 0]

i live in a mobile home and the kitchen and 1 bathroom has pex piping inside the cabinets near an exterior wall.

they do NOT run INSIDE an exterior wall

steeldrifter explains why the doors are kept open

[yetavon 0]

As strange as it sounds, hot water can freeze faster than cold... Called the Mpemba Effect. 

Pex piping can tolerate freezing better, but have seen were the fitting will start leaking... slow drip 

[knotjoe 0]

13 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

Mostly applies to mobile homes. 

It works quite well everywhere, I learned of it back in my apartment days when management sent out fliers in winter.

I still do it in my house, cabinets on outer walls can get cold when doors are shut.

[mikechell 0]

8 hours ago, yetavon said:

As strange as it sounds, hot water can freeze faster than cold... Called the Mpemba Effect. 

Actually, this is more myth than fact.  In an open container, the evaporation of the hot water will cause the surface of that water to cool quickly to the freezing point.  The hot water might actually develop a skin of ice before an exact amount of cool water will.  This requires evaporation, which doesn't happen in pipes.

However, the freezing of the entire contents will happen quicker in the cool water, since the total heat energy is less, requiring less time for ALL the water to reach freezing temperature.

Hot water will skin over quicker, cold water will freeze solid faster.

[Poopdeck 0]

In my area we typically don't have the duration and type of cold needed to freeze pipes solid. Most cases of frozen pipes in my area are because of water pipes ran in exterior walls and a prolonged power outage in very cold weather for 3 or 4 days.  These combos of conditions are rare for us. I could see the danger to mobile homes if the heat tape has no power. 

I saw in another thread someone being envious for basements because they don't have them. Ive never not had a basement. Our problems are not powering our heat tape but powering our sump pumps. When the power goes out ground water doesn't stop coming into the basement sump. When our sump pumps can't be powered ground water floods the basement and homeowners insurance does not cover ground water loss. It will cover a burst pipe but not damage caused by ground water. 

[chugbug27 0]

Just ending a night's freeze (26°) here in New Orleans. The older houses here are generally raised maybe 3 feet above ground on pillars, and the pipes are run exposed under the house. The whole town trickles the faucets and hopes the city's water pressure holds up. (If it doesn't, the city sends out what is politely termed a "boil water advisory".)

[vicrider 0]

Update. This afternoon with a heater under crawl space and blowing into cabinet under sink (yes, that helps) the cold water broke loose in kitchen first. Not too much later the hot water is flowing again. What worries me is the water pressure on all the faucets is lower than it should be. This might be a problem with water in the town system but it could be water losing power on way to faucet because of leaks on the way. Will have kid go under there again and should be able to pull heater out and check for leaks.

I don't live in a double wide like I did up north but on a single level house on a combination of center poured foundation and spaced blocks in the crawl space. This was an old house and typical of homes in south had literally no insulation. Wife came down before I retired and had it completely rebuilt inside from the studs in. Outside was already resided and metal roof so it was inside needed gutted and every pipe and wire came out and everything new. This is first time we've lost water and hopefully last. Three days of below zero including -15 last night are not something this area has seen since 1896 so I guess it is a bit unusual. We need a border wall on Canadian border to stop the Polar Vortex and keep it up there.

[yetavon 0]

We had a friend in Ontario that whenever it cold below freezing here we would tell him to go check the barb wire boarder fence for a broken strand.... We're frozen up here this morning, but had planned on it.... At least we can run off the campers onboard tank. There calling for up to an inch of ice here tonight into tomorrow. 

[vicrider 0]

Yeah, the only thing keeping Kansas winds from OK is a 3 strand barb wire fence and one strand is broken. Fortunately we had snow here and never lost power. The power grid in OK City and surrounding counties had to go to a rolling blackout since so many people were heating with electric space heaters and the great free electric in the wind farms the rotors freeze up in temps this cold and quit their contribution to the grid. If you get that kind of ice storm you will have major power outages for sure. It's happened here and ice is more normal here than snow but I'll take the snow. We only got about 7" total out of two storms and wife cleared things off with the leaf blower. East of us in the city and east they got easily double that and major crashes of course. National guard out doing rescue missions to help state and local police out. Love the work done by the guard but they missed it at the capitol awhile ago.