Today I was listening to a consumer radio show and a woman called the show and said the pipes had frozen in a home she owns.
The home is vacant and she is working on it.
They turned off the heat and left the faucets dripping and yet the pipes still froze and broke.
The result was $75,000 damage to the home.
The host said it’s a myth that leaving pipes dripping will prevent freezing.
He said it’s common knowledge that leaving pipes dripping WON’T prevent pipes from freezing.
I guess I learned something.
Replies
said it's common knowledge that leaving pipes dripping WON'T prevent pipes from freezing
I'd bet that would not survive a poll of people on hte street. <g>
The "trick" of it is in water volume and delta-T's--lot's of watersheds out there with running water under the ice.
But, maybe that's the problem of "common knowledge" . . .
What's bad is her home owners insurance won't pay for the damage.The insurance policy requires the house to be heated in order to be covered.Ouch
Leaving it dripping will make it less likely to freeze, but not by much.It was a help in a heated mobile home I lived in in CO when it got below -30°F, but I'd think anyone a fool to turn off the heat and leave the water turned on
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insurance policy requires the house to be heated in order to be covered
And it's a rare enough policy that even covers water damage as is.
Sounds a lovely catch-22 to me. You don't want to leave an ad hoc heating system running unattended. You may not have the plumbing "finished" enough to shut it off and drain it. You can't stay, so you have to do something . . .
Yep, just about every answer is wrong in one way or the other.
And there's little mess like busted pipe mess--flood is worse, but only due to the organics & the silt.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I wouldn't say it's a myth. But wouldn't it be more of a function of the speed of the drip, temp of the outside, temp of the incoming water, and size of pipe?
Edited 1/21/2008 1:04 pm ET by peteshlagor
I got a story on that.
My first house was a barn that I converted to a carriage house/living quarters. Really cool structure. Fun place to live.
Only the second floor was heated, and not by much. So, to keep the water pipes from freezing on one sub-zero night, I left them run a bit in the kitchen sink. I knew enough to understand that it would take a bit of a stream, rather than just a slow drip, to keep the pipe temps up, so I thought I was covered.
And I was! The water pipes didn't freeze.
The drain line did. Solid. For about 30'.
Tooks weeks to thaw.
And, of course, the sink DID overflow. A lot.
Water pipes didn't freeze, tho'!
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Was in a small hardware shop once talking with the owner and he related a story where a homeowner had come in and bought a bunch of 1/2" copper piping and fittings.
Guy comes back later cursing and calling him every name in the book for selling him half inch pipe when he should have known he needed 5l8s to fix all the frozen lines under his cottage.
Freaking cracked me up.
no charge for that story
Peace on.
Edited 1/21/2008 3:11 pm ET by rez
Sounds like the mobil home I lived in, left the tub spout at a decent trickle on a sub zero night. The next morning there was a nice ice sculpture against the cast iron tub wall and drain area.
Down to 6 this morning and I have had the water dripping for the last two nights, if I didn't I can garantee you that I would have had frozen pipes.
A few weeks ago I didn't get the faucets open in time, and it was only 12 but the wind was blowing, and there I was in the dark using a quartz-halo flood right where my 3/4" Poly pipe leaves the ground and enters the block wall of the basement..a half hour of that treatment and it thawed..lucky, cuz if it didn't I'da had to drain the house down and go without till everything warmed up enough.
I never think to do anything about that few inches of exposed pipe until times when I am laying under the deck cursing it..LOLSpheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
Hay
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Howdy!Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
What's up?
Peace on.
That's why you run HOT water.
If your view never changes you're following the wrong leader
As I recall, I had a little of each running -- otherwise only one of the supply lines would have been protected. The drain pipe (copper -- remember when a body could afford to run copper DWV lines?) was pretty much hanging out in the cold, along the ceiling and walls of the unheated barn part of the structure for about 25 or 30' before ducking into a drain below grade. I guess the water got cold enough in that run to start a blockage at the far end (who knows - maybe the HW ran out during the night), and once the flow was slowed enough, it was all over but the mopping!
I tried for a couple of hours to thaw out that drain with a torch, and then gave up and waited for global warming to kick in. ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
should have hooked up your welder to it
"should have hooked up your welder to it"
I've heard that can be done, but with my luck, I probably would've just blown the whole mess up from the steam pressure. ;-(
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
The woman left the house unattended for about three weeks.The pipes froze and broke and she said her water bill was $1,500Ouch
It's not a myth, but it needs to be a good-sized trickle, and the trickle won't prevent, say, the bathroom pipes from freezing when the kitchen faucet is trickling.
The trick is really only good for protecting pipes that are not buried deeply enough -- no good for a house with no heat.
And, of course, leaving the heat off causes lots of other damage, though not always immediately apparent.
If one MUST turn off the heat in a house, the water pipes should be drained down to the entrance point, and that insulated with bales of hay or whatever so that ground heat protects it.
My fountain outside will keep running below freezing, all five spouts, until the whole thing is a giant 7' ice sculpture, and the water level in the pond drops below the pump intake.
Had a good one the last couple days; ~17º at night
Forrest
that happened to me once, it wasn't as expensive, but still we were in a hotel for few days.
It was the heater pipes specifically. We went to china for two weeks durring witer, and are garrage door apperantly went back up as we were leaving, so while we were gone, they burst. lucilly our neighbors called police who came, shutting off water and burner therefore causing more pipes to freeze and therefore burst. what a fun experiance
"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail"
Edited 1/21/2008 11:26 pm ET by andyfew322