Frozen pipes. ..

[vintagekitchen]

Well, it finally happened. I did a few dishes late last night, and about an hour later went back to the kitchen for a quick snack. When I went to wash my hands, no hot water. The cold water is fine, but of course the hot water line is froze solid.

Unfortunately I have come to expect this every winter, once it gets cold enough. The water lines to the kitchen are about a 40 foot run of very difficult to access pipes, and even though they have insulation around them, the hot water line is bound and determined to freeze at least once per winter. Luckily it is the only pipe in the house to give me trouble, so I can still have a hot shower and so forth, unfortunately, the last time this happened it was nearly 2 weeks before the pipe thawed, so it looks like I will be doing laundry in cold water and heating water for dishes the old fashioned way for awhile.

Without further ado, meet my trusty kitchen water heater for the duration of the freeze. It has served me well over the years, ever since my first apartment, a second floor walk up cold water flat in a 100 year old building.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I'm sorry for your misfortune. I hope the pan has a flat bottom so you don't have to wait as long for hot water. I was under the impression that you had a smooth top range.

 

[vintagekitchen]

smooth top range..

Ahh, the monarch. Sadly it had led a rather rough life before I got it, and met it's demise from rusting out in the oven. It had the old fashioned arrangement where instead of the glides/supports for the oven racks being molded into the sides of the oven, there were removable supports made of the same chromed metal as the racks. These supports hooked into the sides of the oven with an arrangement of 2 pegs and 2 holes per side.

It did make cleaning the oven easier that they were removeable, but 40 years of oven cleaner had caused the areas of the oven liner around the pegs and holes to rust out, and I finally gave up on it when the racks started collapsing in the middle of cooking things. It wasn't too bad when it was a pan of rolls, but the chocolate cake batter all over the oven bottom was a disaster.

I traded it and the matching harvest gold fridge for this late 70's tappan and a bottom freezer wizard citation fridge at a friend's second hand appliance shop. He knew about the oven, but didn't mind, as he said someone would buy it to use just for canning on in their garage or basement, a common thing in this area.

 

[vintagekitchen]

tappan

I actually like this stove better than the monarch. It came from the home of a widower, who hardly ever ate at home, so it was like new.

 

[vintagekitchen]

Wizard citation

I swear this is the biggest fridge I have ever owned, lol. The thing barely fit through the front door when I got it home, but I dearly love it. I don't think I could go back to a top freezer model, it's so handy having everything in the fridge part at eye level.

 

[iheartmaytag]

You don't have to heat water.

If the kitchen is the only line frozen, just carry the hat water in your bucket from the bathroom to the kitchen. Saves you the heating time.

I'd invest in some heat tape, and have the pipe wrapped.

 

[vintagekitchen]

carrying water..

I have done that a few times, but with small children running about its a good way to make a big mess, lol. I really don't mind heating the water, as I said, my first apartment was a cold water flat, so heating the water, using a dishpan in the big single basin sink, and scalding the rinsed dishes all went with the daily chores. There is something almost zen about it.

What I do mind is washing laundry in cold water. Especially in this weather, when the cold water feels like ice. But, luckily a friend is coming by this afternoon to see if he can thaw the pipes.

About the heat tape, do they really make them that long? The only ones I have ever seen were about 6 or so feet long. It sounds like a great idea if they are available and affordable. Off to Google I go, lol..

 

[whirlykenmore78]

The trick is

To weep the faucets when it is really cold.  If you have problems with this pipe freezing when it gets very cold leave it run just a small trickle.  This should stop the problem from happening.  It always works for me and I had nothing freeze when it was -25 last month.

WK78

 

[kb0nes]

Hot Water Recirculation

would fix the problem too

http://us.grundfos.com/products/find-product/comfort-pumps-up-10.html

May be more costly initially then heat tape although perhaps easier to install. You wouldn't have to access the crawlspace to add the pump. Recirculation would give the benefit of more instant hot water year around and also saves the water wasted waiting for the hot to get to the faucet.

Is the frozen line copper or plastic? Unless its PEX I'd think it might rupture.

 

[dustin92]

We had the same problem in our last house, both kitchen supply pipes froze- several times over one winter. Luckily they never busted, and were fairly easily thawed by cranking up the furnace and opening the kitchen cabinets. For a few more years we would leave the cabinet doors open and leave the water on a trickle, then we insulated the crawl space and never had frozen pipes again. No issues here as the pipes all run in the heated basement.

 

[yogitunes]

I let the water in the garage trickle, its so worth it versus replace/repairing that pipe if it breaks....

 

[yogitunes]

also Kevin....you can get the heat tape is a number of different sizes.....theres even ones with 100ft tape, and you just cut and add the end fitting as needed...some are controlled by thermostat to come "ON" only when the outside temp goes below freezing...

 

[vintagekitchen]

success!

My friend came over well equipped with heat lamps and such, and arranged them about the crawlspace. While they were on I'm sure my poor electric meter was spinning like a top, but he got the pipe thawed! I have hot running water again!

He gave me a stern lecture about making sure to leave both faucets, hot and cold trickling, expecially the hot, since hot water freezes faster, and left.

Luckily every pipe in the house is pex, so no worries about burst pipes. The only problem I have ever had is some of the older connectors from back when the pex was gray and clamped together with metal bands have had to be replaced as they eventually started leaking, but I do love my pex. It's so easy to work with, and it never bursts.

 

[cuffs054]

And so I, who knows every-friggin-thing, mandated that we did not need to leave faucet dripping during last cold blast. Well, after 6 days of no water to the whole damn house there is a chance that I was mistaken!

 

[whirlykenmore78]

And so I who knows every-friggin thing.

Might want to rethink not weeping the faucets.  It does work!  LOL!

WK78

 

[kb0nes]

hot water freezes faster

huh? Did I miss that day of physics class? Latent heat of fusion is the same no matter what temp the water starts at.

Edit:

Alas upon a little research there is something called the Mpemba Effect which has shown in some cases warmer water freezing has some non-linear effects compared to cooler water. The tests were done in static containers so I don't think this applies to plumbing if there is any flow though. In any case its pretty spurious though. Water is sure an odd compound!

Next thing I know someone will tell me that a lead-acid battery does actually die on a concrete floor

In any case I'm glad you have PEX and that all is well now that things have thawed out!

[this post was last edited: 1/22/2014-22:32]

 

[tomturbomatic]

I can remember in general science in the 8th grade when we were studying refrigeration, some people said that hot water in ice cube trays froze faster than cold, but that was just because the hot trays melted through the frost to get the ice cube tray closer to the evaporator coil. Also, the heat would make the compressor run longer so the evaporator would be colder. If you had to have ice fast, it probably would have been better to put the hot tray in to melt the frost then replace the hot water with cold.

 

[whirlcool]

The first thing we did was insulate all the pipes in our attic when we moved in. We later added the heat tape to the pipes for the long runs. But it has been my experience that the first place that will freeze will be where the pipe runs through the elbows when it makes a turn. In out last house we had a elbow freeze and it started to leak when the freeze was over. We had to replace it.

And after a freeze somehow the plumbers prices go up!

 

[fido]

I have the same problem. There was no hot water supply to my kitchen when I bought my house so I ran a pipe in the loft from the bathroom to the kitchen. It is also a long run. I lagged the pipe but lagging only slows down the rate of heat transfer, it can never stop it. I also have problems with the kitchen cold and waste pipes freezing but that is because they run under the floor of my firewood store, too close to the surface. I plan to raise the floor height in there but first had to raise the doorway, which I've now done. The first winter here I could not use the washing machine for 2 weeks due to the frozen pipes.