Winter is almost upon us

Post Reply New Topic

humpf....weather on internet says 18 F tonight . got to remember to let the water drip in the sink, perhaps shouldkeep water line from freezing....i hope

Does your heating not work?

Used to be more trusting of the heater to do its job.....Last time burst a pipe, at almost the same time as the mainline
seized up from being root bound. All the same time Was given the, ambulance ride to local hospital with Covid.
Where during that week . their was a power outage,stuff froze . while in the hospital too....But the water line burst inside the wall.
Took me over 5 days of being back home to figure this stuff out....And the crawl space was flooding , in the dead of Winter..! Was totally useless when .i returned from the hospital only 50% recovered , cause bed space. was tight. And staff there was low.....Finances. went totally in the dumpster . Had little money saved but my FA financial advisor , decided he did not hear me , when I rold him to sell if the amount dropped below a certain amount . So the market crashed too. and he did not sell. When you only got 1000 you saved an entire year for and you lose 50% cause you broker refused to act. Makes it hard to afford plumbers. That was a bad winter month. Winter can be. harsh.

When I had the new furnace installed they were nice enough to add extra shutoff valves for hot and cold water!

This came in handy last month when the rubber washer in the sink shutoff valve disintegrated!
I was able to buy an new shutoff valve and just swap some parts to fix it.

It was the coldest night of the year so far. The temperature dropped to 10.4 degrees F. ( -12 degrees C) last night.

There is one advantage to winter. It kills outdoor insects.

Sorry to hear about your experience. This brings to mind two things to know about frozen days.

First, snow is an insulator. When the ground is covered with snow and the temperatures drop to extreme cold, you can use snow to your advantage. Most water lines run into the home and can freeze if it gets too cold. Therefore generally I clean the snow off my driveway. But that can cause a problem because the snow actually insulates the water line from the severe temperature. So if I just wait until the temperatures climb back up a little, before I remove the snow, I can actually prevent my waterline from bursting.

Second, this was something you mentioned. Let the water keep dripping. Allowing the underground water which is a little warmer then the outdoor water temperature can keep the lines from freezing. This can prevent the water lines from freezing solid. But in your case the main line sized up and as a result it caused your entire system to freeze solid and burst. The best thing that you could do in this circumstance was to turn on the valve and let all the water drain out. But you were fighting COVID at the time, so you were being hit by several problems all at once.

^^^^ know this is going to sound crazy , But it was epic to look back on Nov./Dec. period of time with all that happening . It was epic , to have survived it without more damage. Yes , the off valve for the water was in the crawl space 25 ft inside . So getting to it . Was impossible, in my health at that time. had to hire someone to go under.

Thank You JimmyM