Row house in the mid-Atlantic area. I'm selling it, so don't want to put
a lot of money into this piece, esp with the way the prices are dropping
in the area. (Apologies if this shows up twice; my email client
hiccupped and said it didn’t go thru).

There is a sump pump, with a drainage pipe thing that only sticks out of
the house about 3-4". There is a PVC pipe drainage system attached to it
that goes to the side of the yard and the water exits into the grass
away from the house. That works fine 9-10 months a year. The problem is
that in the winter, drainage accumulates in the PVC and freezes, causing
the pump to strain and not be able to pump. I'm not at all mechanical so
what I did then was get some of the "corrugated" plastic sump pump
tubing and one of those rubber pipe adapter things (different diameter
ends, with the little ratchety things on each side to attach to the
pipe. When it was freezing, I'd detach the regular PVC drainage, and
attach this gizmo. The pipe would reach across the paved area (this is
all in the back yard) into the grass. This still froze, but it was very
easy to exchange the tubing and sit the frozen one in the sun to thaw.

My problem now (finally got to it!) is that the house is currently
vacant. While I can get there a few times a week, it's not enough to
make sure the tubing doesn't freeze. What I have done now is buy a 10'
piece of plastic gutter and propped it up under the outlet. That doesn’t
completely span the cement area and is easily dislodged. (It's currently
very esthetically (not!) propped up with two pieces of that scalloped
cement edging I had sitting around). I'm worried this could scare off a
prospective buyer before anyone could even explain that it's not a
problem when someone is living there and can monitor it. I had another
plumber over for another reason who commented on how the water
accumulated on the cement where it's settled over the years, so just
leaving the short metal pipe wasn't good. His only suggestion was to run
underground piping out to the alley, which would involve digging up the
yard and cutting the cement sidewalk and the small retaining wall by the
alley. He actually recommended against that. And truthfully, I could go
for months without ever hearing or seeing the sump pump run, although
depending on how much rain we've had, there are times it runs more
frequently. It's just that I'm paranoid about it while the house is
empty, having lived through a back up when the last one broke.

So, the bottom line is, does anyone happen to have any other suggestions
on how to get the drainage away from the house, over maybe 15 ft of
cement, and not risk having it blocked with ice when the temp drops?
Maybe something with a larger diameter. (I'm thinking the narrow
diameter tubing is more likely to freeze because it fill with water, and
since the ground is fairly level it doesn't have gravity on its side).
Maybe like the flexible downspout extensions, but if so how to attach?
Or am I better off with the gutter thing, since it's open on the top and
even if it freezes, at least the water escapes somewhere? And did I
mention I'm not very handy…