On Thu, 8 Jan 2015 20:31:29 -0500, "EXT"
wrote:


"Terry Coombs" wrote in message
news
At 3 AM and 3° , the water was fine . At 6:30 and 1° it was frozen (only
in the camper , The Shed water is fine) . Apparently the insulation I
covered the short vertical run of hose wasn't quite enough and I shoulda
left a faucet dripping . Well , now I know how cold it needs to get before
I need to drip the faucet .

Having the faucet "drip" may not do anything but make an icicle before the
line freezes. You need to run a stream of water, the colder the temperature
the faster the stream.

If you have a septic, this may not be a good idea. If the septic and
drain bed fill with water and freeze, you have a worse problem.

A place I used to live, had a septic ONLY for the toilet and kitchen
sink. Gray water (bathtub laundry and bathroom sink) just ran out a
pipe down a hill.

I left the water run slowly for several days during a cold spell in the
bathroom sink. The next thing I found was the bathtub overflowing all
over the floor. The slow water probably never got to the end of that
pipe before freezing.

Then I could not use any water in those fixtures. The 4" PVC pipe was
solid ice all the way from the house to the end of it. (about 40ft.).
A month later when we had a warmer day, I managed to modify some pipes
and just run that water right out into the yard till Spring.

In Spring, I had to dig up and replace the split and cracked pipes. No
Fun!

Even with my septic, last winter I had the line to the septic freeze. I
had to have someone come with a power snake. It turned out there was a
clump of frozen toilet paper in a bend near the house. That pipe is
about 2 ft deep, but last winter there were pipes freezing as much as 5
ft. deep.

I DO NOT flush toilet paper down the toilet in freezing weather anymore.
I have a covered pail next to the toilet and toss it in there. I just
dump it in my burn barrel outside. So far no more problems.