On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 2:38:54 PM UTC-5, JBI wrote:
On 01/08/2018 02:22 PM, trader_4 wrote:
On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 1:57:18 PM UTC-5, JBI wrote:
I live in the NE and with the unusual deep freeze this year, I've been
having a heck of a time keeping the water flowing. The first culprit
was some frozen lines that run into the kitchen and the area where
freezing occurs is toward the edge of the house. A small electric space
heater aimed at the area seems to get them dethawed within 24 hours.
The second time was apparently frozen lines in the attic. It still only
affected the kitchen, so I aimed a space heater into the bottom kitchen
cabinet and within a day water was flowing again. This time, I'm more
concerned... no water flowing from any of the faucets. This happened
before, but about 20 years ago when we had a similar long term deep
freeze. I haven't been able to do much about this other than trying to
keep all faucets wide open. The main shut off in the house I have
almost fully closed. Today, finally, with some above freezing temps, I
am starting to see dripping in the kitchen, but that's all so far. When
this happened 20 years ago, I called the water company, and they
couldn't do anything. A neighbor at the time cut up his hose and made a
direct connection to my outdoor hose and got things running again, but
he's long dead. Been no water for two days now. I'm wondering if I
should just keep waiting or ? This is the first day in two weeks that
temps have gone above 32. Should I completely shut off the internal
house valve or leave it open somewhat? What about the main valve out at
the meter? Thanks.

Leave it running. You want water to move through the frozen spot and melt it. Whether the water that's dripping is coming through the blockage is questionable. It could also be draining from higher points in the house. In the old days of underground steel pipe, you could get welders to hook on to the ends of underground pipe with arc welders and pass current to warm it up. With poly pipe, that's not an option. Unless you know where it's frozen and can heat it, you'll just have to wait.


Ok, guys, thanks I'll just wait it out. I did take a peek at the water
meter main area and nothing is frosted over or unusually cold so my
guess is between there and the house or maybe out under the road.

Where exactly is the water meter? If it's outside, it's supposed to be
buried 4ft down or below whatever the frost line is there.





One good thing is that I have been leaving the kitchen faucets dripping
ever since the first kitchen only freeze, so hopefully that helps with
pressure. Now I have all the faucets open along with the main valve.

In the future, if you're trying to prevent it from freezing, I would do
a small steady stream, maybe smaller than a pencil, but a lot more than
some dripping. You need to move enough water to keep it above freezing.




What puzzles me is why the main does it? Neighbors don't report the
same problem. Ever since I had the drain line replaced with PVC some
years ago have I had the main water line issue during extreme cold.
This was replaced from the entrance to the house out under the roadway
about 20 feet beyond the sidewalk. It runs parallel to the water line,
but some distance from it.

It may be that whoever installed your line didn't bury it as deep as the
neighbor lines. Soil composition might make some difference too. How does
it come into the house? Through a basement wall?