"GB" wrote in message
news
On 01/03/2018 16:59, charles wrote:
In article ,
harry wrote:
If you think your pipes might freeze, leave a tap dripping.
The one furthest from the stop tap.

That happened here by accident. The bath waste is now frozen up.


DW left the basin dripping. Luckily running the bath tap unfroze the
waste, so I didn't have to get up a ladder with a kettle of hot water in a
blizzard.

I had to unblock both the washbasin/bath wastepipe and the kitchen wastepipe
this morning at my parents' holiday cottage where we are living at the
moment. The bath one runs dead horizontal from where it emerges through the
wall to the right-angle join where the pipe then runs vertical - unlike the
toilet soil pipe alongside it, there is no gradual fall. The kitchen one is
bowed because there is a long length that is only supported at either end.
So in both cases there is part of the pipe where water collects and never
completely empties.

I tried the kettle trick in both cases, to no avail, so I had to pull the
push-fit connections apart and shake the pipes and pour boiling water into
one end. Eventually I got the tell-tale gurgle and long lengths of ice
cylinders shot out of the end.

When the weather warms up, I'll be doing a bit of work on both of those
pipes to prevent it happening again.