Came across this photo today. I don't doubt that it's real.

The home next to us froze up a year ago January, when the owners were
away for the winter. I was the one who first noticed it when I saw three
large dirty brown frozen "waterfalls" on the outside of one of their
garage doors. It's a year later now, the house is stiull unoccupied, and
the owners are still negotiating with their insurer over the issue of
their "abandonment" without taking any appropriate safeguards to prevent
the several hundred thousand dollars of water damage which occurred.

Sure convinced me that the next time we leave home for more than a day
in the winter I'm gonna remember to at least close the main water
shutoff and invest forty bucks in a low temperature alarm which will
dial up a buddy with a key to our place.

See:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/frozenpipes.jpg

Jeff

--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone to place the blame on."

"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Came across this photo today. I don't doubt that it's real.

The home next to us froze up a year ago January, when the owners were
away for the winter. I was the one who first noticed it when I saw three
large dirty brown frozen "waterfalls" on the outside of one of their
garage doors. It's a year later now, the house is stiull unoccupied, and
the owners are still negotiating with their insurer over the issue of
their "abandonment" without taking any appropriate safeguards to prevent
the several hundred thousand dollars of water damage which occurred.

Sure convinced me that the next time we leave home for more than a day
in the winter I'm gonna remember to at least close the main water
shutoff and invest forty bucks in a low temperature alarm which will
dial up a buddy with a key to our place.

See:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/frozenpipes.jpg

Jeff


The AAA plaque at the back of the garage is a nice touch!

Also remember to turn off you water heater.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Came across this photo today. I don't doubt that it's real.

The home next to us froze up a year ago January, when the owners were
away for the winter. I was the one who first noticed it when I saw three
large dirty brown frozen "waterfalls" on the outside of one of their
garage doors. It's a year later now, the house is stiull unoccupied, and
the owners are still negotiating with their insurer over the issue of
their "abandonment" without taking any appropriate safeguards to prevent
the several hundred thousand dollars of water damage which occurred.

Sure convinced me that the next time we leave home for more than a day
in the winter I'm gonna remember to at least close the main water
shutoff and invest forty bucks in a low temperature alarm which will
dial up a buddy with a key to our place.

See:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/frozenpipes.jpg

Jeff

--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can keep smiling when things go wrong, you've thought of someone
to place the blame on."

"Joseph Meehan" wrote:

Also remember to turn off you water heater.

Actually, most of them have a vacation/low setting for this purpose,
letting the unit idle, but not cooling off, and allowing moisture to
condense to cause rust.

I was thinking more of the problem that may occur if someone
accidentally drains the hot water heater while the water is off.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math


"John Hines" wrote in message
...
"Joseph Meehan" wrote:

Also remember to turn off you water heater.

Actually, most of them have a vacation/low setting for this purpose,
letting the unit idle, but not cooling off, and allowing moisture to
condense to cause rust.

Joseph Meehan wrote:
I was thinking more of the problem that may occur if someone
accidentally drains the hot water heater while the water is off.


That'd be hard to do in my house, the hot water heater is in the
basement, and with the main shut off there's no way it could be drained
through normal use of any faucet or appliance. It'd be unlikely that
anyone with enough knowledge and desire to find the heater and open its
drain valve wouldn't know to throw the breaker before draining it.

I was just thinking about what I should do to eliminate the kind of
horrific water damage that our next door neighbor suffered if our house
did lose its heat while we were away and a pipe froze and cracked.

Here's what I saw when I looked out our side windows last year. Dirty
brown frozen ribbons of ice coming down one of the neighbor's garage
doors, from the cracked pipes above.

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/freeze.jpg

If I thought there was a high probability of that happening I'd probably
take the trouble go through the full freeze prevention steps of draining
everything, antifreezing the toilets, etc. We heat with two separate
heat pump systems, so it'd probably take losing electric power to the
house for an extended period before things got cold enough to freeze up.

Jeff

In article ,
Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Came across this photo today. I don't doubt that it's real.

The home next to us froze up a year ago January, when the owners were
away for the winter. I was the one who first noticed it when I saw three
large dirty brown frozen "waterfalls" on the outside of one of their
garage doors. It's a year later now, the house is stiull unoccupied, and
the owners are still negotiating with their insurer over the issue of
their "abandonment" without taking any appropriate safeguards to prevent
the several hundred thousand dollars of water damage which occurred.

Sure convinced me that the next time we leave home for more than a day
in the winter I'm gonna remember to at least close the main water
shutoff and invest forty bucks in a low temperature alarm which will
dial up a buddy with a key to our place.

See:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/frozenpipes.jpg

Jeff


3 LUXURY cars?

I see ONE luxury car (Porsche) and an old grand cherokee and a very old
VW convertible..

That should be fine. I don't think it happens too often, especially in
your case.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math


"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...


Joseph Meehan wrote:
I was thinking more of the problem that may occur if someone
accidentally drains the hot water heater while the water is off.


That'd be hard to do in my house, the hot water heater is in the
basement, and with the main shut off there's no way it could be drained
through normal use of any faucet or appliance. It'd be unlikely that
anyone with enough knowledge and desire to find the heater and open its
drain valve wouldn't know to throw the breaker before draining it.

I was just thinking about what I should do to eliminate the kind of
horrific water damage that our next door neighbor suffered if our house
did lose its heat while we were away and a pipe froze and cracked.

Here's what I saw when I looked out our side windows last year. Dirty
brown frozen ribbons of ice coming down one of the neighbor's garage
doors, from the cracked pipes above.

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/freeze.jpg

If I thought there was a high probability of that happening I'd probably
take the trouble go through the full freeze prevention steps of draining
everything, antifreezing the toilets, etc. We heat with two separate
heat pump systems, so it'd probably take losing electric power to the
house for an extended period before things got cold enough to freeze up.

Jeff

"Chris Schmelzer" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Jeff Wisnia wrote:

Came across this photo today. I don't doubt that it's real.

The home next to us froze up a year ago January, when the owners were
away for the winter. I was the one who first noticed it when I saw three
large dirty brown frozen "waterfalls" on the outside of one of their
garage doors. It's a year later now, the house is stiull unoccupied, and
the owners are still negotiating with their insurer over the issue of
their "abandonment" without taking any appropriate safeguards to prevent
the several hundred thousand dollars of water damage which occurred.

Sure convinced me that the next time we leave home for more than a day
in the winter I'm gonna remember to at least close the main water
shutoff and invest forty bucks in a low temperature alarm which will
dial up a buddy with a key to our place.

See:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/frozenpipes.jpg

Jeff


3 LUXURY cars?

I see ONE luxury car (Porsche) and an old grand cherokee and a very old
VW convertible..

Sometimes you have to take creative license in order to more accurately
mimic the syntax of the television ad being imitated.

And even an old grand cherokee would be a luxury to me.