What is the deal with turning your water on?

[line-em-up]

...

Not really, water can freeze even with a slow flow. Opening up the faucet provides relief from the pressure build up between the faucet and the ice blockage when it freezes.

Of course it can, but the water coming out of the ground is well above freezing. The heat from it will help keep the pipe from freezing. That is simple physics.

[BP]

Trickle anything on an outside wall and I'd also trickle the faucet that's farthest away from where the water comes into your house.

During the last long cold snap the pipe coming out of my water heater froze. Since then when it gets below 20 degrees I have a lamp in the attic that sits right next to the main line feeding the rest of the house. It probably gets to 120 degrees and so far so good. An old school drop light would work just as well.

[Lason]

I let both outside faucets drip and everything else is ok. My kitchen sink it up against a exterior wall but it shares its water line with the outside faucet on the opposite side of the wall. I dont drip anything inside.

Brick home and had one of the faucets freeze even with one of those foam covers on it so I just let them drip now, no problems since.

[papapepper]

We left the sinks in the house trickle hot water but forgot to do the shower.... Of course the HW wasn't working this morning in the shower because of it!!!! I left it on and about 20 min later hot water started to come out. Yay for hot showers!

Of course I've got a old house with window units and gas heaters and it's not insulated.... It's cold as fuck throughout the house!

[Thehead]

i have one faucet that is frozen up..... My damn kitchen sink! There is an out side faucet on the back side of the wall and I had one of those foam covers on it. Well yesterday I went out to check it after it wouldn't work and found that the rain got into the foam cover and froze the whole faucet outsice. I was out with a heat gun for about an hour yesterday and got it cleared up out side and cut up the sheet rock out from under the cabinets to axcess as much of the pipes as I could. I now have a space heater on the pipes. I'll probably pull the dishwasher today and try to get to the rest of the pipe and get it released.

[03mustangdude]

had an old plumber tell me to never use those foam things since half the time they dont work he said all you need is to get a old tshirt wrap it around nice n tight tie it put a plastic bag on with no holes in it and duct tape it to the wall. Used it for the past 3 years no issues the guys ancient though in his 70s probably

[Thehead]

had an old plumber tell me to never use those foam things since half the time they dont work he said all you need is to get a old tshirt wrap it around nice n tight tie it put a plastic bag on with no holes in it and duct tape it to the wall. Used it for the past 3 years no issues the guys ancient though in his 70s probably

this is what i usually do but I figured I would save my neighbors the uglyness of the towel plastic bag combo. FUCK THAT, for now on i'm going back to ole reliable.

[03mustangdude]

this is what i usually do but I figured I would save my neighbors the uglyness of the towel plastic bag combo. FUCK THAT, for now on i'm going back to ole reliable.

screw the neighbors they wont pay for your repairs lol

[jakesford]

I heard that the plastic pipe that they use in construction now won't burst like copper because it can expand when frozen. I dont know anything about plumbing, or if this is true?

[GhostTX]

had an old plumber tell me to never use those foam things since half the time they dont work he said all you need is to get a old tshirt wrap it around nice n tight tie it put a plastic bag on with no holes in it and duct tape it to the wall. Used it for the past 3 years no issues the guys ancient though in his 70s probably

I need to do that for my sprinkler system. Sherman has a stupid code that mandates you put the back-flow check valve about 2' off the ground. I've got it wrapped with just old towels, but with the rain-turned-to-ice we had, I doubt it did much good. I'm sure the whole thing is jacked right now.

[VaderTT]

My neighbors pipes burst early this morning and flooded my garage.

[spederman]

I heard that the plastic pipe that they use in construction now won't burst like copper because it can expand when frozen. I dont know anything about plumbing, or if this is true?

i was wondering the same thing. Also what about sprinkler systems, is their anything to do with them? I would think those pipes would be the first to freeze and blow. But then again, they are all PVC as well.

[momo]

whats the deal with ice?

[fordracing19]

I heard that the plastic pipe that they use in construction now won't burst like copper because it can expand when frozen. I dont know anything about plumbing, or if this is true?

Pex wont crack as easy but the fitting will.

[stevo]

I heard that the plastic pipe that they use in construction now won't burst like copper because it can expand when frozen. I dont know anything about plumbing, or if this is true?

PVC will still crack and break, soft copper will stretch and expand a time or two, hard copper is not very forgiving, and the Quest type of piping will expand until it ages or is left in sunlight and then it will crack and break.

Kinda think of it like this, the more flexible the piping is, then more likely it will expand when the water in it freezes, the harder the less likely.

Stevo