Hot water pipe frozen

1213 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by percygreen, Feb 10, 2013

d_heath

Discussion Starter · Feb 10, 2013 (Edited)

My hot water pipe is frozen. The main pipes/feeds to the house are on the outside of the house, in a little area with the hot water tank and heating unit, since they both run as one and both work off of kerosene (we have baseboard heating). The cold water, about five minutes ago, just kicked back on, so I left the hot water faucets on to help relieve that pressure and help it thaw out. I was wondering if there was a way to thaw out the pipe in a timely manner. I keep reading things about using a blowdryer, but they are all mixed discussions (they are good, they are not good). We've used one before, but last time, something in the house burst. I don't know what I should do this time in order to help this issue.

UPDATE: Problem solved! Everything is back to normal. Gotta insulate the boiler area better.

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percygreen

· #2 · Feb 10, 2013

For future reference, a blow dryer will work if it's only a small area that's frozen. There are also heat guns available, which are basically like a blow dryer but much hotter and much more expensive. The best way to stop freezing is to keep the pipes out of the elements - wind is your worst enemy. Pipe insulation will help a little, but you really want to close in the area where the pipes are.

Know also that in the earlier example you cited, the act of thawing out the pipe did not cause the burst. The freeze itself is what burst the pipe, it just didn't become evident until it thawed and the water started flowing out of it.

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