How to thaw frozen pipes in exterior wall of a house on a slab: No water from faucet
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Winter is frozen pipe season. When pipes freeze, they must be thawed quickly to prevent water pipes from bursting. We used a Mr. Heater - Big Buddy portable propane heater.
Mr. Heater - Big Buddy
www.amazon.com...
Mr. Heater - Buddy Indoor
amzn.to/3aBzKGy
With a house built on a slab, you have to find where the water supply enters the house. Then you need to see if you can find any plumbing in exterior walls. Plumbing supply pipes in exterior walls is often the source of the problem.
In this video we first heated the copper supply pipes in the garage. When that didn't solve our frozen pipe problem, we cut a hole in the drywall to get access to more of the plumbing. Heating that area soon thawed the pipes out and we were good to go.
The biggest challenge in thawing out frozen water pipes is finding the spot where it is frozen. It can be time consuming and frustrating, But eventually, your efforts should pay off.
Thanks for watching!
Also, if you are in the market for any tools, check out our Amazon store front.
Visit our amazon store front for our recommendations for tools and supplies for DIY success!
www.amazon.com...
If you click on any of the amazon links and buy, you are helping us out as a channel. We are Amazon
affiliates and can earn from qualifying purchases and no extra cost for you. Thanks for the help in supporting our channel and enabling us to keep us making videos! For more content be sure and check us out at housebarons.com/
Shout out from Texas 😂
Hey Eva,
Hello!
So it sounds like you all are having quite a weather party! You unfrozen yet?
Thx for letting us know where you are viewing from!
Just did everything as instructed. I am in Killeen Texas water has frozen for two days now, so hope this works.
Hey Steven,
Yes, you all in Texas are getting Minnesota weather! But heard 60 degrees for you all next week.
Anyway, if you find the sole frozen pipe, it should thaw in 15 min or sooner.
If you have a water meter pit outside,
Check out this video:
ruclips.net/video/8gNYTWrezrw/видео.html
Thx for watching.
I'm going to try this. We lost water past 2 days here. Thank you.
Hey Phillip,
Hope it helps. Here is another video of ours - with another solution:
ruclips.net/video/8gNYTWrezrw/видео.html
Thx for watching!
-18 below in Maine last night!
Hey cut,
Yikes! Thx for watching!
Perfect vid for me thanks!
Hey Jcav,
Thx! Glad to hear it. Thx for watching!
What would you do if the frozen section of pipe was inaccessible? The frozen pipe is actually inside a wall that you cannot access?
Check your water meter to see if your dial is moving. If your dial is not moving, get a hair dryer and start blowing in circular motion to get the dial moving. Then, get an electric oil radiator heater and put it close to the pipes as possible that should help
Hey Phillip…,
As you can see in the video, we had to cut the drywall to be able to get the warm air into the wall cavity.
Otherwise, all you can do is keep the hot air on the pipe. If it’s a copper pipe, copper conducts heat well. It will just be a longer process for the heat to melt the ice in the pipe completely.
Hope that helps. Thx for watching!
Having a ReadyTemp installed in the home will prevent water from crystalizing throughout the home's water pipes.
Hey utube…,
Interesting. Thx for watching!
Hi!, I was just wondering, & I haven't finished the video yet, so you may address my issue, in which case, disregard this comment, but, at some point in the early morning, my kids decided to use the kitchen sink & forgot to leave the faucet dripping. When we woke up at 8, we noticed we have no cold water coming from the kitchen faucet. Hot water is coming through just fine though. I've tried to pour hot water down the drain multiple times, I tried heating the cabinets under the sink, I tried blow drying the pipes under the sink, I put blankets in my cabinets to help block off any cold air that may be coming in. We have been leaving the cabinets open to allow warm air to enter, etc., nothing has worked. I'm afraid that the pipe is frozen & will burst. All the water, hot & cold, is working in the rest of the house. Just no cold water coming from kitchen faucet. We live in Texas, so this is pretty unfamiliar territory for us & I am lost!. The pipes are in the wall, & I'm tempted to cut out an area of the wall inside the cabinet and try to access the pipes that way, but I am afraid to damage things further. Would you have any advice? I'm so sorry for this rambling novel!
Hey Cassie,
I think you are on the right track. If you have water everywhere else, then it sounds like the sink is on a branch off the main line.
If the pipes are running through an exterior wall, then that is probably the issue..
Cutting a hole in the drywall is the ticket to getting it open to get heat in there.
A hair dryer might do the trick to warm things up once you open up the wall.
(You can see what we did in the video )
As it warms and water comes through the faucet, make sure the pipe has not split - you’ll be able to tell if the area in the wall gets wet.
Sometimes it’s a lot of trial and error trying to find where it froze.
Hope you all can unfreeze it all soon!
Thx for watching!
Great video! I have no hot or cold water right now... I have a large copper pipe going into my furnace and two thinner pipes into/out of the water heater. They are in the same closet but different walls. Which should I focus the heat on?
Hey JS,
If it’s in a closet, raising the temp in the closet overall should help. But typically, smaller pipes freeze first unless a larger pipe is closer to the cold air / outside wall.
I would focus heat on outside wall pipes first as outside walls are generally the culprit allowing cold air in from outside.
No hot water or cold just means supply is blocked. So cold water supply can’t move, therefore hot can’t move as it is basically a one way road.
In our case, the freeze was the supply buried in the wall way before any water could even make it to the water heater.
Hope you get unfrozen!
I do not have hot water but have cold water. I am not sure which pipe to heat. I have two one at the top going outside and then a smaller one that looks like the pipe on the back of the fridge. Which one should I try to heat?
Hey Susan,
It’s very difficult to say w/o being there...and sometimes difficult even seeing the pipes in person. I’ll try to give some things to look for...
(Assuming ??? Your water heater is working)
Cold water goes into one pipe in your water heater and come out the other pipe. They should be the same size. Often the pipes will have a tag or embossed HOT or COLD label by the appropriate pipe on the water heater.
Your cold water supply typically comes into the house and then to cold faucets etc. at some point , that cold supply pipe has a branch that heads off in the direction of the water heater. That branch of cold water goes into the water heater in one pipe and comes out after being heated as hot in a second pipe and from there to the hot faucets.
If your cold water is working, then it sounds like the main cold supply is good. But the branch / loop going to the water heater or the “hot” coming from the water heater has frozen.
So trying to find the the route that branch takes is where you might find the frozen pipe.
Do one or both of those pipes travel through an exterior wall ( or through a cold crawl space under the house? ) exterior walls can often be the culprit. That’s where you could start looking.
The trouble with this whole process is it’s a puzzle, sometimes means tearing into walls. A mess!
If you have copper pipes, I’ve heard plumbers have ways to pass electrical current through pipes to warm them.
If you don’t feel comfortable with the search for the frozen pipe, try and phone a friend who could help you with the guess work. Having some understanding of home construction helps.
Hope this helps some ???
Was that the water heater you had the heater by
Hey Who,
Yes it was.
Thx for watching.
Can you use an electric space heater?
Hey Carol,
It seems like it could be worth a try. Just keep an eye on it. Don’t let anything get TOO hot.
Thx for watching!
At least I see the insulation was put in first then the waterlines. In my home in north Idaho the dumbshits put in the waterlines then the insulation! How stupid can one be. We hit -20 in January and had frozen water lines for a week even with portable heaters running 24/7 on them AND having a plumber out to use their heat guns...$1495.00 for 3 hours and still frozen!!!!!
Wow! Thats quite a bill! Paying that once would last me a lifetime - hopefully there’s a solution???
Thx for watching!