Froze up plumbing

[hunter63]

Froze up plumbing.....at The Place.......caught me off guard....my own fault......planning on being back out here before it go cold.......
Yeah, right.... Polar Vortex....been in the teens and 20's last 4-5 days.

Had only done a quickie drain down job...shut line coming in.....drained back all fixtures, faucets....not the water heater.
Won't do that again........
Faucets froze closed.....toilet bowl and tank ....antifreeze was actually ice over (WTF?)..... and fancy that.

House was 22 degrees when we got here....so fire off the electric base boards, the wood stove...and brought a couple of electric heaters from the shed and home.

Slow and carful heat gun on faucets to get open....one at a time open all cupboard doors, place heaters around and one by one.....thawed out each one to open........then open inlet valve......and work the stopped line till all were open abd flowing....even had water flowing through water heater.......then flipped on water heater.

NO LEAKS......Yippie Kyay........

Love the Pex....if this would have been copper, CPVC or black pipe, I sure there would have been damage.......

Moral to the story....even well planned systems can go sideways if you take short cuts, or "assume" things are gonna go your way.

Did lose a PUR water filter, little tab on filter broke off, and stuck inside.......Did have a spare....pretty cheap for a big mistake of my own making.

Wood stove blazing away....having a brewski or 6

[randyt]

you're lucky today, go buy a lottery ticket.

[hunter63]

Noooo ship........Brewski #3 coming up.....

[randyt]

careful now, wouldn't want to get stopped on the way to get the lottery ticket, may end up with the wrong ticket and your lucky streak stopped in its tracks.

[hunter63]

Powdery snow about 2" and still coming.... covering roads....not going out tonight.....

[hunter63]

So does anyone know if antifreeze go bad?...the stuff I used was from last year.....and opened container.
Maybe alcohol or glycerol... off gasses and leave just pink water ?

Was floored to see the stuff as ice....soft ice, but ice never the less.

[natertot]

I'm glad things turned out okay for you Hunter. I can only imagine the snow up there. I bet it is beautiful. I grew up in Iowa, I do miss those snows......

The only antifreeze I have used for plumbing was the RV antifreeze. Never had a problem with it going bad. Only thing I can think of is that perhaps it mixed with water from your lines and diluting it. I couldn't say for sure though.

Enjoy the brewski!

[randyt]

I have seen lots of anti-freeze slush up but not expand and freeze. We call rv anti-freeze redpop.

[hunter63]

That's what it is...."Peak" RV stuff.....so maybe that's how its supposed to be....wasn't frozen hard....?

Yeah was diluted, in the traps, toilet bowl, and tank (drained down),... note I usually take off the supply line on the toilet tank, and kind of shake water out, as it is the only place that can't drain back to the system drain.
The also drains the tank more.

Checked this morning, all is well....so far.

[Rick]

Glad it was just the one filter. You got lucky.

[hunter63]

I'm glad things turned out okay for you Hunter. I can only imagine the snow up there. I bet it is beautiful. I grew up in Iowa, I do miss those snows......

The only antifreeze I have used for plumbing was the RV antifreeze. Never had a problem with it going bad. Only thing I can think of is that perhaps it mixed with water from your lines and diluting it. I couldn't say for sure though.

Enjoy the brewski!

Neighbor up the road has a web cam back operating....for awhile anyway.......got about 2" last night.

http://mwt.net/~mwheeler/webcam.html

You can kinda see the Kickapoo River out in the back ground......

[hunter63]

Glad it was just the one filter. You got lucky.

Yes, yes, I did....

...and I had brought along a porta- potty JIC as "Plan C"...... used it while working on the rest of the pipes.

[Adventure Wolf]

That was lucky Hunter. Really lucky. I've never seen it, but I've heard stories of burst pipes from big freezes.

[1stimestar]

Oh sooo glad you're not having to redo plumbing.

[crashdive123]

Glad it worked out OK. I've got to "winterize" the bug truck today after work (incandescent light in back near termite hoses and fittings) since we are supposed to get down to the low 20's tonight.

[Rick]

Low 20's!? That must mean an emergency run to town for long pants! A Florida cold snap doesn't require milk, bread and eggs. It requires socks, long pants and long sleeved shirts. The aisles will be bare for sure.

[randyt]

I make a living repairing frozen lines.. TBH would rather not profit from a misfortune. Generally the insurance companies cover it.

[natertot]

The aisles will be bare for sure.

Yes, but the legs will not!

[hunter63]

Most likely a good thing that we got here and thawed everything when we did....been in the single digit's every night, and the last couple of day high's were in the teens.

Gone all day yesterday, so stove burned down to almost cold, before we got back....base boards kept in the 60's......but it has Been ...COLD.
Yeah..... I know this is not Alaska......but y'all have been having temps higher than ours lately.

BTW...FYI
THe refrig had actually shut down...freezer stuff thawed out....started up again as it warmed up....another bullet dodged.
Has left it running....and if it gets too cold will shut down (thing garage refrig's and freezers).
Had one that ran 5 years....so one winter I decided to shut it down....save electric...I do this with a couple of OLD apartment size beer refrig on the porch......and shed....no problems.
Spring ...restarted and all the Freon was gone.

Called in a service guy....and confirmed that it had a leak, almost impossible to find and joints are no longer soldered, but glued with epoxy.

Recommended to leave run.............

[Rick]

I don't keep much in the garage freezer (side by side)...in winter. The thermostat for the fridge is actually inside the fridge portion and if the garage gets down to 30F then the fridge thermostat won't kick the fridge on. Stuff in the freezer side starts to thaw as you noted. My garage typically doesn't get that cold except when you open the garage door. My upright freezer works just fine though.