This morning when I woke up I found that I had no hot water in my bathroom. The fixtures work fine on cold, and water continues to flow out until you turn the dial to the middle (warm) and the water pressure drops. When I turn the dial to hot, no water comes out at all. The rest of the rooms in the house have hot and cold water, its just the tub, shower and sink in the one bathroom. Any ideas of what this could be?
Thanks.
Do you live where pipes might freeze?? Jim
I live in maryland, its 16* f here - but its only the one room that doesnt work.
Thaw it very slowly. Sudden thawing leads to exploding pipes and/or joints. Keep the faucet open a little as well.
Dave
Is it really likely that it is frozen? Cold water still runs from the fixtures and we have hot water in the rest of the house.
Sure sounds like a frozen pipe, especially since it happened at the same time as a sudden temperature drop. It's not all that uncommon for just one room to be affected, especially if it is at the end of a run. Your hot water supply may run near an outside wall at just one point.
BB
So how do I know what to thaw?
Thanks again.
Yup. As mentioned previously, odds are this one line runs near the exterior of the house. Overnight, even the hot line will reach ambient temperature, as there's no water being run thru it.
If it starts working again when the weather warms up, you'll find out!
Seriously, it's definitely possible for one of two pipes to freeze, depending on the exact location.
When was the last time you can remember it getting as cold where you live as it did last night?
We broke a 100+ year low temp record here in Boston last night. And it was over 50 F here on New Years day. Go figger. I hope the Pats fans see a great playoff game tonight, but I'm glad I'm not gonna be in the stands.
Jeff
You will just have to poke around and find the trouble spot. If you have access from the basement, you can figure out where the pipes go up to that part of the house, and figure out where the pipes may pass through space in an outside wall. This often happens in Kitchens, and the solution there is often to simply open up the cabinets beneath the sink to let the warm air from the kitchen thaw things.
If you find an area that you think is suspect and want to thaw it, make sure that you leave a few related faucets open a crack so steam and pressure has somewhere to go. Some of that pressure will be in the direction opposite the bathroom, so you need to open more than just the bathroom valves.
I would recommend a heat gun or hair dryer rather than a torch. A torch would be faster, but it adds more risk of bursting a pipe (bad) or unintentionally igniting materials inside the walls (VERY BAD!)
BB
My shower did that several years ago. All in one valve in my shower. I had to take the bloody thing apart and replace the plastic insert that had snapped off. My case was hot water only no cold... Get some patience at the store before you attempt this. It can get ugly, to the point of having to rip out the wall and replace the valve... I got lucky and it was just a couple of hours and 4 trips to the store to get the right damned part.
I could see it being the valve if it were just the tub, but the OP mentioned that his sink is also not flowing hot. So frozen pipes it is.
Dave
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.