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Heating pipe frozen. Please help

Hi Folks,

First post here and I'm in dire need of assistance.

I live in Deerfield NH, so yes, it is cold. Yesterday morning my 1st floor zone stopped working. I figured it was the thermostat so I replaced it. Nuttin, still doesn't work. Service guy came out and came to the conclusion that my line was frozen, said he couldn't do anything about it because I have rubber hosing and not copper, collected 150 and left. Now I still have no heat and I'm worried something going to burst.

The confusing part is I've been here 3 years and never had a issue. The only place I gather it could possible be would be in the garage. The garage is under the house and there is an enclosed are that I know has piping for the 1st floor bathroom.

Now the questions.

  1. Is my pipe going to burst?
  2. Is it really frozen or is it possible something else is in the line? (I know this is hard to answer)
  3. How do I get it unfrozen? Do I have to tear down the encasing?

I'm just really confused at to how it could possible be frozen. There's a bottle of water that's been on the ground in the garage for a while now and that didn't freeze.

Thanks Tony

Reply to
tony.pelletier
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#1. it's possible if it freezes enough of the water in it. Whether or not this particular pipe is frozen, I'd also be worried about the piping to the bathroom you mention. If that's not being heated now, that piping will eventually freeze. #2. not only hard but impossible to answer for sure without being there. But yes it is possible that it's a blockage not ice. #3. IF it's really frozen and not blocked in some other way, you'll have to expose the pipe/hose in question. The fastest way to thaw frozen pipes is to boil some water, soak some rags (towels work well) in the boiling water and quickly wrap them around the frozen section. The hot rags/water will thaw it pretty quickly.

I'm not sure about code in regards to rubber hose and hot water heating, but it doesn't sound right to me. Maybe others here can shed some light on that.

Before you rip apart the garage, I would call a different service person out there. It seems strange that he would just leave without fixing the problem or at least saying something about coming back to figure it out tomorrow. It would strike me as being pretty unprofessional.

Reply to
louie

The immediate thing you want to do is turn your heater off and drain the entire system as much as possible. Then turn your oven on (assuming no little kids can touch it). Then get some kind of supplemental heat, like electric or kero. AFTER you do all that, start calling contractors to find one who's willing to replace the rubber with copper pipe. Your house most likely had freezing problems in the past, and some DIY put that rubber hose on. No reputable contractor will touch that system, because then the liability is all on him.

Reply to
Bob

I'd strongly advise against thawing any pipes until the water pressure is relieved from the system. If a pipe is split, water can come gushing out all over.

Reply to
Bob

Thanks for the replies.

Little more info in response to your responses. Right now I have the valve open to try and force water through. Ever 15-20 minutes I go down and try and see if I can get water to come out a hose I hooked up. Hopefully that makes sense, I don't know how to explain it.

My house is 3 years old. There's copper coming out of the boiler and everything running throughout is rubber/plastic?. Supposedly this is what newer home builders are doing. The plumber said it was easier to install and less prone to cracking. The problem he said was he couldn't run electricity through it to heat it up.

Reply to
tony.pelletier

Then it's not rubber. You have to find the frozen spot. If it's split, fix it. If it isn't split, put a space heater near it.

Reply to
Bob

Bob made a good point about draining the system. I wasn't thinking about the possibility of it already being split. The piping is probably PEX, not rubber. You'll still need to open up whatever enclosure is around the pipe in question and get heat onto it somehow.

Reply to
louie

If this pipe froze while the house was heated normally, then something is very wrong. That zone must have been off for a significant amount of time for the water to freeze. Did you have that zone turned way down, so that it didn;t come on for an extended period? For it to freeze, not only would it have to be off for an extended period of time, but the pipe must be exposed too. You need to trace the pipe route and find out why it's happening. Possible reasons are lack of proper insulation in a wall the pipe runs through, or some crack/opening in the exterior wall allowing cold air to blow into the wall.

Reply to
trader4

The good news is that PEX can take some freezing and not split. Be sure to check it though. In any case the others are right about adding heat to thaw it.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

PEX it is.

The only possible place it could be would be the garage, it it really is frozen. I'm heading out to home depot now to get a kerosene heater to heat the garage up. Since the pipes are enclosed, I have no idea exactly where it is but, I'm hoping if I get the garage up to 60+ degrees it will free it up.

thanks!

Reply to
tony.pelletier

Yeah definitely relieve pressure as Bob says before thawing- unless you want an indoor skating rink. After thawing/ replacing pipe, figure out why it is freezing there- insulation inadequate? gaps? Sounds like the builder was careless/ skimping- fix that situation very thoroughly- seal any gaps, add pipe insulation, add extra insulation to area. Faced this situation with a house recently. Water supply entered through a poorly insulated "drain room." Pipe froze 2 yrs ago- didn't leak until thawed. I insulated area thoroughly. Just last few days, power out for 3 days in snow/ ice storm. Night time temp was 13 deg F- but pipe still unfrozen as space is below ground level.

Reply to
Sev

I had a section of pipe freeze last winter, the first really cold day with a north wind. Pipes are copper, but the frozen section was too large for the inductive heating.

The root cause was that the pipes were run along the top of the block foundation on the north side, with inadequate insulation. Why it happened after 11 years in the house was that I had that year replaced windows and done some renovation work on the north side, including re-walling the external walls, including adding insulation. Plus I had installed new thermostats, and put in a 6 degree setback (to 60 at night from 68). For the past 45 years of the house's 'lifetime', the heat in that zone ran frequently enough to keep it free anyway. But the house now held temperature at about 60, so that zone never turned on at night anymore.

The solution was to cut that section and leave it, bypassing it through the (heated) interior space along the bedroom walls. The old section was set with a slant to drain through a break in the ceiling of the garage. A few weeks later, a contractor built pine coverings over the pipes in the bedroom (blends pretty much with the baseboards), I painted, it looks fine. He sheetrocked the opening in the garage.

Not what other homeowners may have done, to me, it looks fine, that section is in heated space now, and I won't have that problem again. Much cheaper and quicker job than running it again within the external wall.

I really feel for the original poster, though. Painful. For me, the work was covered by insurance.

Banty

Reply to
Banty

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