Frozen Pipes

1800 sq ft house. Water heater is on the opposite side of the house from Master bathroom. All faucets work other then the Master bathroom. No Hot/Cold in either sinks, no water in Jacuzzi Tub, No water in shower, HOWEVER toilet flushes fine. Also the Washer/Dryer are on the same wall on opposite side from Jacuzzi tub, does not have water. Thoughts? Kept the house at 78 degrees through out this weather. This is a Ranch Style house on a slab, I have never had a house like this.

Frozen pipes

You should of ran all your fixtures in the house, easy solution to keep them from freezing.

Open fixtures and hope they start running soon once they warm up and unfreeze, they will either run or you will have a freeze break.

Keep a water key handy to shut off meter to the house.

Open the cabinets under the sink.

if you have a space heater open doors under sink and put heater about 6" from opening so cabinet won't get too hot/scorch.

then hope nothing burst. be ready to shut down main if you have leaks.

that is about all you can do.

I talked to my plumber yesterday about new work for a customer. He said he had 40 calls yesterday for frozen pipes.

Let the water trickle on any plumbing in exterior walls, just like RR said above.

Solid advice.

Thanks all for quick responses. Got both sinks and Jacuzzi tub running , but with very slow run. It's not dripping, it's running very very slow but there is movement. Also plugged the Dryer vent from cold air coming in thru the wall. Wife is using hair dryer gently under jacuzzi tub right now.

My cold water line to my kitchen sink froze up yesterday (first time ever). Opened cold water side of faucet and put space heater under sink. Within 30 minutes, line thawed, water flowing and no evidence of leaks (got lucky).

Suggest you make sure all your faucet valves are open during the thawing process, open cabinets under sinks and doors on shower, get safe heat source at each non working locations cold water valves (no open flame type) and turn up the heat in your house for several hours. Best of luck to you.

then you probably don't have any burst pipes, let it run at a slow trickle thru the sink and tub, may put a space heater in the laundry since you can't really let it run.

A second house in our subdivision has busted something, house catty corner to us has ice all over the place. Feel sorry for them, the lady moved in over the summer

Why feel sorry?

Run all your fixtures with hot and cold water, It wasn't like this was a surprise record cold, or the one in Febraury 2021.

Unless your eledery then it's your own fault for frozen pipes in residential house, the news and all media outlets said to run your fixtures.

I got one of those POS touchless Moen faucets and you can't drip it. Needless to say it's going away ASAP!

Here are my thoughts after snowmageddon:

You need to trickle the hot water and the cold water. Dont trickle just the ones furthest from the main either. Pay particular attention to lines running along the outside wall.

Continue to trickle the faucets that havent frozen yet, they may be next.

I have been running two electric heater in my unfinished basement for the past two days. It’s 50 down there. Water has been running constantly. We have enjoyed minus 30 chill temps…all good thus far.

Cause it’s Christmas and she lives by herself and I guess I have some compassion. I realize frozen pipes are mostly avoidable if you take all the appropriate precautions, I did in 2021 but had one bust anyway

Master Bathroom. Cold water seems to be starting to run faster. However Hot water is slowly flowing but there is NO hot/warm water coming out. Water heating is working, hot water2nd bath and kitchen works fine. Just the furthest from the source. SO, if water is coming out of hot water faucet but cold, what is that indicating? If it was burst, there would be NO flow, will the hot water eventually start flowing? We are running those constantly now.

You ran your faucet on hot and cold and it freeze break? That is almost impossible

If it burst you would hear it and see water all over the place.

So well said!

well, add my trailer here at fork to the no water list.

wrapped, heat tape full length and cabinets open with electric radiator in front and still froze on me last night.

Have you tried to pea on it?

This, I drip all of them. And hot side will freeze first if you don't usually.

My problem seems to be all set now. Learned quite a few things about this ( New to me Home ). Thanks for all the assists ..

What do you guys do with the washer and dryer faucets? Anyone ever had them to freeze up?

not much you can do with them

Maybe try a Hair dryer, just hold the heat on it for a while. Ya got some pretty smart guys in here, I'm sure you'll get a better answer then a HAIR DRYER, but worth a shot.

What I did in February 2021 when it was stupid cold, I cut my hoses and let them drain into the stand pipe

Mine are on the outside wall on the north facing side.

Physics teacher taught me this way back in the day. It's one of those phenomenons that he explained like this, once water starts changing temps it can accelerate. If you can take the same two size containers, one with hot water tap and one with cold water tap, put em both in the freezer at the same time and the hot water one will freeze first.

hot is not as dense as cold, easier to freeze and yes it will freeze first.

Another option...get you a electric radiant heater (only an example) and pull out the washer a couple of feet. Set your radiant heater on low and aim it towards the wall that houses the plumbing. That way your warming up just that centralized location and not an entire room. The insulation is (should be) on the back side of the pipes, so you're keeping your side of the wall warmer than the cold side. The plug your washer uses is a 20 amp outlet, so it should easily handle that heater even on hi. The heater that is linked, has a 250 watt option (low) which should be more than enough warmth to keep that wall warm for most of our winter problems.

Here's what we did for the apt complexes I worked at. Works most of the time, until you lose electric...then your jacked.

Under sinks, a clamp on light fixture with a 75 or 100 watt incandescent (old school) light bulb. Close the doors to create a heat tent under the sinks. Some times we'd drip them as well, depending on how cold it was going to be. You can also use this in the laundry area, but it's not nearly as efficient.


We put the radiant heater in the vacant laundries because they sit on the floor and the heat rises up the wall, keeping everything toasty. Use caution, you can scorch your wall using to much heat! Just keep it from freezing is all you need.

In smaller bathrooms, we would put a small Electric Space Heater and close the door to create a hot room and leave the cabinet doors open so heat can get in there. This warms up the space to keep the entire plumbing system in the walls warmer than the freezing temps outside. It doesn't have to be HOT, just warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing. For the most part, our ideal temp was 56-60 degrees to combat the cold outside temps.

My old boss was an engineer who owned several apt complexes. When you're footing the bill for hundreds of empty units and trying to keep the pipes from bursting, you want to do it in the cheapest and most efficient way possible. This is the best we found. He would make us check temps through out the nights and adjust as needed according to their data. That was a bunch of BS, but for the most part, it kept everything from bursting. Winter storm Uri was a whole different beast. Hope this helps and remember it for the freezes to come. The only times this DIDN'T work, was when we lost power or the heater quit working. In my 12 yrs there, I lost 2 pipes in 2 bathrooms, because the heaters quit working.

good advice but this is as safe as you can get for heat, had mine on since thursday.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Heating...-Heaters/Oil-Filled/N-5yc1vZc8odZ1z0wayi

WOOOOOOOOT! water is back and no leaks, so far.

Hot water flowing in the master bath now? If so, good !!!!!

the motel has an elaborate septic system, pumps across 17 to a leach field, has a reverse p trap to prevent backflow and it has frozen up.

that could be a mess if it cracks and leaks.

The hot water line is in the attic to the washer. I disconnect the hose at the washer, run the hose into the washer and just let it drip in the washer. The cold water I drip a faucet that is on the same line but outside. Not sure if it is all washers, but ours will come on and pump the water from the drip when the water gets to a certain level. I unplug the washer so it won't pump as it won't shut off, just keeps on running. I plug it in every morning and pump it out and then unplug it.