Thaw It Youself: 2 Tips to Thaw Your Frozen Pipes

Posted by tedd clifton on July 30th, 2019

When the cold season comes, and the temperature drops to freezing point, your house, specially your pipes are the most vulnerable. This happens when water solidifies and expands until your pipes burst since they couldn’t resist the pressure.  

Pipes that are located outside of your homes are typically the ones that are at risks of pipe burst. Other than that, pipes that are located on your garage, attic or anywhere with a very low temperature is also at risk. Having the proper heating mechanism is vital in keeping your pipes safe during this critical time.

It's very simple to recognize the indications of a solidified pipe, so you can have it checked or fixed right away. Just look for the following signs: If there is an unusual smell originating from the faucet or drain, there is a high chance of a frozen pipe. Next, check your pipes if there’s water leaving the pipes. And lastly, look if there are visible frost on your pipe.

Also, since solidified pipes result from frosty cold temperatures, you can pretty much a sure that this kind of plumbing glitches will likely worsen once the dropping temperature continuous.  

Beside water wastage and conceivable flooding in your home, another significant inconvenience that this pipe burst can cause you is rather costly. Since you must completely change your pipes. Except if you have them fixed; they can make more harm your property.

Safe Thawing Techniques to Practice

Without a doubt, you would prefer not to spend on pipe fixes when you can do some safety measures directly there and afterward.

When you identify a solidified pipe around your property, you should defrost it immediately to keep it from blasting. The defrosting systems you'll utilize will rely upon where the solidified pipe is found.

1. if the pipes are uncovered…

Defrost the pipe with direct warmth utilizing a hair dryer or any convenient tool for warming. If any of these are not available, an infrared light might be used. Using a cookie sheet will also help if the pipe is excessively near the wall. Just put the cookie sheet behind the pipe to help spread the warmth.

Start at the faucet then gently move it towards the solidified area. Through this technique, the melted water flows as the ice dissolves.

2. If the solidified pipe is situated inside a wall or roof

Fixing a solidified pipe that is covered is a lot of work at the same time feasible.

To find which pipe is frozen, check which faucet isn't working. As you search for the solidified pipe, you could leave all faucet half open to help in your defrosting effort. The same applies to the blocked faucet, you could also leave them open to decrease pressure on the pipes.

When you discover the area of the solidified pipe, you could remove a segment of the wall or roof to start a similar defrosting process for uncovered pipes.

It's smarter to utilize an infrared light rather than a normal heat lamp since it's equipped for transferring more heat to warm the wall and defrost the pipe without overheating the wall’s materials.

On the other hand, you could also use your heater. You can turn it on so the ice melts. If the solidified pipe is inside the wall of your restroom or on the base cupboard of your kitchen sink, you should keep the cupboard door open, so the heat reaches the walls.

Anticipating Frozen Pipes

Solidified pipes can present major issues to your home, so doing preventive measures like consistent assessment and support from your nearby plumber can go far. Expert and master pipes administrations can help guarantee that you will never need to manage the issue of solidified or burst pipes.