Thawing Frozen Pipes Safely

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When you have frozen pipes, thawing is done in order to prevent pipe repair. When you have to repair your pipes this means that you have burst pipes, which require repair that costs a lot.

Things to do to Avoid Frozen Pipes

Before winter sets in, here are some things you can do to avoid frozen pipes:

  • Wrapping pipes especially those outside with heat cables or heat tape. If you have a skirted mobile home you are advised to still use this type of insulation. Ensure that the products you are using are approved by organizations like the underwriters laboratories; Inc. it’s important to check if the wrappings are for interior or exterior before using them.
  • Insulate pipes that are in your attic and crawl space, even though it’s uncommon to have freezing temperatures. This is because; you can protect your pipes by the insulation you use.
  • Having cold water trickle down your sink near an outside wall helps, helps to prevent your pipes from freezing.

 

In case your pipes do become frozen do not use; open flame, blowtorch or propane heater to thaw them. Having one pipe frozen is an indication that several pipes are also frozen; turn on cold water and not hot water. This is because a trickle of cold water helps to thaw pipes although it takes time.

A trickle of water thaws pipes for the water is above freezing, thus able to break down the frozen water. There are instances where when you turn on the faucets there is no water coming out. Therefore, locate the area where they are frozen. This can be difficult to locateFrozen Pipes as a result contact a plumber; this will help you to avoid applying heat at the wrong pipes.

 

To prevent frozen pipes repair, you need to thaw your pipes. You can do this by using a blow dryer.  Turn on the cold water faucet while thawing. Thawing can take few minutes to hours this is dependent on how frozen your pipes are.

It’s important to have someone in the house who informs you how the water is flowing. Thus they can tell you when; water is flowing freely out of the pipes so that you can stop heating them.