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I am so confused. We shut off our water at the meter completely because of a deep freeze. Drained the water downstairs in the kitchen till no more came out.
In the morning, we had a decent flow from the same faucet (pressure decreasing because water is off and then stopped flowing.) Electric meter showed zero flow from when we shut it off to when we turned it back on. Where the heck is this water coming from? We have a water softener. This defeats the purpose of shutting off water to prevent burst pipes.
I am from a city that was the 2nd coldest in the world (-44) on Xmas Day and the first was a village in Russia. No not Iceland or Green land or Siberia. Canada! No surprise there.
What you need is an electric heat tape aka heat trace to spiral wrap around the stack and exposed pipe. Wrap it as close to the meter as possible. Insulate the meter by wrapping the Hell of it with fibreglass insulation as close as you can to the point where the underground pipe attaches to the meter. If that freezes and cracks you are in big trouble. Immediately call your city water department if that happens. Shut the water off at the main if you can or just wait for City to arrive.
If your sink faucets won't run, pour boiling water into the drain and hold some in the sink with the stopper in. Keep the cupboard doors under all sinks open to let warm ambient air to get in. Better yet a space heater in front of the doors. I used to have a space heater blowing on my pipes. Run the taps full blast a few times a day for minute and before bed if you are 10F or less. Another trick is to partially fill the tub with hot "bath" water and let it sit. Any pipes running underneath tub and the ambient around it will be warm enough.
Don't leave your tap dripping. The Pipe will freeze from inner-wall layered ice build up. A tap has to have water moving at a faster pace that just dripping under Polar conditions.
I have never heard of shutting off water to prevent burst pipes. You are supposed to leave a faucet dripping. I grew up in a cold climate.
It depends on where you live and how unusually cold it gets. Remember even waterfalls freeze when cold enough. There are probably many people in Texas that wished they had turned off their water at the meter when they had that big unusual freeze last winter causing burst pipes in many homes.
I am from a city that was the 2nd coldest in the world (-44) on Xmas Day and the first was a village in Russia. No not Iceland or Green land or Siberia. Canada! No surprise there.
What you need is an electric heat tape aka heat trace to spiral wrap around the stack and exposed pipe. Wrap it as close to the meter as possible. Insulate the meter by wrapping the Hell of it with fibreglass insulation as close as you can to the point where the underground pipe attaches to the meter. If that freezes and cracks you are in big trouble. Immediately call your city water department if that happens. Shut the water off at the main if you can or just wait for City to arrive.
If your sink faucets won't run, pour boiling water into the drain and hold some in the sink with the stopper in. Keep the cupboard doors under all sinks open to let warm ambient air to get in. Better yet a space heater in front of the doors. I used to have a space heater blowing on my pipes. Run the taps full blast a few times a day for minute and before bed if you are 10F or less. Another trick is to partially fill the tub with hot "bath" water and let it sit. Any pipes running underneath tub and the ambient around it will be warm enough.
Don't leave your tap dripping. The Pipe will freeze from inner-wall layered ice build up. A tap has to have water moving at a faster pace that just dripping under Polar conditions.
Good luck.
Great advice but in a power outage due to bad weather, much of this isn't going to work.
I am so confused. We shut off our water at the meter completely because of a deep freeze. Drained the water downstairs in the kitchen till no more came out.
In the morning, we had a decent flow from the same faucet (pressure decreasing because water is off and then stopped flowing.) Electric meter showed zero flow from when we shut it off to when we turned it back on. Where the heck is this water coming from? We have a water softener. This defeats the purpose of shutting off water to prevent burst pipes.
What about upstairs? Assuming there are upstairs fixtures, the water wouldn't have quickly drained from the pipes leading to them unless the upstairs faucets were opened. Overnight the water from upstairs probably drained down to prime the downstairs fixtures.
Im not sure of your strategy for draining, sounds like you were just asking why you had some flow the next day after draining. .. Not only open a drain at the lowest spot in the house but also open pretty much every faucet in higher spots. Even open shower controls. If you did not open those higher faucets, Im not surprised that you drained more water the next day. I mentioned the shower because in a cabin that I left unheated over the winter, I did a good job of draining the house but forgot the shower and water remaining in the pipe up to the shower head burst.. not fun as it was inside the wall. Even after doing all of this, you can still have water pool in a pipe with a "low spot" and burst.
You have to open the lowest point in your system. Typically in the basement, or an outside faucet if you are on a slab. Then you also have to open some or all of the higher level fixtures so you do not create a vacuum. We then take a shop vac and connect it to the lowest fixture and suck out anything that is left.
It's not easy to totally and completely drain the pipes, as there may be some sags or low spots. Opening a valve at the lowest point and a few other valves to let air in may drain most, or almost all, of the water.
Shutoff valves sometimes leak, especially if rarely used.
Draining most or all of the water may prevent damage if the remainder does freeze. Or maybe not. Probably it will depend on where the residual water is located and what the sequence of freezing is.
If you know where the cold places are, a space heater or heating tape can be a good solution.
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