Do it Yourself: Re: [DIY] faucet running water logic?

09 January 2014

Re: [DIY] faucet running water logic?

The big chill is over for a time here (Pennslvania). It got REALLY cold - but today it's "warm." (25 F) I heard to leave the doors open by the sink cabinet underneath so the pipes wouldn't freeze. I opted to leave the faucet drip. I just got one of those new-fangled faucets with one lever for both cold and hot. I got concerned because the cold water just stopped running, everything came out hot, hot and hotter. I figured maybe the cold water line was frozen. But I kept the lowest turn to cold water I could get the handle with a slight drip. After about two hours I noticed a surge in the water and it was streaming out, not going by drips. My cold water is back, I figure if it WAS getting frozen and not running it thawed out somehow. And today all is well.

But I am nervous about the next freeze, especially as we'll be away for at least a month. Uh oh, now what do I do about going away for a month? I could ask a neighbor or friend to stop by on those cold, cold days. Maybe I will do that.

On Wednesday, January 8, 2014 8:17 AM, Aki <01dyna@gmail.com> wrote:

when I was stationed in Misawa Japan many years ago when I was in the Navy, we lived off-base and pipes freezing during the winter was a common occurrence. What I learned was that *every* faucet should be allowed to drip. All of the pipes need to have movement or they'll freeze. It doesn't have to have a steady stream, just a constant drip. What I did was tie a shoelace to the faucet that ran down to the drain and then I just barely left the faucet open to allow a drip every couple of seconds. The shoelace (or string) allowed the water to flow down the string so that we wouldn't hear a constant drip which could be really annoying at night.

Doing that kept all of the pipes from freezing up and after we did that, we never had a problem with freezing pipes. Misawa's temps routinely went below zero in the winter and you learned fast how to survive in the cold...especially when winter ran 9 months out of the year.

-aki

On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 7:56 AM, John and Carmen Stuart <johnandcarmen@bellsouth.net> wrote:

I also have a logic question that I'm not sure about.
In a trailer with 2 bathrooms at either end, and the hot water heater positioned by the master bedroom, (kitchen in the trailer middle) if only one faucet was to be left with a small stream to keep

the pipes from freezing, which of the three faucets make the most sense to appropriately open for the deep-freeze?
carmen

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On Jan 8, 2014, at 1:00 AM, <cleanboost2@yahoo.com> wrote:

We live in a trailer. OK, it's worse than freezing, but we're warm. I never had to think about these things, but I wonder about the water pipes freezing. I left the water tap very slightly dripping by the kitchen sink, the cold water. I have a couple of questions: is it the cold water that should be open? I mean slightly running? We've had zero degrees thereabouts.