How Do I Thaw Concealed Water Pipes?
Almost every winter, people deal with frozen or concealed pipes that prevent them from easily getting water out of their faucets. Thanks to construction techniques, people are now able to minimize the problems brought about by concealed water pipes, especially those placed in unheated areas. The best way to solve this problem is to thaw the pipes by warming the area of the ice plug. However, thawing water pipes can be quite a detailed process, especially for someone who is inexperienced in the field. Here’s how you can do the task quickly.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- Bath towel
- Hot water
- Hair dryer
- Small space heater
- Electric pipe heating tape
-
-
1
Check the entire body of the water pipe and see that there are no cracks. The moment water freezes, the ice expands which may cause the pipe to crack. In such cases, you would need to have the pipe repaired prior to thawing. In most cases, however, the pipe is not cracked and is just blocked by the ice.
-
2
Turn off the water running into the pipe. For most homes, you may need to shut off your main water supply from coming into your home. For more modern homes, you simply need to shut off the valves that are installed to allow you to isolate the concealed pipes.
-
3
Turn on the faucet that is connected to your concealed water pipe. This will allow you to minimize the pressure as you get rid of cold water inside your pipe. Allow the water or ice to flow out as soon as it is thawed.
-
4
Start thawing your pipe by wrapping it with a bath towel or cloth. Pour hot water over your towel to allow the warmth to go through the pipe and thaw the pipes.
-
5
Use your hair dryer to start blowing warm air onto the water pipe’s concealed section. Get your small space heater and place it next to the frozen pipe to fully melt the blockage in it. Leave the heater on for at least 1 hour.
-
6
Remove the heater and wrap your pipe with electric pipe heating tape to fully melt all the remaining ice. Allow the pipe to cool before turning your water supply back on.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
For severely frozen pipes that are not concealed, you may choose to use a blowtorch or a plumbing torch for thawing.
If using a blowtorch or plumbing torch, wear protective gear to protect yourself from getting burned.
Related Searches
References
- Photo Credit Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
Comments
-
luvmyehow
Aug 21, 2010
We had similar problems with frozen pipes inside walls with little to no hopes of reaching the pipe where the ice dam existed. The quickest and safest solution we found was using a redytemp optimizer. It's a small white box that we would temporarily connected a clients hot and cold undersink water supply hoses or other location on the property where we could tap into the homes hot and cold water lines. Once connected a pump inside the redytemp circulated hot water from the homes water heater throughout the homes hot and cold waterlines. Redytemp would circulate water from the hot water heater through the hot and cold water lines melting any frozen water inside and outside of the pipes. A temperature dial on the unit allowed us to choose a high temperature setting to quickly thaw the pipe or a low temperature setting to slowly melt any ice giving us more time to react and shutoff...
