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Freeze Miser

17,545 Views | 125 Replies | Last: 9 hrs ago by EliteElectric
Duck Blind
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Everything good here. 3 running.
Kenneth_2003
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Everything was going great for me in Spring... Until our water system management company apparently can't keep the water on to the neighborhood.
Ag83
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I have 2 (trying for first time) with temps below freezing since yesterday morning (down to 20F this morning). Both still dripping so good so far.
Tx-Ag2010
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All 4 of mine are still functioning, got a bit worried about one as it stopped dripping this morning but turns out the sunlight was enough to warm the hose to 42F even though ambient was 23F.

Best night of sleep I have ever gotten during a freeze.
Thunderstruck xx
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Kenneth_2003 said:

Everything was going great for me in Spring... Until our water system management company apparently can't keep the water on to the neighborhood.


Too many modes of catastrophic failure with the freeze miser. With these big freezes, the city water supplies get stressed from main breaks to where you'll either have very low water pressure or lose service. When that happens your freeze miser isn't doing jack. I still cover my outdoor faucets and won't trust the freeze miser.
combat wombat™
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Thunderstruck xx said:

Kenneth_2003 said:

Everything was going great for me in Spring... Until our water system management company apparently can't keep the water on to the neighborhood.


Too many modes of catastrophic failure with the freeze miser. With these big freezes, the city water supplies get stressed from main breaks to where you'll either have very low water pressure or lose service. When that happens your freeze miser isn't doing jack. I still cover my outdoor faucets and won't trust the freeze miser.


So do I. I have three frozen outdoor faucets this morning.
Kenneth_2003
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Thunderstruck xx said:

Kenneth_2003 said:

Everything was going great for me in Spring... Until our water system management company apparently can't keep the water on to the neighborhood.


Too many modes of catastrophic failure with the freeze miser. With these big freezes, the city water supplies get stressed from main breaks to where you'll either have very low water pressure or lose service. When that happens your freeze miser isn't doing jack. I still cover my outdoor faucets and won't trust the freeze miser.
My guess is it stayed open as my pressure dropped and effectively drained the line.
Muzzleblast
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Mine have worked brilliantly through this.
Freeze Miser states in their literature that you have 10psi available for them to work.
Duck Blind
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Gunny456
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One of my church friends has a ranch just north of us up here in MO. tried the misers during this event. This morning I am lending him pipe fittings and heat lamps as they have busted pipes. Do maybe they not work as well around low to zero and minus temps?
flashplayer
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claywakefield06 said:

Other than these couple of reports, everybody's working well through this? I have a set that I wasn't sure if I felt comfortable with the trial run being with temps in teens, so I just wrapped and created wind blocks for the hose bibs. May wait for when the low is upper 20s and risk is minimal…


Even on some of mine that worked, I was not impressed with the amount of water being wasted into giant blocks of ice - I had one that was probably flowing at around a third of a gallon per minute and making an absolute mess. Another was running a steady stream at about half that rate which is still excessive for the temps we were at around 20 degrees.

I am overall skeptical on these after this freeze event. They work well in some applications but not as a fix all solution and definitely something that needs to be checked regularly.
BrazosDog02
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Gunny456 said:

One of my church friends has a ranch just north of us up here in MO. tried the misers during this event. This morning I am lending him pipe fittings and heat lamps as they have busted pipes. Do maybe they not work as well around low to zero and minus temps?


Could be user error. While I cannot imagine having to live in temps like that, if I had to, I would be double and triple checking that bad boy along with maybe having some contingency plans in place to go with a home that was hopefully built for it. That's pretty chilly.


Gunny456
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The first year we had our place in MO I used 5 of them in our horse barn stalls. What a mess. I made an ice skating ring for my horses!
Now just use the double covers until it's getting into single digits or minus temps then turn on the heat lamps.
Gunny456
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Thanks.
I posted what we do and it has worked well. We put up with the cold and snow up here for a couple of weeks but it's nice never to see 90's till mid July and to have four true seasons instead of warm to hot as hell like we had at the Harper ranch.

Thanks for the good info as always. Stay warm sir.
SGrem
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Muzzleblast said:

Mine have worked brilliantly through this.
Freeze Miser states in their literature that you have 10psi available for them to work.



I notice you took off your splitter and put the freeze miser direct. I left the splitter on and put the FM on one side. Working great it seems. But wonder if I am skating an edge and doing it wrong?
Muzzleblast
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I took it off because the threads on the splitter were very shallow.
Not a good splitter
The Freeze Miser thread depth is minimal and tried to cross thread.
Worked fine when placed directly on the bib.
AggieT
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Were the busted pipes on the same section of the line as the Freeze Misers? They are great at keeping the particular valve they are attached to (and the associated pipe) from freezing, but other offshoots to rooms in the house (bathrooms, kitchen, etc.) that don't see the flow can still freeze. I still drip indoor faucets, especially on lines that go through an exterior wall.

Common issues/misconceptions I've seen in Houston:

- People only dripping the cold water because the hot water pipes are hot.
- Insulated faucets won't freeze.
- People setting their faucets to drip and then not checking them periodically.
BobCatDave
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My two have performed perfectly. Initial 56.5 hour run below freezing, with a low of 13, went beautifully. At the coldest, it was allowing a tiny stream to flow. Began a slow drip at 37 as advertised. I'm sold.
"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else." - Winston Churchill
bhanacik
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I was thinking of these this morning. What would your yard look like after an extended freeze? It seems that if you can't maintain keeping a bucket underneath to catch the water, the entire yard would be a frozen swamp.

I'm talking like below freezing for over a week
BrazosDog02
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I'll take a frozen swamp over a busted pipe any day. Mine are working perfect. They are direct on the bib. It protected everything from the tank, the water softener equipment, up filters, everything. I'm on a well so I have a pipe I can't protect but I used heat tape for it and the well kicked on occasionally because 4 bibs were dripping. Works like a champ. Mine had a heavy drip from 30 down. No gush but we only got down to the mid teens.
88Warrior
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bhanacik said:

I was thinking of these this morning. What would your yard look like after an extended freeze? It seems that if you can't maintain keeping a bucket underneath to catch the water, the entire yard would be a frozen swamp.

I'm talking like below freezing for over a week


We've been below freezing here in the Tulsa area since Friday night with lows in the mornings around 0 to slightly negative. I've got a nice little ice mound below the misers about the size of a large fire ant mound so nothing too terrible. I've kept a close watch on the Freeze Misers since the freeze event started and they've been dripping the whole time. This was my first time using them so I was nervous but they've done as advertised under some pretty harsh (for us) conditions..

Edit to say I just saw a graphic saying the Tulsa area has been below freezing for 129 consecutive hours as of 11:00 this morning…..This East Texas boy ain't use to that!!
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88Warrior
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Bregxit said:

88Warrior said:

bhanacik said:

I was thinking of these this morning. What would your yard look like after an extended freeze? It seems that if you can't maintain keeping a bucket underneath to catch the water, the entire yard would be a frozen swamp.

I'm talking like below freezing for over a week


We've been below freezing here in the Tulsa area since Friday night with lows in the mornings around 0 to slightly negative. I've got a nice little ice mound below the misers about the size of a large fire ant mound so nothing too terrible. I've kept a close watch on the Freeze Misers since the freeze event started and they've been dripping the whole time. This was my first time using them so I was nervous but they've done as advertised under some pretty harsh (for us) conditions..


Mine made what I called ice swords for my kids. No wind and the drips froze all the way up to the freeze miser. I had 3.5 foot long by 3 inch thick icicles from the ground up.


Yeah these Oklahoma winds kept the drips "disbursed" somewhat! LoL
3 Toed Pete
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bhanacik said:

I was thinking of these this morning. What would your yard look like after an extended freeze? It seems that if you can't maintain keeping a bucket underneath to catch the water, the entire yard would be a frozen swamp.

I'm talking like below freezing for over a week
My 3 worked great. The alternative is to drip and continually check that you haven't had a pressure drop requiring you to open the valve more. You get a lot more water on the ground with a drip. Or you could cut the water off to your house for a week. These really are great devices.
Texker
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I check on mine numerous times a day/night just because. All good!
bhanacik
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thanks for the replies guys! good to hear
DoitBest
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S

BosAG06
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All 3 of mine are working great. I purchased the fabric insulated bib covers off of Amazon, wrapped my bibs still and cut a hole in them just large enough for the freeze miser to poke through. That way I'm still getting some insulation. Mine never ran any faster than about a drip a second here in DFW. The only one I put a bucket under them is on the one on my patio, I'd say I've dumped maybe 6-7 gallons out since Sunday.

I did have one issue, one of my bibs developed a leak around the handle, once I tightened that back down everything was back to working, had I not noticed that I may have had a frozen pipe because the water was leaking out above the handle vs out the freeze miser.
RED AG 98
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Update: these worked like a champ with the backflow preventors removed and it appears they never actually even dripped, even with a low of 17F. The night prior, with similar temps, they had nearly filled a 17 gallon tote. Pulled the Freezer Miser off this morning just to confirm they hadn't frozen and the water was fine. I'm guessing that after living here nearly 20 years my vacuum breakers were played out but now I'm running commando, so to speak.
Duck Blind
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Thunderstruck xx
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Didn't use freeze misers and simply covered outdoor spigots with those styrofoam caps and kept the house warm. No issues with temps getting down to 13 degrees for 8 hours.
schwack schwack
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We checked all of our properties today and every one of them has worked perfectly so far. We were as low as 8-9 last night.
combat wombat™
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Thunderstruck xx said:

Didn't use freeze misers and simply covered outdoor spigots with those styrofoam caps and kept the house warm. No issues with temps getting down to 13 degrees for 8 hours.


So did I. Three faucets. Even insulated before covering. They still froze.

Once thawed, I used the Freeze Miser… they didn't freeze last night.
Thunderstruck xx
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So they froze but didn't get damaged?
 
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