Goose83 said:

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As king of the stupid (and repetitive) questions here on Texags, I have yet another to drive everyone nuts with (one which I had referred to briefly earlier).

Earlier today, I suspected a bib spigot may been exposed to freezing weather when the faucet cover came loose over night. So, I decided to give it a check by running it for a few seconds (it ran just fine).

Now I'm curious - Did I screw up? That faucet hasn't turned at least two years, but here I go running it in freezing temperatures and filled an empty spigot full of water. Is the amount of water remaining in the pipe after running it for a few seconds going to be enough to cause any potential problems during the freezing conditions we are experiencing (and yet to experience)? Since I hadn't planned on dripping it, I promptly shut it off, and reinstalled the faucet cover. As before, guess I was worried that I might now have a bib spigot full of water just waiting to freeze and burst later tonight when temps hit single digits. Or will what remains in the pipes just simply drain out into the faucet cover?

Sorry to keep on with the (increasingly) stupid questions, but it's my Mother's house, and I don't want to screw anything up for her (as she has enough to worry about as is). And here I thought 2021 was going to be a less stressful year.

Life certainly sucks at times like these when you're a non-science major.

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Odds are pretty good the water was already in the pipe, you turning it on did no harm.

In general the faucet covers are mainly to help hold in heat that might be escaping from the house. I have used them out around the yard and they have had little to no effect in an extended freeze. It sounds like you are doing everything you can. It's all going to depend on how low the temp gets and for how long.

TChaney said:

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Odds are pretty good the water was already in the pipe, you turning it on did no harm.

In general the faucet covers are mainly to help hold in heat that might be escaping from the house. I have used them out around the yard and they have had little to no effect in an extended freeze. It sounds like you are doing everything you can. It's all going to depend on how low the temp gets and for how long.

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Thanks. Yeah, we're keeping our fingers crossed. We made it through the last hard freeze okay a few years ago when it got down to mid-twenties (with a drop into the mid-teens) for several days without any problems, but then again, one never knows when one's luck might run out.

Thought about just opening up the spigots and letting them run, but my luck everyone else in the neighborhood would do the same, and voila, there goes the pressure in the mains.

It does seems the Weather Channel is moderating their numbers a bit though, although I don't know how much of a difference only going to 9 is instead of going to 4 degrees.

As an old grease plant hand., nothing in my experience bests running water to keep water lines open. Think about it. A refinery worth >$2billion uses flowing water to prevent freezing infrastructures.

Bonfire97 said:

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Ok, so this thread made me go do some experiments. I bought 3 of the nicer hard shell covers at HD Wednesday before they sold out. Took an inside/outside thermometer to see what sort of temp delta these were maintaining. After letting it sit for 2hrs, it was maintaining a 4 degree delta (28.4 outside ambient and 32.2 under the cover). That ain't going to fly with single digit lows. Experimenting with some other things now.

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Finally...science! I think that makes me happy I'm doing the drip method.

Just to verify.
I covered mine with Styrofoam covers. Pulled one off this morning to check.
Frozen.

Same thing and I put a hand warmer in it last night to add heat.

laavispa said:

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As an old grease plant hand., nothing in my experience bests running water to keep water lines open. Think about it. A refinery worth >$2billion uses flowing water to prevent freezing infrastructures.

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Are you saying to keep the outside faucets uncovered and running a steady stream through it?

Good testimony on the drip.

Anyone else have testimony?

I put an old towel around the faucet and then the styrofoam over that and did not drip on all four of mine. We'll see what happens. I have a feeling plumbers are going to have a busy week coming up.

In addition, the one that wasn't dripping (and is frozen) is on the most interior of all my walls my exterior walls (sits in a corner rather than a flat wall or jutting out at the end of the garage). It's on the patio, so it has more slab between it's pipes and the cold than the other 3. In addition, it ties in near a bath tub that i dripped all night. The one that isn't covered and another one are on the garage, so their interior isn't really an interior but they're fine. I'll never do anything but drip.

For those with frozen hose bibs, will will try to thaw it out? If so, how?

I increased the drip from the tub to hopefully halt any additional freezing. If I'm feeling froggy and the baby is cooperative, I may go out with a heat gun later. If I can get out flowing, I'll let it drip from now on. If the baby has her way then for better or worse, mother nature will thaw it for me.

2 years ago I believe, we had 15 deg here in CS for many hours. My bathroom faucets wouldn't flow so I went outside to the hose bibb that was opposite those, uncovered it (was frozen), hit it with a hair drier until it started dripping and then pretty good flow. Went back in and got the bathroom faucets to start working also. When everything thawed out, no damage. This time I ran a small stream inside all night and no problems at all (so far).

Haven't opened up mine yet (not sure I want to), but we've kept all the indoor faucets running continuously (and at a at decent flow, not a drip), and they're all still running normally. Don't know what that means, or if it's even a positive sign.

Then again, a couple of years ago when we had the extended period below freezing that lasted two to three days (even got into the teens), we had no problems. Then again, for all I know they could have all frozen up, and we just got lucky when there was no damage when they thawed out.

That said, I wanted to run the outdoor spigots, but my Mother adamantly refused, and as it's her house, I (reluctantly) relented. Keeping my fingers crossed when all is said and done, everything will be okay. So far, I'm seeing no overt signs of freeze damage, but I'm assuming that that will not manifest itself until after everything thaws.

Pool has frozen over (need to check the skimmer and see if the sealed bottle of anti-freeze did it's job). Good thing I had drained and pulled the plugs on the pump and filter, as there would have been hell to pay after we lost the power for amount of time that we did.

Of course, making this all the more confusing is the fact that we have a hybrid pipe system, as this was an older house with conventional copper piping, but due to issues with corrosion in the foundation, they were cutoff at the main junction, and pex was run through the attic to reconnect everything. Therefore, running the faucets overnight might not have even the slightest effect on the old copper piping running to the spigots.

I will probably get out the heat gun soon. Have to cut up some firewood anyway.

legalbird said:

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For those with frozen hose bibs, will will try to thaw it out? If so, how?

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Yeah, I was wondering if we tried to turn them on, or thaw them out, if that could cause any additional damage (because if I were to do that, and the pipes were already damaged, I'd get blamed for causing it, and not the fact that my Mother refused to let me drip the spigots overnight).

We dripped all interior faucets and showers overnight. We have under cabinets open as well. All hot water knobs work, however some of the cold knobs work and some don't.

EvenPar said:

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We dripped all interior faucets and showers overnight. We have under cabinets open as well. All hot water knobs work, however some of the cold knobs work and some don't.

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So far all our faucets, both hot and cold are working, and able to run at full volume.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

With one water heater our hot doesn't work with no water (must have a frozen pipe somewhere) and cold works. Other side of the house hot and cold work. Should have dripped both hot and cold faucets. Hope tomorrow it warms up a bit.

Posted on outdoor but thought would post here also


Have a Rinnai tankless water heater
Located in garage

I heard it beeping and on the digital temp screen it was flashing an " 11"

Turned it off for now..

Any other suggestions what should do?

All faucets work, but our shower drain is frozen....

kevmiller said:

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Posted on outdoor but thought would post here also


Have a Rinnai tankless water heater
Located in garage

I heard it beeping and on the digital temp screen it was flashing an " 11"

Turned it off for now..

Any other suggestions what should do?

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I believe you can continue to run water through it while it is off to keep it from getting damaged.

Kevmiller's problem makes me rethink my planned conversion to a tankless mounted outside. I guess we do get cold here after all. Meanwhile our 1990 copper-in-slab has no hot water on one end of the house and a frozen kitchen sink against an apparently poorly insulted wall.

kevmiller said:

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Posted on outdoor but thought would post here also


Have a Rinnai tankless water heater
Located in garage

I heard it beeping and on the digital temp screen it was flashing an " 11"

Turned it off for now..

Any other suggestions what should do?

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So looked up and code 11 is no Ignition or no gas supply.

We have gas, gas stove ignites and works fine .... would cold effect the ignition on the water heater?

Go outside.
Slide up the metal panel.
Look inside.
Don't touch anything inside.
Make sure no water is dripping.

My outside hose bibs were frozen. I thawed and rewrapped them with additional insulation.

So, if we're dripping all our faucets, and they are all working (except one that hasn't worked in years), even if the spigots do freeze, is there a chance the pipes might escape damage?

Also, not knowing what I'm doing, if the spigots are frozen (as I assume they are), would it be better to let them go and let Nature take care of it, or take a chance on possibly making things worse by trying to thaw them myself?

How did you un-freeze the spigots outside?

Goose83 said:

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So we have:

Styrofoam covers
Styrofoam covers with towels or tee shirts placed inside, or wrapped around the outside.
Styrofoam covers with water dripping.
Dripping.
Pool noodles.
Towels and tee shirts wrapped around the pipes with several layers of plastic wrapping.

Clear as mud. Thinking about trying to drip with the styrofoam covers on (need to figure out how to make that work though).

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The particular method really doesn't matter much. What you want to do is cover the faucet with anything.

The metal faucet is conducting cold into the wall where the water is. The pipe is conducting heat from insode your home to where the faucet is. One of these will win. If you cover the metal faucet up, you reduce the amount of cold that the metal faucet can conduct, therfor giving the heat inside your home a better chance at keeping the water from freezing.


Just go cover your faucets and be done with it.

I used a hair dryer on two of them. One I wrapped in a towel and slowly poured hot water over the towel several times. Heat the valve first so you can open it and relieve the pressure as soon as it's thawed.

Sweet Kitten Feet said:

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I used a hair dryer on two of them. One I wrapped in a towel and slowly poured hot water over the towel several times. Heat the valve first so you can open it and relieve the pressure as soon as it's thawed.

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Try not to force any faucets, The rubber gaskets may start to leak. The deep cold will not last more than a day or two. It may be prudent to allow the outside faucet to thaw.

FYI running water will freeze (if it is cold enough and/or the flow rate is too low).

Right. Heat the valve up first until you can turn it. Don't force it. I thawed mine in order to rewrap them better for tonight.

I also just unfrozen two outside faucets at my parent's house in Nantucket by using a hairdryer for about 10 minutes per faucet. I've now left them running.

Just unwrapped on my outside spigots.. was frozen.

I thawed it out enough to turn the knob.. nothing comes through the line.

So am I screwed?

What should I do at this point ?