Tong Family

Cold in Seattle. The sunrise was so stunningly beautiful, I almost passed out. Clear and crisp. Mt. Rainier was just shrouded. The one time I didn’t have my iPhone or Canon to take a picture. Beauty comes in the most unexpect places and times. Like when trying to fix frozen pipe in -5C weather. Just wish I could call everyone out to look to see that 2 minutes just before dawn comes.

What happens when a faucet freezes on the outside. Well, the pressure buildup can burst the pipe behind it. It’s not the ice that is the problem, it is the back pressure according to http://www.weather.com/activities/homeandgarden/home/hometips/severeweather/pipefreeze_prevent.html

So if you have a faucet outside and don’t have insulation at it, open it a little and let the water drip. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=Repair/RepBrkPipes.html recommends opening a faucet that is still working to relieve the pressure and wrapping rags around the pipe and pouring hot water over the rags. You don’t want to heat things too much, just thaw it gently. Or if there is no shock hazard, you can use a hair dryer. Be gentle you don’t want the pipe to heat too quickly or the water to turn to steam.