Thawing Frozen Pipe
Frozen Pipe , what is this? The winter is almost here and, soon enough snow will begin to fall throughout North America and several other parts of the globe. Why is this important? Well, it is during this time of the year that millions of homes and businesses alike suffer from a common problem known as frozen plumbing pipes which is cause due to poor pipe insulation or simply for being exposed to the cold. This problem is more common than many people realize but most of us never worry about it, at least, not until it happens to us. Why should you worry about pipe freezing in your home plumbing system and prevent it from getting frozen during the winter? Plumbing services are very expensive and, if you don’t do anything to prevent, you will spend a lot of money with plumbing repair of leaking pipes.
Results of Frozen Pipes:
Frozen pipe is not a fun problem to have in your home; it is costly to repair it which is not even including the possibility of additional damages to the home that might cause tremendous amount of money.
If you have never had such a problem, consider yourself a luck one, however, don’t you get complacent, and do everything to prevent it from ever happening to you. Some experts would say that, frozen plumbing pipes should not be considered a calamity, however, let’s assume that your home main water supply line is frozen and your home is left without water, would you consider this a calamity? Now, let’s assume that your home main sewer drain pipe has an exposed section to the cold weather and freezes up during a cold night. Would you consider this a calamity? I know that I would. It is known that a person can live many days without food but not without water, so if you main water supply line is frozen, you won’t have water in the whole house. If the main sewer pipe is frozen, you won’t be able flush anything in the whole house, so, either situation is bad enough because you can’t live in your home with either one of these problems. Frozen pipe can result in pipe bursting, pipe bursting cause water leakage which leads to flood. How and why that happens? As the water freezes inside the pipes, the ice expands causing pipes to burst and, as the water meltdown, begins to leak, which will cause damage and, if it is not caught soon enough, can result in flood. Thawing Frozen Pipes
How to unfreeze frozen pipe? This is a task that I would not recommend anyone to do it by him or herself. Why? I have heard of people trying to thaw frozen pipes with all sorts of tools, and one of the most common used and yet, one of the most dangerous is known as blow torch. Even though, I don’t recommend the use of torch to be used by anyone, if do so, make sure to have water at your disposal, protect the areas around the pipe to prevent fire. Another danger from the use of a torch arises when both ends of a pipe are clogged with ice and when the heat is applied in the center. The application of the heat of the torch at the center of the pipe is likely to cause the water to flash into steam potentially causing an explosion with disastrous results for the user of the torch. It is far better to adopt the slower and more conservative procedure of melting ice by the use of a blow dryer, or heat gun. But if you really want to have the job done right and safely, you should contract a professional company to do the job. Professional companies have a much more effective equipment to get the job done, the equipment is known as hot box.
What Is A Hotbox? How Does It Work?
Hot box is a technology that works with the use of electricity; the equipment has some similarities of car battery. The box comes with two long jump cable, one cable is connected in one side of the box and the other cable connected in the other site. How does it work? Firstly, let me say that, the hotbox will was made to work mainly with water lines and, in order to work, the water line must be made of some kind of metal, such as: galvanized and copper metal, otherwise, the system won’t work. Once the jump cables are connected in each side of the hotbox, one end of one cable will be connected by the meter on the property side and, the end of the other cable will be connected by the house, normally in hose bib, just before going inside, sometimes it might have to go inside. Once all cable are connected, it is time to plug the hotbox power cord into the electrical plug at the house, then, turn the box on and wait. The box will send an electrical currency between point A and B, this electrical exchange causes a reaction in the ice which causes it to melt. The process might take a couple of minutes if done correctly, or might take several hours and, it might cost from $120 to $150 per hour with a minimum charge of one hour.
Preventing Frozen Pipes
How to prevent frozen pipe from freezing? Prior to the cold and freezing weather arrives, check all the garden hoses outside to make sure that they are disconnected. If you don’t do that, chances are that the hose and the hose bib will freeze and be damaged during the winter. Also, if your home has a history of internal frozen pipes and fixtures, make sure they are properly insulated ahead of time, have them all protected from the cold weather. Any water pipes which are exposed to freezing temperatures should be covered with insulation. Also, make sure to drain systems that are unused during the winter. If you have plumbing in the garage areas, keep the garage door always closed and, make sure to properly insulate the plumbing system located in there. The cold weather can freeze water lines in minutes. Finally, pipes located in cold basements should also be insulated with a commercial covering and underground pipes should be laid below the frost line which usually is 3feet deep or more, this will prevent pipes from freezing.
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