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Preventing Frozen Pipes (and What To Do If They Freeze)

Icicles hanging from a brown pipe. Frozen water and metal surface, winter time concept. selective focus shallow depth of field. frozen pipes

As winter comes on, find out how to keep your pipes from freezing and how to thaw them if needed!

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Igorwheeler/Shutterstock

How to prevent and thaw frozen pipes

Catherine Boeckmann
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Frozen pipes are one of the most distressing problems a homeowner can encounter, especially during the frigid winter months. Here’s how to prevent pipes from freezing and how to thaw frozen pipes.

Freezing can create leaks as the frozen water expands and cracks the copper tubing. When this happens, not only will you have little to no water supply, but when the pipes do thaw out, you can have some severe leaks to repair—or worse. 

How to Prevent Pipes from Freezing

Prevention is key! Here are 10 tips:

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  1. Keep all water-supply piping away from outside walls, where it could be exposed to cold winter weather.
  2. If it is imperative to have pipes located on an outside wall, they must be well-insulated. Piping insulation is sold in both rubber and fiberglass.
  3. Insulate pipes in all other unheated areas as well, such as crawl spaces, basement, attic, and garage. Fix the source of any drafts (such as near cables, dryer vents, bathroom fan vents, and windows) and insulate pipes at risk.
  4. Before winter, close the water shut-off valve inside your home that provides water to outside spigots, and then drain each line by opening its spigot until it no longer drips. Close the spigot.
  5. Keep garage doors and outside doors closed, and plug up drafts.
  6. Open all faucets, both hot and cold water, to just a trickle, to keep water moving in the pipes to help to prevent icing.
  7. Set the thermostat to at least 55ºF (13°C) both day and night—no lower. Higher is even better, especially if your home is not well-insulated.
  8. Keep doors to all rooms open to allow heat to flow to all areas, which helps to warm the pipes in the walls.
  9. Open the cabinets under the kitchen and bathroom sinks so that the warmer air temperature of each room can flow around the plumbing. (Be sure to keep cleaners and other hazardous chemicals away from children and pets.)
  10. Check your local forecast to see if you’ll be having subfreezing temperatures sometime soon.

When Pipes Freeze: How to Thaw Frozen Pipes

If worst comes to worst and your pipes do freeze, here’s what to do:

  1. If no water comes out of a faucet or it comes out slowly, suspect a frozen pipe. Check all faucets in the house to determine if the situation is widespread. If it is, open all faucets, turn off the main water to the house, and call a plumber.
  2. If only one pipe is frozen, turn on the appropriate faucet to help get the water moving in the pipe once it thaws. Locate your nearest water shut-off valve to the break. Don’t turn the water off at this point, unless you find that the pipe has actually burst.
  3. Try the hair dryer trick. Locate the area where the pipe has frozen. Then, starting at the faucet and working backward along the pipeline until you reach the frozen section, work the dryer up and down the pipe. Continue warming the pipe until full water pressure returns to the open faucet. Then, reduce the faucet flow to a trickle until the cold snap has ended. Caution: When using a hair dryer, be sure that it and its cord will not be near any water that might start to flow through a crack in a burst pipe.
  4. If water starts to gush out of the pipe while you are warming it, unplug the hair dryer and close the nearest water shut-off valve immediately. Keep the faucet open. Call a plumber to fix the burst pipe.
  5. If you can not reach a frozen pipe to warm it, call a plumber and shut off the water supply to the pipe. Keep the faucet open.

Get more tips for surviving winter weather, like keeping heating costs low in winter, winter weather terms, and keeping warm in the winter.

Have your pipes frozen before? Tell us about it below! We want to hear your tips and tricks for managing and preventing frozen pipes.

Home Improvement
About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
 

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Comments

Gary Ronan (not verified)

3 years 10 months ago

A few year's ago we had a polar vortex in Minnesota. There was very little snow cover during this time and my well head is 40 feet away from my home. Somewhere in that 40 feet my well pipe froze. I had no water from Mid January to the last of April and as I had no water my septic drain field also froze up.
Luckily, my health insurance provider pays for a membership to the Y.M.C.A. so I could go there every few day's to shower. The local 24/7 convenience store saw me quite a bit during that 3 month period!!

A ROCKWELL (not verified)

3 years 10 months ago

Buy Salt in bulk; at supermarket or homedepot; takes about 3 cups salt to clear a frozen pipe~

Tara Cook (not verified)

1 year 11 months ago

If I put salt in my pipes will it unfreeze them

A ROCKWELL (not verified)

3 years 10 months ago

If your bathtub drain or sink drain is frozen; fill the bathtub or sink with water; Add Salt; mix the salt with the water; in a few hours the Salt will melt the ice in the bathtub or sink drain; when my windows would freeze shut; I put salt on the runners to unfreeze them); (+ a hair-dryer);;

Steve Pond (not verified)

5 years 11 months ago

a few winters back we experienced a warm thaw that melted the snow removing any insulating properties, than days of sub zero temperatures. My house is built on ledge so the pipe from the well is not buried at the proper depth. as luck would have it, we lost our power for a few days also, resulting in a frozen well pipe buried in the ground. A large Salamander heater, 10 gallons of kerosene and a sheet of metal roofing to reflect the heat down to the ground along the top of the pipe finally worked to thaw the pipe allowing water to flow back to the house. Since that day when cold weather is approaching i purchase several bales of straw to place a 12 inch thick, 3 foot wide cover along the top of the ground above the pipe,from well to house, it solved the problem

Rononpi (not verified)

5 years 12 months ago

Move to southern Florida. The temperature has not dropped below 40 at my house in many years. :-)

Lorian Bartle (not verified)

6 years 8 months ago

This is one area where two wrongs make a right: a poorly maintained house with leaky faucets may never have its pipes freeze while a well maintained house where nothing leaks can easily experience a burst pipe.

Lorian Bartle

Liz (not verified)

6 years 10 months ago

Still in the reno phase on my home, both my incoming water and outgoing waste pipes were frozen. Disaster. But, our pipes were old and small and need to be brought up to code anyway. Luckily, it was all under ground , but not deep enough. 1. we had pitcock valves installed on our outside spigots. 2. dribble water instead of shutting off water. 3. run space heater in areas where needed. 4. also put antifreeze into toilet tanks and sinks to reduce suseptabilty of freezing.

Linda (not verified)

6 years 11 months ago

I had expeienced frozen tap lines before..however recently the drain pipes under toilet & shower were frozen creating a mess in bathtub as well.We purchased a moblie home over a year ago.What should we do to prevent this from happening again?