[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by worahm

I agree. Talk about overreach... A couple of hours of below freezing temperatures is not going to cause bursting hoses. Cover your temperature sensitive plants and go on with your life....

It's not a couple of hours. Forecast for Lady Lake is 32° and below from 1AM til 9AM tomorrow morning. That's 8 hours of freezing or below temperatures.

Even if it takes 2-3 hours for an uninsulated laundry shed to get as cold inside as it is outside, that still means over 5 hours of below-freezing. That's enough to freeze a 2-litre bottle of water. And that means it's enough to freeze pipes.


My question to the ones who say to trickle the water - I really have never heard of this, and I'm in a manufactured home. It's well insulated INSIDE - including the windows themselves which have been replaced with Andersen double-hung double-panes. The laundry shed, as I said previously, is only partially insulated. There's no attic, but the AC and heat ductwork runs above the ceiling - not in the floor like the older model double-wides. The hot water heater is accessed through a panel outside the house, not inside it. It is not insulated at all.

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

It's not a couple of hours. Forecast for Lady Lake is 32° and below from 1AM til 9AM tomorrow morning. That's 8 hours of freezing or below temperatures.

Even if it takes 2-3 hours for an uninsulated laundry shed to get as cold inside as it is outside, that still means over 5 hours of below-freezing. That's enough to freeze a 2-litre bottle of water. And that means it's enough to freeze pipes.


My question to the ones who say to trickle the water - I really have never heard of this, and I'm in a manufactured home. It's well insulated INSIDE - including the windows themselves which have been replaced with Andersen double-hung double-panes. The laundry shed, as I said previously, is only partially insulated. There's no attic, but the AC and heat ductwork runs above the ceiling - not in the floor like the older model double-wides. The hot water heater is accessed through a panel outside the house, not inside it. It is not insulated at all.

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!

If you are going to trickle, you need to trickle a faucet that will allow water to flow through the pipes that you don't want to freeze. The outside hose bibbs are dead ends, so trickling an inside faucet will not prevent them from freezing. The water heater most likely does not have a dead end pipe. The AC unit does not have a water pipe running to it. The only water near the AC unit is the condensate drain pipe, which is an open drain that would probably not burst even if it froze.

[rustyp]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!

Easy solution. SOP (standard operating procedure) - go to the bathroom and flush several times tonight. Use the bathroom farthest away from where the main enters the house (near the main shutoff valve). Then the new water in the pipes will need to get to the freezing point again. For you boys this maybe a good justification to selling the old gal you need to have a few extra brews today.

[Miboater]

I still think this is much worry about nothing. I've been here in Michigan since the 20th and it's never got close to 32 degrees since I've been here. No special precautions besides having the furnace set to 71 degrees. If your house or manufactured home is unheated then you may need to worry a little bit but even then to get the inside of your house below freezing will take a while. I have my Villages house wifi thermostat heat set to kick on at 60 degrees and when I checked this morning it was 64 degrees this morning inside at 8am.

[EdFNJ]

Originally Posted by Miboater

I have my Villages house wifi thermostat heat set to kick on at 60 degrees and when I checked this morning it was 64 degrees this morning inside at 8am.

But temps never even went below 38 last night. Tonight it is most likely to go below 30. Last weeks one night below 30 killed off a whole bunch of plantings in our new landscaping. Some varieties may come back but many are obviously DOA. My poor orange tree is about to have it's first real "crop" since we planted it just under 5yrs ago. Tried to cover it but the cover won't stay on. Probably will have some frozen OJ by tomorrow.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

It's not a couple of hours. Forecast for Lady Lake is 32° and below from 1AM til 9AM tomorrow morning. That's 8 hours of freezing or below temperatures.

Even if it takes 2-3 hours for an uninsulated laundry shed to get as cold inside as it is outside, that still means over 5 hours of below-freezing. That's enough to freeze a 2-litre bottle of water. And that means it's enough to freeze pipes.


My question to the ones who say to trickle the water - I really have never heard of this, and I'm in a manufactured home. It's well insulated INSIDE - including the windows themselves which have been replaced with Andersen double-hung double-panes. The laundry shed, as I said previously, is only partially insulated. There's no attic, but the AC and heat ductwork runs above the ceiling - not in the floor like the older model double-wides. The hot water heater is accessed through a panel outside the house, not inside it. It is not insulated at all.

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!

Could be interesting how the tankless hot water heaters installed south of 44 plumbed on the exterior walls hold up...

Running water will take longer to freeze than still water. A pencil thin stream from outside hose bibs and faucets (hot and cold) on exterior walls is cheap insurance.

If a pipe should become frozen, then there are two reasons for keeping an inside faucet open. First, it will allow for the freezing water to expand without bursting the pipe and second, as the water in the pipe thaws, it will temporarily have a higher water pressure since the remaining ice will be restricting its flow. This higher pressure could damage other parts of the plumbing system if there is no where for it to flow.

Don't know what to do with commodes with water lines on exterior walls other than flush them occasionally.

[rustyp]

[QUOTE=Robbie0723;2054930]

If a pipe should become frozen, then there are two reasons for keeping an inside faucet open. First, it will allow for the freezing water to expand without bursting the pipe and second, as the water in the pipe thaws, it will temporarily have a higher water pressure since the remaining ice will be restricting its flow. This higher pressure could damage other parts of the plumbing system if there is no where for it to flow.


/// Actually the expansion of ice will cause the same volume of water to be trapped in less space (water does not compress) and that will cause the the burst. Anyway same results.

[Miboater]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

But temps never even went below 38 last night. Tonight it is most likely to go below 30. Last weeks one night below 30 killed off a whole bunch of plantings in our new landscaping. Some varieties may come back but many are obviously DOA. My poor orange tree is about to have it's first real "crop" since we planted it just under 5yrs ago. Tried to cover it but the cover won't stay on. Probably will have some frozen OJ by tomorrow.

I'm not worried about my pipes freezing but I am really worried about my new landscaping. It made it through last weeks freeze ok said my neighbor but this one may be a different story. Keeping my fingers crossed!