Frozen water pipes

[Honkytonk]

pipe burst this morning, inch of water on kitchen floor. Homeserve said there was a 4 hour wait, and to ring in 4 hours if an engineer hadn't turned up. Rang after 4 hours and they hadn't even logged it. Told me no-one could get to my house until Friday - 4 days without water. What am I paying my emergency policy for??? Rang customer services to cancel my policy and they say they can reimburse a bill from another plumber - why didn't they tell me that this morning! Waiting for plumber to turn up now. Haven't had a drink or food or anything all day and it's freeezing. Won't be relying on Homeserve again.

[HarrietStar]

Think the pipes must have thawed (we left the heating on all last nigh and today) because we have hot water again. I won't be going away and leaving the heating off again! I assume there are no leaks or bursts as I'm assuming it'd be an obvious problem if there were.

[mc55]

after our boiler froze a couple of weeks ago, we're leaving our heating on 24/7 until temp is above zero. Not looking forward to the bill - will be beans on toast I think for a few weeks.

[sufc1968]

Hi,

Can anyone offer any advice!

After suffering a frozen main feed water pipe for the second

time, someone suggested using heat trace tape, after looking it up

on the Internet I'm now no clearer, is it easy to fit,has anyone used

this.

Thanks.

[Missdan]

We had frozen pipes in the garage yesterday, I have put an old table lamp with no shade on of course, near to the said pipes and will leave switched on till the weather warms up. all is well up to now fingers crossed.

[unuspromulti]

how on earth do they go on in Russia and Alaska? are their homes made differently?

 

Depends on where exactly but where there's permafrost the houses have to be insulated from the ground almost like stilts to ensure they dont melt the ground around their foundations. Built much differently yes, why we cant take some pages out of their book I've no idea!

[czechroman]

how on earth do they go on in Russia and Alaska? are their homes made differently?

 

Funny i thought the same, mind yesterday i tried the boiling water thing like ive seen in russia and canada where you throw it up and it makes snow, sadly this came down and made ice on the path:(

[steveh]

I'll start with the basics. Trace heating is an electrical way of generating heat to keep pipes, tanks etc warm. It's not very efficient but easier to install than any of the other options. The simplest kits are pre wired to a plug/transformer and simply connect in and run constantly. To install these it's simply a case of wrapping the tape around the pipe, covering it with a silver tape and then insulating the pipe and tape together. Without the insulation it does not work. There is basically a wire connected to the electricity which by drawing current generates heat.

 

Is your pipe insulated at the moment? Where does it run?

[jaffa1]

Nah...they just stay mucky for the winter and boil up snow when they need a cuppa

 

I shouldn't laugh but I am doing.

[andyrad29]

Funny i thought the same, mind yesterday i tried the boiling water thing like ive seen in russia and canada where you throw it up and it makes snow, sadly this came down and made ice on the path:(

 

funny you should say that, i noticed the plume of steam from my boiler the other night was actually forming light snow wich was falling to the ground as ice crystals!