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Old 02-17-2006, 01:45 PM   #1
pep1977
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Help, I froze up

anyone out there know a good way to un freeze a frozen city water line. at this poing it seems to be frozen from the inlet to somewhere. i am not getting water to the sink or farther. i have water to the inlet but that is it. the temp here last night was around 15 with a 30-40 MPH wind, so windchill was ugly. lost power somewhere in the middle of the night and had to work today, so wad not able to get anywhere on it. the temp never did make it past 29 today, and the temp tonight is supposed to be around 9, so i am not in a good spot, thanks
 
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Old 02-17-2006, 02:46 PM   #2
CountryGuy
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Not sure I am with ya on this, but, can you unhook the hose at all?? If so, take into the bathtub/shower and let it thaw. I am guessing not, so what comes to mind next is heat tape. And, hair dryers can thaw out some small areas, but, I doubt it would work in the temps and in the amount of freeze I am fearing you might have. Steve R. has had quite a bit of experience with freezing temps, you might try emailing him from his profile.

Good luck, hope it warms up soon for ya.
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Old 02-17-2006, 03:04 PM   #3
pep1977
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thanks for the input, i have running water to the trailer, just doesn't seem like it is flowing in the trailer itself. have tried at this point everything i can think of, and am starting to come up with nothing.
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Old 02-17-2006, 03:26 PM   #4
Trailer Trash 2
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I carry 2 hoses with me just in case that happens ( just once ) I DISCONECT THE FROZEN ONE, AND PUT ON THE one that was in storage, and let the other one defrost in the rig as AL posted.



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Old 02-17-2006, 03:27 PM   #5
kwbosch
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Steven,

One thing I forgot to tell you was to make sure your water heater is on propane instead of electric. That will generate some extra heat in that area. Hopefully Steve Reigle will be along to commiserate and lend some support. I think he’s the resident cold weather expert.

Ken
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Old 02-17-2006, 04:17 PM   #6
pep1977
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UPDATE...finally got water. turned up the thermostat to full blast, and turned the water heater to run propane and after several hours of this it finally started flowing. thank you all for the suggestions, and for the helpful knowledge.
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Old 02-17-2006, 04:30 PM   #7
rlwhit
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We were just in Spokane, Wa. last night. 3 Degrees this AM. Ran the heater all night and never did get up to temp. Your right no H2O. The "Artic package" had been working up till than. Of course we were staying in the rig. Came west today, 40 degrees and when I got home could not find any damage to plumbing. Between the fresh water tank and the under sink plumbing it froze. No problem from there forward.
You will find a posting later on our whole 5500 mile search for sunshine.
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Old 02-17-2006, 04:55 PM   #8
sreigle
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Pep1977, I got your PM but apparently too late to help you. Below is what I put in that PM. If you can tell us some things about your Montana maybe we can help you avoid further freezeups. For example, what year is it? Does it have low point drains in the basement storage area or under the belly? If in the basement storage area, they'll be near the door. There will be two lines close together with drain valves. If not in the basement then you'll see them hanging under the belly. There would be a single line that is the drain for the fresh water tank and two lines together that are the low point drains. They all have caps or valves to drain them. If below the belly, these are the first thing to freeze.

The furnace ducts into the belly and provides plenty of heat to keep things from freezing in the belly. We've been down to 8 degrees F without freezing anything. I think we could get lower than that without freezing. We had other times we froze up this winter but that was through my screwup. Anyhow, you need to make sure the furnace runs enough to keep heat in the belly. It does not have to run continously. If you have it set on 55 to 60 or above you'll be fine. When below 27 degrees or so for more than four hours, do not run electric heaters where they can keep the thermostat from triggering the furnace or the furnace won't run enough (one of my screwups this winter).

You did the right thing cranking the furnace and getting this thawed out. If it happens again you might take a hairdryer to the low point drains first, assuming those drains are outside.

I'm glad to hear you're out of the woods. Now let's see if we can keep you from getting in those woods again.
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Old 02-18-2006, 07:11 AM   #9
pep1977
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Again, thanks to all that have helped me on this little problem, is not very fun having not water. since we got everything completely ready for winter now, i think we will do alright. thanks for the input.
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Old 02-19-2006, 08:56 AM   #10
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Sorry to hear about your "freeze" problem. I always use a "heat Strip" for the outside hose. In my storage compartments, where the water lines are exposed, I have wrapped them with black foam insulation obtainable at Lowe's. So far no problems as I came all the way across country about a month ago with my lowest temps in Grants, NM where it was 18* the morning I left for Needles, CA.
The idea of the furnace on propane is certainly a good idea, although I used 2 electric heaters at night with my furnace thermostat set around 60* as a back-up.
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Old 02-20-2006, 08:22 AM   #11
Montana_5036
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Spokane was fun this last week. Our unit is set up in a park in Spokane and its held up real well. The only problem we had was my fault - the city water line is wrapped in heat tape, but I ran out of tape at about 6 inches from the inlet. It foze there one night but thawed out by that evening. We were able to run water from our tanks till it thawed out. So far we have been very impressed with the 3000RK's cold weather performance. I only whish that the furnace was more efficent - we burn a lot of propane on those cold nighes.
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Old 02-20-2006, 09:24 AM   #12
Charlie
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You might want to check the furnace outlet where it ties into the main floor duct. Seems like there has been some problems with a separation allowing most of the heat going into the basement instead of the coach.
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Old 02-20-2006, 09:52 AM   #13
VanMan
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I'm too late to help you on this, but last year I had a "freeze-up" similar to yours - water inside but not to all points. It turned out the low point drains had frozen and pushed ice up into the horizontal lines which blocked the flow to everything past them. We had water on one side of the TT but not on the other. Now I point a floodlight right at the wrapped up drains.
Someone on "the other forums" made a box out of a styrofoam icechest with a light fixture in it - a little overkill for Texas !!
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Old 02-20-2006, 04:16 PM   #14
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We were at our hunting lease over the past weekend in the Texas hill country.The temperature was in the twenty's all day. We had water in the kitchen area but none in the shower and lavatory area. The two low point drains were the problem, not the drain from the fresh water tank. I had replaced all low point drains some time ago with small brass boiler drain faucets and did not expect them to freeze.
I remembered Steve Reigle's post from last year and used the hair dryer to thaw them out. It took about 15 minutes.
Thanks Steve!

Weldon
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Old 02-21-2006, 09:32 AM   #15
sreigle
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Our low point drains are heat taped. That solved that problem.

Back in December our neighbor did not use a heat taped hose. He just filled his water tank as needed. One day he connected to the park's water bib. No water. I watched while the park manager thawed out that metal pipe. He told me it's almost always frozen just at and below where the pipe goes into the ground. He dug out a couple of inches and heated it with a propane torch until the water flowed again. This is for reference in case this happens to anyone else. I had heat taped ours and didn't have that problem. The temperatures at the time had been in the single digits (F) for several days.
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