Frozen low point drains - again

[sreigle]

Good idea on the babywipes.

Sue, I think Sharon explained it well for you.

Thanks everyone, gotta run to have lunch with friends.

[Montana_2180]

Well, Steve, I'm frozen again...

But this time there's no hot or cold in the kitchen, and no hot in the bath...so at least I know my heat tape is working upstream...

So I got under the trailer again after work tonight (yes...it was 20 degrees!)...and I put a strand of heat tape on the low points clear up to the bottom of the trailer where they go inside...then put the foam insulation around the whole thing...

Now I have the blow dryer going under the kitchen sink...but so far, no water...so I wait for the heat tape to warm up and hope between the tape and the blow dryer I will "overcome."

It's supposed to go down to 2 degrees tonight and up to a blazing 13 tomorrow before it drops to 2 again tomorrow night...

C'mon heat tape!

Chip

[Glenn and Lorraine]

All you folks with these frozen lines are making me shiver. Don't know why you don't all back up the TV to that 5er, hook 'er up and drag 'er down here to the Sunsine state. But I must warn ya's, the temp did a dive all the way down to 38F Monday morning. BBBRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[CountryGuy]

Steve and 3575Owner

Are you guys getting blasted by the snow too??? They are forecasting 5 to 12 inches for our area, then Christmas eve they are saying it will get down to 2 to 8 BELOW ! Gulp, makes my ole bones hurt just reading it.

I had hoped to keep the freezables for the 5er in the garage until we leave mid January, but, I suppose this means tomorrow I will have to cart it all down to the basement. Shoot! SIGH. IF, Christmas was not at my house, I would just carry it in and pile it all over the house, no such luck, gonna have to haul it downstairs, out of sight! Wonder if Al will consent to a electric heater for a night or so?? Probably not, the bill would be horrid.

Well, good luck you guys. Keep us posted.

[Montana_657]

Maybe not. A 1500 watt heater uses one and a half kilowatt hours per hour. If you pay 10cents a kilowatt that would cost 15 cents an hour to run...presumeing it runs flat out and doesn't cycle. If it runs 20 hours in 24 that would cost $3 a day plus tax to run.

10 days to New Years... that would cost $30.00. Might not be worth carrying that stuff up and down stairs. Especially if all you want to do is keep the frost out. You could run the heater at a lower setting and keep it all at 40F...refrigerator temperature.

[CountryGuy]

Thanks Gruffy!!

Maybe I just saved myself a lot of hauling??? It would only be for a couple of nights, as next week our daytime highs are forecast back to mid 30's to 40. We have a thermometer out there, keeping our eyes on it. So far, it did get down to 31 in the garage for a few hours one night, did not hurt anything. But, this 8 below is gonna put us down in the danger zone in that garage!

Thanks!

[Montana_2180]

Al,

we missed the snow...not sure if Steve got hit, but I don't think it struck out in western MO...gonna skirt just south of St Louis, but they say we may get 1-3 in...

It's the cold I'm worried about...especially after reading about Steve and getting low flow water after it sat for a few hours...even after the heat tape.

I'm hoping the fact I heat taped nearly all the plumbing in the belly and wrapped it all with foam insulators I will fare better...now that the low points are heated and wrapped up good...

Guess we'll see.

Was in MI (Grand Rapids and Detroit) this past weekend and it was freezing! Not gonna be much better here for the next few days...

Stay warm up there! Merry Christmas!

Chip

[CountryGuy]

Happy Holidays to you as well Chip,

Once Santa's had his ride, the chant will begin, BRING ON THE SPRING, as in WARM weather.

8 below is usually reserved for January in Detroit area. Brrrrrr

Carol

[Montana_657]

Yah know....there just has to be a better way to build a 5er.

All this freezeing up with temperatures more the 10 degrees above zero is just plain sad.

[Montana_31]

Our holding tanks are insulated and heated. The only thing that we have to worry about freezing up is the outside water source and the drain hose. So we close our holding tanks and dump when they are full and use heat tape for the outside spigot and if that still freezes we use our fresh water tank until the outside source thaws.

Of course all of that is a mute point because it's 70 right now in Florida.

[Just148]

Steve,
The heat tape is a good ideal but I would also use a heat lamp. Leave it on thoughout the nite.
Keep us posted.....Wishing you the best.

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

Well, my insulating the cold point drains didn't help. I wrapped them with roll fibreglass insulation, then the foam tubes, then another couple of layers of fibreglass followed by duct tape to hold it all in place. Dick, of RC and Samantha, told me at the rally that was not enough for Michigan but I thought maybe it would do for Kansas City.

Wrong. The low here in Independence last night was 10F with windchills around -4F. The outside temperature as I write this, about 2:30 p.m., is 17F.

We have cold water in the bathroom but not the kitchen. We do not have hot water anywhere. That points to the low point drains because on the 3295RK the city water inlet is at mid-coach, street side, across from the entry door and next to the bathroom. The low point drains are near the aft curb side, just forward of the water heater which is at the aft curb side corner. So I think the route for incoming water is to the bathroom first, then back to the kitchen and water heater with low point drains in the route. Thus we have cold water in the bathroom, fortunately. That means we can flush the toilet and can fill a pan to heat on the stove if needed.

I ripped off the insulation on the low point drains and put a hair dryer on them for 30 minutes. Still no water flow. This really froze up good.

I then ran to Tractor Supply and bought a 3-ft heat tape, wrapped it around the low point drains, insulated, taped, and plugged it in. It's supposed to generate enough heat to keep it from freezing but I don't know if it will heat things up enough to thaw out far enough back up into the belly. We can only hope.

If not, then tomorrow those lines should thaw out. High for today is forecast for 20 but looks like 17 is all we're going to get. Tonight's low is supposed to be 22 with highs tomorrow of 50 so I guess we have a warm front coming in. Hopefully they're right about that.

Just wanted to point out my insulation job didn't do it. We'll see if the heat tape does. Later this week they're forecasting overnight lows of 9, 5, and 6F on successive nights. Oh joy.

[sreigle]

No snow here. Hope it stays that way. We've had 10 inches of that white stuff since arriving here in late October. Don't want any more.

Chip, we're all frozen up, inside and out. We do have cold water in the bathroom so we can flush the toilet and brush our teeth in the sink but none downstairs and no hot water anywhere. I wrote another long post on this travail so won't repeate it here. At 3:30am and 5F we were fine, good water flow everywhere. At 630am and 3F, nada. We froze in the belly somewhere and also at the spigot outside between hose connection and where my heat tape ended. I thought just insulating that small area would be enough but no. Also have a five gallon bucket full of insulation over the spigot head (it's that kind you pull the handle up for water) but the part that seems to have frozen was peeking out. We'll rise above 32F sometime Saturday afternoon but won't be home so will have to deal with it Sunday. We also have sewer problems now. That's in the other post, too.