Come to my house. I’ll have beer.
Come to my house. I’ll have beer.
This popped up in the Hot-Link thread, but I think it's appropriate to the topic of discussion here:
Cooter said:In reply to APEowner :
Most drains lead straight down heading under the ground fairly quickly, so they aren't very likely to freeze, unless the ambient temp in your area under your sink is below 32° F (in which case your P-trap would freeze anyway, as it is normally filled with water to form a seal to keep sewer gases from entering your home.)
There aren't large runs of water sitting in one place when you run the tap, and, since the water is moving, in both the supply plumbing, and the return, it will stay warmer, thus making the drain less likely to freeze. The drain is also many sizes larger than your supply plumbing.
In the unlikely event of a drain backing up do to freezing, it is still far preferable to your pressurized water supply pipes bursting, due to amount of damage, and cost and difficultly to fix.
I know how drains work. I posted the warning because I've seen it happen a half a dozen times. In one case I knew about it because I was the one replacing the sink cabinet, flooring and sub-floor in the kitchen after it happened. I also moved the supply lines from inside the exterior wall into the cabinet so they didn't need to run the water to keep them from freezing.
Drain lines are often not well protected from the cold because they're normally empty and as you point out when they do have water in them it's fast moving. If you run a steady trickle of water through them then ice can slowly build up. It's not a common problem but it is a possibility that people should be aware of.
Local headline: Forsyth schools closing campuses at 6 p.m. as rain, freezing weather moves into Triad; temperature dropping to 21 degrees tonight
Tomorrow the high is 40F. They will probably keep schools closed or do a delay. I feel sorry for you guys with the real cold weather.
In reply to ProDarwin :
They just cancelled preschool tomorrow and Thursday here.
Almost seems warm compared to what some of you people who live further north are going to see. Why do you live there?
RevRico said:Almost seems warm compared to what some of you people who live further north are going to see. Why do you live there?
I ask myself that every day between November and March.
They close schools down here when the temps get into the low 20s. The problem being, kids don't own clothes to deal with the cold and about half the busses won't start. I leave the outside faucet dripping at anything below 20.
I have experienced -20 once in my life. I was working on a automatic forklift door in a warehouse freezer. I was dressed for a South Carolina winter, meaning a insulated shirt. No coat, no gloves, no hat. The set temp on the freezer was -20 so I figure the evaporator coil was blowing -40 or colder air on the back of my neck. I could only manage about 10 minutes at a time inside the freezer before I would have to go outside and warm up. That is by far the coldest I have ever been in my life. I like cold weather and all, but y'all can keep that crap.
Good luck to my northern brothers. Stay warm.
Opening the cabinets and setting your thermostat to 70 should be just fine.
If you want to go the next step you can drip your faucets. If you want to go even further you can dump in a little RV antifreeze in the drains, or salt if you wanted but i really doubt youll need to go that far.
We hit -20f 2 years ago. I started up my 00 explorer with its 8 year old battery and ended up having to drive 2 hours that day. Got a check engine light for low temp. My torque app said my coolant temp was 58 degrees....after 2 hours of driving and sitting in traffic. My explorer has always ran cold, but thats a new low lol
What boggles my mind is how people survived this kinda thing even 200 years ago. Lots of clothes, fires, and many people simply didn't survive but holy moly.
I've done some pretty extreme winter camping but that's nice cuz you get to go home after a day or two. haha.
I DO NOT miss northwest Pennsylvania. Lowest ive seen since moving south is -2. Fahrenheit. For about an hour.
We did -20s plus wind chill for days at a time up there. With a woodstove and fuel oil heater. That was the late 80s. It sucked. Hard.
Dad used to throw a kerosene heater in the wellhouse, and a few more in the barn. We still lost livestock and water, but it was the best we could do.
Haven't thought about it in years. Do. Not. Want.
Make sure your wife knows how to shut off the main water supply. If a pipe freezes, breaks, and then thaws you are going to want the water turned off quickly.
A friend of mine who spent some time in Alaska had this story to relate: He left for work at 6:am and forgot to close the garage door of his heated garage. His neighbor saw this at 8:am when he left for work, walked over, and closed the garage door. Good neighbor?
My friend got home from work that evening and water was running out from under the garage door and made the driveway into an ice skating ring.
Turned out that two hours of an open garage door froze and burst the pipes on that side of the house. 6 hours of a heated garage thawed them out again. First floor was flooded from all the broken pipes.
It's cold for sure. But I've been in worse. When I was a kid in Idaho, the lows would get to -30 at least once or twice a year. And we would be playing hockey at -20F. In a partially outdoor rink.
Work out hard enough to not be totally frozen, but your feet suffered and my hair froze to my helmet. Still survived.
Any my brother spend 8 years in Fairbanks. I called once for Christmas from the Caribbean, and his kids were outside playing, as the weather warmed up to -20F.
As for my home- in the late 90's, it was this cold, or really close to it, and one pipe froze enough to block, but not break. The wall behind that pipe is a LOT better insulated now. So much that the record cold that I just saw on TV over the 2000's have not been an issue.
Schools here are now officially closed for both Weds and Thurs due to expect low temps.
For just a few days I wouldn't do anymore than just open the cabinets below the sink and turn the heat up for a little bit.
Sustained negative temps is when things (especially mechanical things) are unhappy.
Funny story, at a gas station in Glennallen, Alaska I saw freeze plugs get pushed out of a Honda Element that was parked there over night. If your coolant isn't strong or less than at least 50/50, put some concentrate in it. Use a block heater if you have one less than 0F.
The upstairs bath in my house has a stupid layout with the tub and toilet on an outside wall which is sort of cantilevered out over the 1st floor (garrison, I think?)
I put some of the orange washer fluid in the drain, aim a space heater at the toilet. I think when we had our record -17 or whatever I did something to crack the valve open enough to keep the water running.
I also created a hilbilly engine compartment heater out of a trouble light and moving blanket for my son's truck. Total of $17.27 playing the coupon game at harbor freight.
In reply to alfadriver :
Eh, bring it on mother nature.
Do a walk around inside w/ a IR temp gun shooting doors, windows, basement etc for cold spots and drafts. Think you're all sealed up? Maybe, maybe not.
The IR temp gun is one of the best tools in the toolbox this time of year.
2014 we had -10 with -45 windchills and my house did ok but I plan too run a slow drip on the faucet when I go to sleep tonight. Our pipes do run from a basement into an insulated wall though
In reply to ShawnG :
i'm also from the era that I walked through 6 feet of snow to get to school. Up hill. Both ways. In July. 
Plug in your cars and wear long underwear.
There are plenty of jobs down here. Why the berkeley would you voluntarily deal with -50??????
Dusterbd13-michael said:There are plenty of jobs down here. Why the berkeley would you voluntarily deal with -50??????
Our Canadian neighbors cheat when it comes to cold numbers since they use "metric" thermometers :)
In reply to californiamilleghia :
You're right, the -50°C I posted actually translates to -58°F 
-50 is a lie, anyway. The windchill while at a normal walking pace at -40 is probably worse than -50.
The only place that windchill really counts is at the intersection of Portage and Main.
(That's a joke for the locals.)
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