frozen

[LCHIEN]

Yeah, I left this hose and sprayer out in the 20 degree weather last week and paid for it

[LCHIEN]

Reminds me of this valve froze in 2021.


Funny thing is its a ball valve... it didn't leak when it was full on and didn't leak when it was closed. But it sprayed all over when you were going from open to closed... I replaced it.

[leehljp]

In helping (assisting) some licensed carpenters and plumbers build a church in the past 5 years, I learned of freeze proof plumbing. It involves unique ways (plumbing fittings and parts) for draining water in the above ground piping back down to about 5 or 6 inches underground once the water is turned off at the faucet. I can't recall exactly how it works at the moment but the fixtures are readily available if one knows what to look for.

[Dedpedal]

Memories of childhood when we learned about pipes freezing. Now I have to make sure the the solar heater for the pool is drained if it dips into the 30s.
stay warm up there!

[dbhost]

That reminds me. I need to turn the radiator in the shop off.

[capncarl]

Why would you turn the radiator in a potential freezing are off? Water freezes when it is cool of off!
If the radiator is electric, it needs to be left on to protect water pipes from freezing. I a few cents worth of electricity spent on an electric heater will protect potentially hundreds of dollars of plumbing repair costs.

[LCHIEN]

Relax, it's in the 50s and 60s at dbhosts place in Houston this week, time for heaters to take a break

[dbhost]

capncarl it's been in the 50s to 70s. I keep the radiator on when it gets below 40 to keep everything from freezing, including my water inlet.

[twistsol]

Meanwhile in Minnesota, we are naming the county's two new snowplows. After the votes were counted, they are named "Plowabunga" and "Taylor Drift".

[capncarl]

For my well house, glass patio and utility room I have the heaters controlled by “hen house heater thermostats” that turn on a few degrees above 32.

[Jim Frye]

Last year, I had a freeze proof sillcock fail. Didn't know it until spring time when I went to use it. I attached the hose to it and when I turned it on, There was very little water flow. Now that sillcock is located in a crawl space, so I go in to look at the PEX plumbing and the length of the 12" long sillcock. The floor and the fiberglass insulation surrounding the crawl space walls was saturated with water spewing from the side of the freeze proof sillcock. The bracket holding the backend of the sillcock and attached PEX tubing had broken and allowed the backend of the sillcock to drop down just enough to prevent the thing from draining when it was shut off, thus freezing and bursting the wall of the sillcock. This was all inside the exterior wall of the crawl space. Took forever to get the crawl space dried out.

[LCHIEN]

was leaking for 3 months? wow.

[danielsk]

Been there, done that too. It's always frustrating to come back to unexpected surprises, especially when it involves ruined furniture. I had a similar mishap once when we forgot to store away our garden furniture before leaving for a trip. It was disheartening to see everything damaged upon our return. Thankfully, I reached out to x chair customer service for assistance, and they provided some valuable advice to salvage what we could. Despite their help, we still ended up needing to order some new pieces to replace the damaged ones

[Stile_ss]

Hey lads, spring has come with record-breaking temperatures so I say we forget about these kind of problems for at least another 9 months haha,
that also means that we learn from our mistakes and don't forget about leaving stuff outside to freezee and crack

[LCHIEN]

Already predicting a heat wave next week (April 15) that will tax the electric grid here in Texas with heavy A/C usage.

[leehljp]

I'm not looking forward to hot spring or hot summer. I have this house fairly well insulated and all LED lights, 3 year old higher efficient AC. Our Jan, Feb, Mar electric bills have all been well above $200. This is the first time we have had $200+ bills for two month in a row in the winter and we only had one week of solid freezing. That means our electric bill has jumped at least 30% since last year for the same wattage.

[LCHIEN]

Just got the March electric bill it was $75. for a story 5 BR house. I did figure out this year that my contracted electric cost is fixed at around 5 cents per kWh all year, the power transmission rate is not fixed and varies in the spring/ summer and winter. In the summer it goes up by about 50% driving my overall costs from about 9 cents to about 12 cents, a 30% increase in per kWh costs overall. So the power provider is a competitive market but the transmission provider is a monopoly even though its billed through the power provider.

[capncarl]

While we are talking about freezing/busting water pipe and equipment, I’ve have lost more metal lawn furniture and metal fence post that freeze and crack than water pipes! We had a round glass top table with a swirly oval aluminum frame that must have somehow gotten water in the legs when we pressure washed it. The legs froze, swole up and split on the bottoms, it rocked and almost walked around on its own.