Waaa - frozen pipes

[KathyLauren]

It was cold last night, down to -8 C. Our well plumbing was not designed for that much cold, so this morning, there was a dribble from the taps and then nothing. I had to go out before breakfast and put portable heaters on the pipes in the most likely locations for them to freeze. Hopefully, by lunchtime, they will be thawed with no damage and I can restart the pump. If not, it's going to be a long few days until the weather warms up.

[KathyLauren]

Update.
Whew, that could have been nasty. The heat worked and there was no damage. I'm going to leave a tap dripping until the weather warms up.

[Millymollymandy]

I know the feeling, we have some pipework that goes off into mysterious cold places and have regular problems with the kitchen and downstairs bathroom cold taps freezing up. We have to remember to keep running them and sometimes get up in the night to do so otherwise we might be a week without being able to either use the dishwasher or wash up! Also have another one serving a shower room on 2nd floor which is dodgy too. Winter is such a pain!

[TheGoodEarth]

Have you thought about insulating them? Pipe insulation is very cheap, I think I paid about 60p a metre recently

[Millymollymandy]

Impossible for us because they go off into mysterious places! Short of knocking down walls and dismantling part of the roof it would be a bit hard to lag them.

[KathyLauren]

Have you thought about insulating them? Pipe insulation is very cheap, I think I paid about 60p a metre recently

They need more than insulation.

The pipe that froze is the one from the well to the pumphouse. It would normally be well underground, but it is exposed in two places. One is at the wellhead, where for some reason, the drilling contractor 20 years ago didn't drive the casing deep enough, so the pitless adapter is 2 feet above ground instead of 2 feet below ground. The other place is in the foundation of the pumphouse, where the pipe comes up into the building. The pumphouse is heated, but the foundation is open and cold air can get under the floor. There is insulation in both places, but no source of heat.

What I need is electrical heating tape on the exposed pipes. It's on my shopping list for this week.

[Millymollymandy]

What is electrical heating tape?

[KathyLauren]

What is electrical heating tape?

It is an electrical heating wire made for warming pipes. You attach it to the pipe and cover it with insulation. When plugged in, it keeps the pipe warm.

[Millymollymandy]

I've never heard of that! Is it OK if it rains on it? And doesn't it turn your cold water warm? Now if I could only access my hidden pipes......

[KathyLauren]

I've never heard of that! Is it OK if it rains on it? And doesn't it turn your cold water warm? Now if I could only access my hidden pipes......

The wires are insulated, and with some pipe insulation over them, I would think that a bit of rain wouldn't be a problem. You could always wrap the whole thing in plastic, I suppose.

The good ones are thermostatically controlled. I would expect the thermostat to be set for only a few degrees above freezing. There's no point in applying more heat than that. Water at +4C is pretty cold, but safe to have in the pipes. Heat tape that is not thermostatically controlled is a fire hazard, so you wouldn't want it anyway.