Last year we had a timber framed extension built with a washing machine and dishwasher at one end and a toilet & sink at the other. The water pipe to the washing machine and dishwasher goes through the middle of the external wall. No water is flowing to the machine, but it goes to the sink and toilet just fine so I'm assuming the pipe in the wall is frozen. To say I'm annoyed is putting it mildly because if it is frozen, the knobhead must have put the pipe on the outside of the insulation in the wall. Anyway, how can I defrost the pipe? I can get to the feed under the kitchen sink and can get to the end where the stop taps are. There's been a fan heater running in the utility for a couple of hours and it is now 18° in there. How do I get heat into the pipe?
If its on the outside of the insulation surely non of your heat will be getting to it? Best find yourself a laundrette until it melts!
I had this. I doubt that even if it was on the inside of the insulation it would stay thawed.
Our downstairs toilet is right next to the front door, extended from the front of the house. The pipes froze, so i ran the hot tap which heated the
cold as well inside the cavity. This worked well.
My parents cold water froze years ago, to thaw it we used it a part of a circuit to arc welder!
Using jump leads we connected the earth clamp to one end of the frozen pipe, then the other end of the pipe to a bit of scrap steel, after about a
minutes worth of welding the pipe thawed, then we kept the water running a while to clear the remaining ice.
If you've a mig set, and all else fails it may be worth a try.
[Edited on 19/12/10 by r1_pete]
I like the MIG idea just for the sheer lunacy of it. I have a MIG welder and I bet the idea will gnaw at me until I actually do it
hair drier
quote:
Originally posted by plantman
hair drier
Keep an eye on it when it thaws... For LEAKS, ie incase the freezing has split the pipe.
