Are Your Pipes Frozen?

You decide it is way too cold in snowy New York, so you decide to leave for the week and visit your aunt in sunny Florida. The week was great. You relaxed, sunbathed a bit, and forgot all your troubles. Well, trouble still awaits you back home, because you forgot to prevent your pipes from freezing. When you arrive home, you notice a buildup of ice on your pipes. Now what?

If you encounter frozen pipes, take the following steps immediately to thaw them out before they burst.
1. Open the faucet to allow the water to flow (no matter how slow). This will help the ice to melt on the pipes and inside.

2. Apply heat from a hair dryer or electric heat pad. Fan the hair dryer back and forth until the ice starts to melt or wrap the heating pad around the pipes and wait. Make sure that you do not use an open flame (butane torch) or too hot of heat to melt the ice as this may cause the water to boil and break the pipes.

3. If you cannot locate where the pipes are frozen, then call a licensed plumber for help.

Prevention is the best way to avoid frozen pipes, so before you leave, try one of two things, or both:
Turn the water faucet on to a slow stream which will allow water to pass through the pipes and prevent freezing. Or the more environmental way is to wrap the pipes with a foam sleeve, especially those pipes located along the exterior walls or outside.

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