How to thaw a frozen water pipe: an overview of 5 effective ways to solve the problem

How to warm up a frozen water pipe: 4 effective ways

When the outside temperature drops below normal, and you notice that the plumbing is frozen, do not rush to buy new pipes. There are proven ways to help you deal with this problem.

Using hot water

If you find or are 100% sure that the section of your water supply is frozen in an “open” place where you can use boiling water to heat the pipe, then use boiling water. Before that, take a rag and wrap the pipe around. It will take all the water and increase the time of interaction of boiling water with the pipe. Pour hot water until the ice is completely melted. To speed up the process, you can turn on the faucet.

The method is good for rooms. If your underground non-freezing pipeline is frozen, then boiling water will obviously not help here. You will have to heat the pipe in this way for more than 10 hours so that the ice can thaw.

Use a building hair dryer

With the help of hot air from a building hair dryer, the ice can be easily melted. The owners of such hair dryers recommend hanging a plastic film over the heating pipe. So heat loss will decrease significantly, which will allow the hair dryer to work most efficiently. You can also use a hair dryer along with a steam generator.

To do this, use a welding machine. To warm the pipe in this way, you need to connect one wire (plus) to one end of the pipe, and the second (minus) to the second end. In just a couple of minutes, the ice will melt. The principle of operation of this method is similar to a boiler. The advantage of using electric current is that only water is heated. The transformer wires remain cold. This will prevent the plastic pipe from melting with the water. The disadvantage of the method is that a transformer is needed.

Find specialists

You can not suffer on your own, but simply call professionals. They will have special means for warming ice. For example, a hydrodynamic installation.She washes not only water pipes, but also sewer pipes. The installation supplies hot water under powerful pressure, from which the ice gradually melts. With high pressure, the ice in the pipe disappears very quickly.

Which way to choose is up to you. Consider your ability and ability to thaw pipes yourself without incident. And if you doubt that you can do everything right, it is better to call a specialist.

The main methods of heating pipes with water underground

Warming communications with a fire

Polyethylene pipes for water are able to withstand freezing, which is why they are so popular when laying the street (external) part of the water supply. And yet, the water in them is capable of turning into ice at fairly sub-zero temperatures, especially if there is no high-quality insulation on the line. You can overcome the problem, unfreeze communication. It will take enough time, but if the master acts carefully, the HDPE pipe material will remain intact.

Bonfire

The simplest method of heating water pipes in the ground. It is good if the owner of the house has identified an area of ​​ice formation. In this case, you can try to remove the top layer of soil with a crowbar and a shovel. Firewood is laid at the supposed point of ice and a fire is lit. You need to burn the fire for at least 2 hours. This should be done during the day in order to have, albeit weak, but the support of the winter sun. Smoldering coals can be covered with slate sheets to keep the heat as much as possible. The bonfire blazing before this should warm up the soil and the pipeline.

Hot water

This method works if the water is frozen at the exit from the well. Hot water, used gradually, helps well. A rag is wound on the frozen section of the line and water is started to be poured over it.First, the temperature of the liquid should be up to 15 degrees. With every third liter, it is gradually increased, bringing it to 70 degrees. Gradually, the ice in the pipe will begin to thaw and open access to running water.

Use of hot water and pump

A hose, a large barrel and a household pump will come in handy. Defrost is carried out according to the following scheme:

• Hot water is poured into a large tank and maintained at a constant temperature. You can use a large boiler for this, a blowtorch, a fire built under the container, a pressure cooker or a simple kettle.
• They take a hose, the cross section of which should be less than the diameter of the water pipe, and introduce it into the main from the side of the water supply source. The flexible tube should rest against the ice plug.
• The second end is put on the pump and lowered into the barrel. The faucet in the house must be open.
• When the equipment is turned on, the unit will supply hot water to the pipeline. Together with it, you need to push the cable deeper, as the ice thaws.
• Periodically, it is worth turning off the unit and letting the water drain through the hole available in the pipe.

When the cork is completely defrosted, water will drain from the tap. After that, you can reassemble the water supply unit at the source.

Brine

Rapa is used to neutralize ice in pipes. To do this, you need to prepare a strong solution. Water and salt are mixed in the proportion of 3 tablespoons per 1 liter of water. It is desirable that the liquid be at room temperature.

To complete the work you will need:

• Esmarch's irrigator;
• hydraulic level;
• hardened steel wire.

You need to do the following:

• The hydraulic level tube and steel wire are connected along the length. A fold can be made at the end to provide greater rigidity to the flexible structure.In this case, the edge of the hose should protrude slightly beyond the bend of the wire.
• The second end of the tube is joined to Esmarch's mug.
• The hose is gradually introduced into the plastic / polypropylene / metal water supply system until it stops at the stopper.
• Esmarch's mug is filled with brine and lifted up. The brine flows into the line and gradually defrosts / corrodes the ice. Water must be constantly added to the enema.

Steam Generator Application

Heating pipes with steam

In this case, the sequence of actions will be as follows:

• Water is poured into the steam generator tank and a hose with a small cross section (smaller than the diameter of the water pipe) is connected to it.
• The second end of the flexible tube is inserted into the line until it stops.
• A bucket is placed under the open faucet of the system to collect melt water, which will drain when steam begins to act on the ice.
• The steam generator is turned on and hot air is fed into the tube.

Complete defrosting of a cork 10 cm thick takes up to 5-10 minutes. Periodically, you need to pause so that the inner wall of the communication can withstand the generated voltage.

If you don’t want to mess with the system in this way, you can dig out the frozen section of the line and warm it up with a building hair dryer or welding machine.

Tips for thawing frozen drains

In order to defrost the sewer, you can also use steam - here it will be easier. There is another interesting way, but it will take a significant amount of time. It is necessary to make a steep salt solution in boiling water, which is poured into the sewer. Salt is known to promote melting. The only problem is that in this way you can achieve results both in a couple of hours and in a couple of days.

Sewer pipes can freeze too.

The best option would be to use a steamer and a hose, as with plumbing.

If the pipes are filled with water: using electricity

In order to use this method, you must purchase a special heating cable designed specifically for such situations. This equipment will do the job very quickly. Such a cable will never be superfluous, which means that it is best to purchase it in advance, its cost is low.

You can also make it yourself. You can find out how to do this by watching a short video at the end of the article.

It’s good if you have a similar factory-made heating cable at hand.

And one more piece of advice. Better on cold nights do not turn off the water completely, and leave a thin trickle. Running water will not freeze either the highway or the sewer.

Even the meter does not perceive this trickle of water - it does not turn

Causes of freezing plumbing

In order to successfully deal with the freezing of pipelines in winter, it is necessary to find out in advance why the pipes freeze, because normally they should not be covered with ice. In addition, the appearance of ice and complete blockage may indicate that negative changes have occurred in the system that significantly affect its performance. In the event that the homeowner notices this in time, he may have time to take measures to remove ice in advance, before he caused significant damage to the pipeline.

If we talk about the most common reason for freezing pipes in winter, then it is usually:

• The presence of errors in the design and installation of the pipeline.
• Often homeowners are too lazy to dig a deep trench, which results in laying the line above the freezing point of the ground in the area. As a result, during severe frosts, the soil “stands up like a stake”, which leads to ruptures in pipelines and damage to pipes.
• Incorrect plumbing in the building.
• And also due to the fact that the highways are not insulated.

When placing such communications, even in warm basements, it is necessary to periodically carry out work to monitor the integrity of the insulation and, if necessary, replace it with a new one. This also applies to inspection wells, which some homeowners do not look at for years. As a result, almost ideal conditions are created for the formation of frost and frost in the winter.

In addition, the speed of the water flow through the pipes, as well as their diameter, also has a great influence on the freezing of engineering communications. So in the main pipelines of housing and communal services, water flows constantly, which allows them to be operated normally even in icy soil. In private households, where this flow is relatively weak, and the pipes are one or two inches in diameter, the pipes need to be laid about half a meter below the freezing point of the ground in winter.

In order to get rid of such a negative moment, many homeowners leave the water taps open in the cold. As a result, the system will be operational during the entire time of its use. If the valve is closed, then it is quite possible that the process of ice formation will begin in it.

Another common and natural cause of pipe freezing is the laying of utilities in unheated premises, this can be an entrance or a basement.Here, ice plugs usually occur at night when the water flow drops to a minimum. At the same time, if access to pipes is open in apartment buildings, which facilitates the fight against traffic jams, in private households they are usually difficult to access. As a result, it is quite difficult to deal with ice here and such activities require a lot of time and, in some cases, money.

External pipe heating

If the water in the pipe is frozen, how to warm it from the outside? If there is open access to the area in which the ice plug has formed, it is not difficult to solve the problem. Before heating, be sure to open the taps so that the melted liquid can freely exit. The main methods involve the use of:

• hot water;
• warm air;
• elements of the "warm floor" system (heating cable).

Hot water

This method is suitable for any pipes: polypropylene, metal-plastic, metal, and others. But the temperature of the water should be increased gradually so that the structure does not crack.

We warm the frozen open section of the pipe with hot water

Stages:

1. Wrap fabric around the frozen area. This is necessary to protect the pipe and distribute heat more evenly.
2. Place a container under the pipe to collect water.
3. Spray the area with hot water for a few minutes.
4. Periodically wring out the fabric and repeat the steps until the water supply is restored.

Warm air

It is best to use a building hair dryer as a source of warm air. It should be directed to the area with an ice plug and held for a while.

If the freezing area is small and the pipe is thin, then you can use a regular hair dryer, but it should not work longer than 15 minutes in a row.It is advisable to wrap the pipe with heat-insulating material and let hot air under it. Such a "casing" will accelerate warming up.

Building hair dryer

It is useless to use a fan heater or an electric radiator, since they cannot be used to create a concentrated air flow. With a building hair dryer, you can safely defrost metal pipes. Plastic structures with inaccurate use, it can damage.

Heating cable

For heating plastic pipes you will need an electrical cable that is used when installing a "warm floor" or a special cable for heating pipes. Action algorithm:

1. Wrap the pipe section with foil. Place the electrical cable on top.
2. After the cable, put a layer of insulation. Secure everything with tape.
3. Connect the cable to the network for 2-4 hours.

Heating the water supply with a heating cable

Heating of metal-plastic pipes

Before you warm up a plastic pipe, you need to study well the algorithm for performing this work, which includes several stages:

1. The first step is to localize the frozen part of the pipeline. To do this, you need to carefully examine the pipes located right next to the house. As a rule, the problem area is located tactilely - it is usually much colder to the touch than the functioning part of the pipe.
2. After the localization of the ice plug, the pipe is wrapped with a rag. Next, you need to open all the taps of the water supply, having a supply of hot water with you. If not, you can melt the snow.
3. The pipe is poured with water in two stages: first it is cold, and after it - hot. A gradual increase in water temperature is necessary so that the pipe is not damaged due to sudden temperature changes.
4. Water that has changed from solid to liquid will exit through open taps.

So that the thawed pipe does not freeze in the future, it is better to immediately take measures to insulate it - then in the future you will not have to think about how to warm the pipe with water.

If the water is frozen in plastic pipes located under a layer of soil or foundation, then to warm them up you will need a barrel, a pump and an oxygen hose, with which you need to carry out the following steps:

1. The barrel is filled with hot water, the temperature of which is constantly rising.
2. The hose is inserted into the pipeline exactly until it hits the ice crust.
3. The tap opens and connects to the hose, which must be brought into the barrel. If the barrel itself or the possibility of installing it near the tap is not available, then an ordinary bucket will do.
4. The pump starts, after which the water heated in the barrel is pumped into the plastic pipeline. The hose must be constantly pushed inside the pipe so that it defrosts all the ice in the system. The pump periodically turns off to drain excess water.
5. When the blockage has resolved, the hose is removed and the water is drained from the pipeline.

Heating a plastic pipe can be done in other ways. For example, you can always use a hydrodynamic machine for these purposes. Her hose is launched into the pipe, after which the device starts. The ice in this case will break with the help of pressure.

A safer option for plastic pipes is a steam generator, which eliminates ice by turning it into a gaseous state.A pressure gauge and a valve designed for a pressure of 3 atm are attached to the thick-walled pipe of the device. When working with a steam generator, you must strictly follow the instructions in order to avoid possible troubles.

Conclusion

Questions like “a pipe froze underground - what to do?” quite common among owners of private houses. Solving the problem with a frozen pipeline is not so difficult, but the task itself is quite troublesome and time-consuming. It would be much better to design the pipeline in advance so that the water in it does not freeze even in the coldest times.

Are you familiar with the situation when, at a negative temperature outside, the water supply from the tap stops? Such a problem occurs in your home with the onset of a cold season, and you do not know how to quickly fix it? To fight, it is required to choose an effective method for resuming the working capacity of the water supply network. Do you agree?

We'll show you how thaw frozen pipes and how to prevent the occurrence of a problem situation in the future. Let's talk about effective ways to quickly restore water supply on a cold winter day for sanitary purposes and cooking.

Our article provides a selection of the best wayswhich will help to cope with this trouble on their own. Methods for pipelines made of various materials are considered. So that you can better understand the nuances of warming, we have selected visual photos and thematic videos detailing recommendations for saving water pipes from ice captivity.

defrosting

First - a few simple ways to thaw frozen pipes.

Tip 1: Warm up a frozen house

How to defrost water pipes inside the house:

Very simple: heat the whole house or its separate room. To do this, it is not at all necessary to melt the stove or start the boiler: to warm up a small kitchen or bathroom, a fan heater, oil radiator or even a gas stove is enough.

To restore the water supply, heat the kitchen or bathroom with a fan heater

With hidden pipe laying in walls or screed, an infrared heater is an ideal tool for defrosting them. If it is equipped with a reflector, direct the heat flow to the surface under which the water supply is hidden. It is enough to hang a wall panel or a flexible picture heater on a nail driven into the wall.

The picture-heater will help you warm up the pipes in the strobes

Tip 2: the fire will warm the pipes in the ground

How to thaw a frozen plastic (polyethylene or polypropylene) water supply inlet, laid at a shallow depth underground:

The simplest instruction: build a fire directly above the entrance.

The fire will warm the soil and pipes in it to a depth of up to a meter

This is how the soil was warmed up for decades for the repair of underground highways in the conditions of Siberia and the Far East. It is better to use firewood for kindling, but coal is the main fuel: it can smolder for hours, releasing a large amount of heat.

Tip 3: Welding can be used for heating

How to defrost a steel pipe laid in the ground:

The easiest way to use it to defrost is ... a welding inverter.

A compact welding machine is able to heat a steel water pipe by passing a large current through it.

Install a grounding crocodile at the input in the water meter well or at any other water supply point outside the house;

The welder's earth is connected to the water supply

• Close the electrode holder with the water supply in the house (for example, by winding it with a wire to a pipe stripped of paint);
• Turn on the welder and set the current to 20 amps;
• If the ice does not melt within 20-30 minutes, step by step increase the current by 10 amperes with an interval of at least 15 minutes until the water supply warms up.

Tip 4: Get the blowtorch out of the attic

How to defrost an openly laid steel water pipe with your own hands?

This is done using the simplest heating tools:

Blowtorch;

A blow torch will help reanimate your plumbing

• Improvised gas burner from a canister with a nozzle;
• Building hair dryer.

In the absence of a building hair dryer, you can use a regular one designed for drying hair.

The algorithm of actions is simple and clear:

1. Open any water supply faucet in the house;
2. Heat the pipe in sections of half a meter to a temperature of at least 50-60 degrees, until water begins to flow to the mixer.

What to do if during the defrost process your cold water pipe burst:

Water expands when it turns into ice, and the volume of ice decreases when it melts. However, until the moment of melting, ice behaves in the same way as any other physical body - it expands when heated. Therefore, frozen pipes most often break during thawing.

Gusts most often occur when defrosting the water supply

Use the gust to blow off the water and dry the plumbing completely. Heat the pipe along its entire length, making sure that there is no ice left in it. And only after that proceed to repair - welding a broken seam or replacing a section of the water supply.

The bandage will help eliminate leaks with small gusts

Tip 5: heat plastic pipes with a cable

How to warm up a plastic pipe laid along the street:

The most reasonable solution is to use a section of heating cable to warm it up. Best of all - self-regulating: its device completely eliminates overheating and damage to the insulation of the cable or the water supply itself. The heating cable is wound around the pipe in a spiral and connected to the network; defrosting takes from 15 minutes to hours depending on plumbing diameter.

Wind the heating cable around the frozen pipe and connect it to the power supply

Tips for Preventing Plumbing Freezing

What can and should be done to prevent freezing of the water supply in winter? Only specialists can give a competent answer to this question. It is worth listening to their advice:

1. Locate the shut-off valve in the house in advance and report your find to all adults living in the house.
2. If you plan to move out of a country house for the winter, then drain the water from the system, turn off the taps and collect all the hoses.
3. If on your site all the drainage systems are in the garage or shed, then the doors of these rooms must always be kept closed.
4. If there are unprotected water pipes, it is necessary to block the possible access of cold air to them - for example, plug all holes with rags.
5. It is not enough to insulate pipes in the ground, you need to take care of this in other places where the water supply runs - many people also have it in the attic.
6. In case of severe frosts, it is necessary to lay a heating cable along the pipes - ideally, this should be done throughout the entire length of the water supply, but it will also be enough to protect the “weakest” areas.
7. In the winter season, when frost is predicted, keep the tap always ajar - let the water drain slowly from the system. If you see that the water has stopped running, this means that ice has appeared in the pipes - open the water more strongly, it will squeeze out the already formed ice from the pipes with pressure.

If you follow all the above recommendations, then no freezing will happen even in the most severe frosts.

Insulated pipes must be returned to their original position after the end of winter:

• firstly, you need to remove all heating devices and heat-insulating materials - overheating of the water supply is also harmful to the system;
• secondly, it is necessary to examine the state of the water supply and drainage system - even with apparent well-being, damage may be detected;
• thirdly, it is desirable to make a reconstruction of the system and exclude the possibility of freezing of water pipes next winter.

Insulation of the water supply is a direct path to the joy of frost and sun. But if you didn’t take care of this process in advance, then you will have to resort to one of the methods recommended above to defrost the water supply.

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How to defrost a plastic pipe?

Recently, steel pipes for plumbing are used less and less, they have been replaced by plastic pipes. Such pipes are not subject to corrosion and do not collapse if water freezes in them.

However, if an ice plug appears in them, practically all methods of external influence cannot be applied to them.Naturally, the use of open fire to heat the plastic will lead to the destruction of the pipe, and the use of a building hair dryer often turns out to be ineffective, since plastic does not conduct heat well.

Connecting a welding machine to such pipes is also completely useless, since the pipes do not conduct electricity.

Mechanical method of influence, that is ice block removal by inserting a steel bar inside, it can be effective with a small freezing area, however, its use creates a serious risk of damaging the pipe.

Thus, if it is necessary to defrost plastic pipes, the only way remains - the use of hot water poured inside.

The first way to defrost is to organize the supply of hot water to the place of freezing.

It is done like this:

To defrost a plastic pipe, a pipe or hose of high rigidity with a smaller diameter should be prepared.

For defrosting use gas or oxygen hoses.

• Metal-plastic pipes are sold, as a rule, rolled into coils. Therefore, the pipe should first be unbent, and then begin to move along the pipeline, pushing the ice plug all the way.
• Now you can pour hot water into the pipe, trying to maintain the highest possible temperature.
• Defrosted water will flow out at the pipe connection, so a collection container should be placed there.
• As the ice melts, the plastic pipe will need to be pushed further and further until the problem is completely fixed.

This defrosting method is good if an ice plug has formed in an area located near the entrance to the pipe.If the pipe is frozen far from home and there are turns and bends in the pipeline section, then the pipe cannot be pushed into the pipeline.

• To carry out the work, you will need a hydraulic level, a coil of steel wire with a diameter of 2-4 mm, and an Esmarch mug, that is, a device that is used in medicine for cleansing enemas.
• We take the tube of the hydraulic level and wrap it with wire or attach the wire to the tube with adhesive tape or electrical tape. This must be done so that the wire does not stick out in different directions, while the tip of the tube should protrude by one centimeter.
• Now we connect the second end of the hydraulic level tube to the outlet pipe of the Esmarch mug and begin to push our structure into the pipe.
• Since the hydraulic tube has a small diameter and weight, there are no difficulties when pushing through, even if there are turns along the way.
• Push the tube until the tube hits the ice plug.
• Now pour hot water into Esmarch's mug and open the supply valve.
• As the ice plug decreases, push the tube further.
• A suitable container should be installed at the junction of pipes to collect the escaping water.

This method of defrosting is quite effective, but it takes time. For one hour of work, you can have time to free from ice about 0.8-1.0 m of the pipe.

So, there are several fairly effective ways to help solve the problem of how to defrost water pipes. However, all of them are time-consuming, so it is more correct to take the necessary measures, for example, to prevent freezing of water in the pipeline.

The lack of water in the water supply in a private house can be due to various reasons. One of them is the formation of an ice plug in the pipe. Such a nuisance occurs if the temperature is very low outside, and the rules were violated when laying the water supply. You can try to fix the problem yourself, but it requires considerable effort. Consider the answer to the question: water froze in a pipe underground - what to do in this situation?

Before figuring out what to do if the water in the water pipes froze, let's figure out why this can happen. Main reasons:

• laying pipes at insufficient depth;
• a small layer of insulation, its poor quality or complete absence;
• insignificant or zero water consumption during severe frosts;
• abnormal weather conditions.

As a rule, pipes passing on the street - outside or underground - freeze. But in the absence of heating and significant sub-zero temperatures for a long time, the problem may occur indoors or at the point where the pipe enters the wall.

Conclusion

To avoid freezing of water in pipes in winter, it is necessary to lay them below the freezing depth with a reverse slope, and carefully insulate them at the exit points to the surface. If site conditions do not allow these measures to be taken, insulation is carried out along the entire length of the pipeline. Thermal insulation is used with "shells" made of PPU or PPS, laying communications in a finished shell, the "pipe in pipe" method, thermal paint painting.

Specially designed designs with a check valve will help prevent ice blockage of street taps. The complete removal of water from the high-risk area eliminates the very cause of freezing.

Conclusion

After analyzing the above information, we can conclude that the best way to avoid pipe rupture is to insulate them with polyurethane foam shells. This is the most budgetary, simple and reliable option among the above. The main thing is that the material is of high quality.

You can order high-quality polyurethane foam shells from AMARO. We are a direct manufacturer of polyurethane foam shell, so that the products have a favorable price for buyers.

Order form for PPU shells (thermal insulation for pipes), bends, glue, casings, clamps

Using this form, you can send an application-order to pipe insulation (PPU shell, thermal insulation), pipe bends, glue, clamps and any other of our products. After processing the order by our sales department, employees will contact you to clarify the parameters of the order, delivery time, delivery conditions, etc.