Drain water From pipes vs Drip Faucets

[AP514]

Just what is stated in the title...
What would be best ? here in Houston many have low to no water PSI + no electric.
So would it be Best to drip water from each Faucet and hope the water psi stays up enough to keep the water dripping ?
Drain every line the best you can knowing that if you do the water left in the lines will freeze. hoping that empty lines will give the freeing water enough room to expaand.

So Which would you choose ??

 

[The Cobbler]

I feel for all you people.
I would drain as best as you can. do you have an air compressor to help blow out the lines?
when I did work for a company doing bank repo's we had to drain everything and pump RV antifreeze thru all of the pipes , put in toilets etc. I don't imagine texas has RV antifreeze...

 

[bob15]

It it was mine, I would let the water drip at decent pace. You can drain the lines, but if you have any ball valves, water will get trapped in the valve and can/will split it.

 

[Rockcam]

Drain them. If for some reason you lose water pressure, dripping will stop and pipes may freeze.

And depending upon temps inside the house, dripping may not be enough to keep them from freezing.

If you drain them, there is no chance they can burst.

Open all your hot and cold taps, showers too, and same for lowest point so water can drain out. Don’t forget your water heater.

Do it now before things start slushing up.

It takes virtually no time to refill once power and heat are back up.

Good luck.

 

[SARG]

It it was mine, I would let the water drip at decent pace. You can drain the lines, but if you have any ball valves, water will get trapped in the valve and can/will split it.

What ? Can't envision how water becomes trapped in a ball valve.

 

[rlitman]

Drain them. If for some reason you lose water pressure, dripping will stop and pipes may freeze.

And depending upon temps inside the house, dripping may not be enough to keep them from freezing.

If you drain them, there is no chance they can burst.

Open all your hot and cold taps, showers too, and same for lowest point so water can drain out. Don’t forget your water heater.

Do it now before things start slushing up.

It takes virtually no time to refill once power and heat are back up.

Good luck.

A different thread mentioned fire sprinkler systems. Those are often carefully sloped to have a working gravity drain. I am not aware of any home plumbing systems that gravity drain. Pipes will be full of water all over the place if you open up a drain, so you can expect broken pipes at ever low point, and there will be a LOT of them. I suppose in some instances you could climb into a crawl space with a saw and make some drains for preventive protection, but unless you're 100% confident of your plumbing layout, getting all the water out to the point of actually protecting pipes is not likely.

Your options are to blow it out with compressed air (how you'd get that is another story), or replace it with something that doesn't freeze (pump in RV antifreeze). The latter can be done with a drill powered pump at a hose bib (unless you have a check valve in there), pushing the antifreeze towards whatever valve you open, done one at a time. You'll need a lot...

 

[dfiler2]

I would drain every line you can, especially if you are on a septic system. Water dripping can slowly freeze in the drain lines and cause other problems.

 

[65ranchero]

Air compressor can be a problem if there is no power.
But I was going to suggest that also but got beat to it.
As others have said- pick the lowest point in your house which is the water heater drain if it's on the main floor ( don't forget to shut off the power or gas to it, turn it back on when it's refilled) and then open all the faucets and drain away.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Drain. "Let it drip" is an old Wive's Tale. I can't count how many "dripping" faucets and other "flowing" lines I've had to repair after they froze and burst, right up to 10" lines circulated by 50 HP pumps that were running when the lines froze.

Tommy

 

[Joemctag]

I don’t doubt what you’re telling us, LS6 Tommy. That’s a good illustration with the 1 line.Water WILL freeze below 32 F. Whether you want it to or not. Steel erectktr here. It’ll split open pipe and square -tube columns which is why you don’t want water in them.
However, the idea behind the dripping valve is that the water in the underground lines might be 50 F , and if your lines inside are insulated, then you’re water is getting colder as it travels through your unheated house, but will (hopefully) not be down to 32F by the time it exits at the valve. It could still freeze up your sink drain or whatever. I’ve dropped my faucets (ALL of them, hot and cold ) in unheated houses but I make sure it’s a small stream.
Still, everyone should understand what you’ve pointed out, that moving the water will NOT at all keep it from freezing.

 

[Kaizen]

Drip unless you can put a compressor on it and blow it out. You can use the garden spigot as long as there isn’t a backflow protector.
Just a basic drain won’t gaureentee anything. Especially hydronic baseboard.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[77thor]

Another vote for draining the lines as best you can.

 

[CoogarXR]

When I had rental properties to winterize I always drained the lines. I would install a drain at the meter, which was usually the lowest point in the house. I'd turn off the main, open the drain and it would gravity drain. Open all the faucets to let air in for an effective drain.

Open the drain on the hot water tank to drain the hot side of the system. Don't forget to turn off the breaker if your tank is electric. Your elements will burn up when the power comes back on if the tank is empty.

Just don't forget connected things that hold water, like your washing machine, drain traps, toilet bowl, etc. Those might freeze too. If you can get a hold of some RV antifreeze to put in the traps and toilet, that's helpful.

 

[Skiff Builder]

Blow them out with a leaf blower- gas or batt powered. Adapted to spigot with duct tape.

12v compressor for car.

Cut the end off a bicycle tire pump and adapted as above.

Got a cyl of non flameable gas around like nitrogen.

Get creative, but still be safe.

 

[JRC3]

Blow them out with a leaf blower- gas or batt powered. Adapted to spigot with duct tape.

12v compressor for car.

Cut the end off a bicycle tire pump and adapted as above.

Got a cyl of non flameable gas around like nitrogen.

Get creative, but still be safe.

Or like I like to do when sweating pipes...Blow it out with a shop vac. Any vacuum with an exhaust port should do.

Air mattress inflator.

 

[Skiff Builder]

Or like I like to do when sweating pipes...Blow it out with a shop vac. Any vacuum with an exhaust port should do.

Air mattress inflator.

Sure,works when you have power. What do you do when your grid is down?

 

[Skiff Builder]

A real last chance move is to get a running vehicle near a garden hose spigot. Get your shop vac hose on the exhaust pipe and adapt it to the spigot. Build pressure and start opening faucets. Have some ventilation in the house.

 

[mattbal]

Other then this video I have no experience with either method, but these guys are from the northeast, where we deal with the deep freeze for months on end.

Frozen pipes starts at the 6:12 mark.

Good luck to all of you guys dealing with the freeze.

 

[JRC3]

A real last chance move is to get a running vehicle near a garden hose spigot. Get your shop vac hose on the exhaust pipe and adapt it to the spigot. Build pressure and start opening faucets. Have some ventilation in the house.

Yeah, guess I wasn't thinking. But many people do have battery household units. Even if a battery unit didn't have an exhaust port I wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice the vacuum to **** water out of the lines. Being battery operated I imagine it would work for a long time even if things get wet, as long as the controls stayed dry. The trick would be to pay attention to how full the canister gets. It might take a while and probably wouldn't get all the water out, but any bit would help.

The exhaust on the spigot reminds me of the old spark plug tire inflators.

-------------------------------------------------

I did just have a thought for those of us with wells. There's a good 45psi or so of pressure in our well pressure tanks. Adapting a connection from its Schrader valve to the plumbing would be a good bit of volume to blow out the lines.

 

[bob15]

What ? Can't envision how water becomes trapped in a ball valve.

It can and it will. Had a 3/4 Apollo valve crack/split even though the valve was open and system was drained (I made the mistake of having it wide open and not 3/4 open).

They make a "marine" valve with a drain port to prevent splitting. Click on the 2 downloads for a better view explanation.

http://www.apollovalves.com/products/369

This is a marine valve (I stole the picture from e-bay):

 

[Angelfire]

Drain them. Been draining them at a cabin I own since I purchased it in the 90’s. Have had no frozen or damaged pipes (copper) even at -50.

 

[zeke67]

OP is in Pearland (Houston). Water meters are buried in the yard under a cover by the curb -- no lower point than the meter. Unless the house is 60's or earlier, it's probably on slab. Water heaters and most plumbing supply lines are typically in the attic -- water heater is a high point. Water shut off to the house is outside and above ground. Dripping works, but when the water pressure drops, it doesn't. Power outages cause the water pressure to drop. Best thing is to shut off at the house or better yet shut off and open taps.

 

[Dh3256]

Frozen pipes starts at the 6:12 mark.

Interesting explanation of what actually causes the burst pipes and why dripping the faucet prevents burst pipes. I thought the pipe burst where it froze, did not know it is the frozen plug that causes a buildup of pressure and a burst pipe elsewhere.

 

[SARG]

Only if the system is under pressure

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I heard on the news at least one Mayor was pleading with citizens to shut off their dripping faucets. The city was flowing an enormous amount of water/day (millions of gallons) more than normal....and they couldn't keep pressures up where they needed to be for everyone.

So...drain would be my suggestion.

Phil

p.s. I just checked the weather in Houston. It says it's 33 now with a high of 44. The low on the 10 day forecast after today is 39.

If they haven't froze yet...they aren't going to. I'd say do nothing.

 

[SARG]

It can and it will. Had a 3/4 Apollo valve crack/split even though the valve was open and system was drained (I made the mistake of having it wide open and not 3/4 open).

They make a "marine" valve with a drain port to prevent splitting. Click on the 2 downloads for a better view explanation.

http://www.apollovalves.com/products/369

This is a marine valve (I stole the picture from e-bay):

Live and learn. Something I never knew. Thanks.

 

[Gigem]

I dripped. Didn't help. Next time I will shut off water at house and drain and leave most if not all taps open.

 

[Dh3256]

Only if the system is under pressure

Doesn't matter if it is under pressure or not, it can still rupture pipes. If you watch the video, it is the expansion of the frozen plug that creates the pressure, so if the pipes have enough water to freeze and form a plug, the pipe can burst even if there is no water pressure from the source.


So even "drained" lines can freeze and rupture, even if the water source is turned off, unless all the water is drained out. Probably why weatherization companies use compressed air to blow out all the water.

 

[bigdav160]

I dripped. Didn't help. Next time I will shut off water at house and drain and leave most if not all taps open.

Dripping never worked for me. Good friend in Oklahoma tells me dripping pipes prevent freezing. Last week - her pipes froze.

My rental had no electricity for 4 days and most of that time it never got above 32F. Result - 4 split pipes, two split elbows, one split tee, and three rooms of ceiling fell in. And I was one of the lucky ones. There are a few unoccupied houses on the street that will be total disasters when someone opens them up.

 

[p_mori7]

If the conditioned space inside the house will go below freezing...ALWAYS DRAIN the system.

Shut off supply at the main, open all taps, and importantly... add plumbing antifreeze to all the drains & toilets.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Only if the system is under pressure

It happens with any closed (and even a lot of open) system that has water in it, pressurized or not. Can't count how many buckets , cans and birdbaths I've seen split.


Tommy

 

[JRC3]

It happens with any closed (and even a lot of open) system that has water in it, pressurized or not. Can't count how many buckets , cans and birdbaths I've seen split.

Yep, another example is a sitting automobile without antifreeze; Cracked radiators, "freeze" plugs, heads, blocks, hoses, stat housings...Windshield washer pumps/reservoirs.

Or garden sprayers. All 4 of mine are sitting in the shed un-winterized. Sitting right next to them is the gallon of RV antifreeze I bought to flush them out, like I always do. At very least the wands will split. Worse case the 12volt pump on the cart sprayer. Nothing compared to the folks in TX though.