Another fozen pipe question, wierd one though.

Jeffro · Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:06 pm

Whenever my pipes freeze in the winter I usually close all my vents and turn the heat up and that usually fixes the problem (I burn with wood). Pipes only freeze if there is a strong north/north west wind with below zero temps, like last night.

My vent closing trick is not working right now. I wave cold water running out of all faucets but no hot water.

Here's the weird part: If I have the hot water faucet on in the kitchen and go into the bathroom and turn on the cold water tap, cold water will come out of the hot water tap in the kitchen, but no hot water.

Same thing happens if I do it in another bathroom.

How can that be? How can the cold water come out of the hot water tap?

If I has propane from my forced air (salamander) heater, I'd stick that under there and be done, but I don't have any propane at the moment.

Any ideas?

BTW, it's a 1999 28x56 champion with pex line and a propane water heater.

Greg · Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:17 pm

Running the furnace and warming the space between the floor & underbelly is about your only option at this point. I would suspect that there is a problem with the underbelly, either a tear or some missing insulation (usually where a repair has been made).

As you have PEX, you are in about the best position possible to limit freeze damage. You can also try leaving the cupboard door open by the frozen faucet and possibly use a hair dryer for heat.

If you have snow on the ground, bank it up against the skirting, it will act as insulation and keep the wind out.

If you have single lever faucets, it may be possible that the cold water is simply mixing as normal, but with no hot water added. Greg

bguy49 · Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:21 am

I hope you got the pipes thawed out by now, but just in case, A trick that I found is to put a fan in front of a plumbing access hole on one end of the MH and blow warm air into the space under the floor. Open all of the under sink cabinet doors and plumbing access holes and crank the thermostat up. I think Greg is right though, you must have an opening in the belly somewhere.