KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — As cold weather is anticipated next week, the threat of frozen pipes increases.
In 2022, Winter Storm Eliot left many homes in Knoxville without water, general manager of The Plumbing Authority, Keith White, saw hundreds of frozen pipes in the aftermath.
“There were a lot during that period of time right after Christmas last year,” he said.
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According to White, there is not much a plumber can do for a pipe that has been frozen, but they can fix them if they burst. He says the best line of defense against a frozen pipe is insulation.
“So, if they’re in a crawl space that’s uninsulated, even inside basement areas that aren’t well insulated, even inside walls that aren’t well insulated, it can lead to frozen pipes,” said White.
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While you can insulate your walls, you can also warm your pipes with heat tape or pipe insulation. White also says a tell-tale sign of a frozen pipe is the lack of running water, and even if it only stops working in one faucet, to shut off your water completely.
“Once that happens the best thing to actually do is to turn off the water to the rest of the home,” said White. “You shut that off and then you try to turn it back on when the temperatures should have thawed back out, when you can actually go through and inspect your home to make sure when you turn it back on you don’t hear running water inside walls or crawl spaces or anywhere that it shouldn’t be, and be able to prevent any kind of damage that could happen from burst pipes,” said White.
If you can’t insulate pipes that may be running through an exterior wall, like many kitchen or bathroom sinks are, White said it is best to let it drip.
“[It] doesn’t take a lot just a little bit of movement helps to prevent that from freezing, so you can imagine running water freezes a lot less than stagnant water so if you can have that running, that definitely helps to prevent that from freezing,” said White.
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He also says it is best to leave the faucet between the hot and cold setting, as leaving it only on one or the other could still lead to a frozen pipe.
There are more unconventional ways to attempt to unfreeze a pipe, like using space heaters or hot water bottles, but white says its best to stay conventional as those could lead to larger issues.
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