NEED HELP. Upstairs Heat NOT working

ejb · Jan 27, 2003

>>Nope, & I burned my hand on my heat gun trying to warm up the pipes.

Gee, hope you feel better soon...I also hope you are still at home trying to get this resolved...hate to state the obvious, but the longer it goes on, the worse it could get. (i.e. more freezes and more cracks).

Even worse, if the pipes do unfreeze somehow when you are not home, and you have cracks, you are going to have an awful lot of water pouring out of everything....if you are at work, I'd recommend you call in sick until your house is back in order.

Trust me, I know how much the situation you are in stinks....I've been there....good luck.

hazmat · Jan 27, 2003

Even worse, if the pipes do unfreeze somehow when you are not home, and you have cracks, you are going to have an awful lot of water pouring out of everything....

I'm able to isolate the zone by leaving the thermostat off (keeps the zone valve from opening) & manually closing a valve on the other side. In theory, the only water that can come out is what is presently in the pipes. The plumber is in agreement.

Supposed to be -3F tonight. They are taking bets at work as to when it will thaw. Some say April.

Mark_in_NH · Jan 27, 2003

<blockquote>In reply to:<hr>

I grabbed the metal barrel instead of the plastic handle.

<hr></blockquote>

Hazmat,
Sorry to hear of your injury, hope it heals quickly and you can get the plumbing problem resolved easily.
Just so you know that your fellow members here at the TBN are looking out for your best interest ad saftey.
The end of your tractor with the big metal scoopy thing, is the front !!!!!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Anonymous Poster · Jan 27, 2003

Hazmat:
This is becoming a real "HOT" topic of discussion./w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif ...Sorry, I could not resist.....Hope you heal quickly...gettin' burned is no fun....

hazmat · Jan 28, 2003

This is becoming a real "HOT" topic of discussion

Thanks everybody for the encouragement. Another guy at work asked what happened, I told him the story. he had same problem. Plumber used a device set up for flowing electricity thru the pipes (ala the welder method). Cost him $400. I did a little web surfing. low & behold you can rent the thing for $42 (less than the Emegency Room visit cost me)6 miles from where I work. They even had one in stock! I'm picking it up this afternoon.

I'll report back tonight. Either the pipe will unfreeze or the house will burn down! I figure if the device is specifically designed for this purpose, I should be covered either way. I'll move the tractor out of the garage just in case.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.generalpipecleaners.com/rental/rhotshot.html>hot shot pipe thawer</A>

beenthere · Jan 28, 2003

Wish you the best in this endeavor as well as the CBN topic where you have the ice dam on the roof waiting to melt. Will be curious and will wait to hear how this "new" thawer works and how it is set up on hidden pipes.

Is this heat run disconnected now, or does it have "pressure" on it, such that if the temps warm up enough in the wall that the boiler water will begin to flow? Did you track the original problem to a faulty zone valve, or thinking it was just shutting down the boiler heat and using the wood heat to handle the house?

Wingnut · Jan 28, 2003

When mine froze up, I immediately discovered the error of shutting the thermostat completely .... turning down the heat via the local thermostat has the desired effect (lowering heat in an unused part of the house) without shutting off the flow completely (in defense, I was replacing the zone valve ... not a smart thing to do in the winter, though)
According to his responses, the zone is completely shut off to avoid the uhoh, it's leaking problem when it thaws.

pete

RichZ · Jan 28, 2003

Oh, man!!! That's just what I need!!! The hydrant in my barn just froze, and I don't feel like digging several feet down through frozen ground to melt it with my heat gun!/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

I can't wait to hear if this thing works!!!!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

hazmat · Jan 28, 2003

Is this heat run disconnected now, or does it have "pressure" on it, such that if the temps warm up enough in the wall that the boiler water will begin to flow? Did you track the original problem to a faulty zone valve, or thinking it was just shutting down the boiler heat and using the wood heat to handle the house? 

Plumber looked at zone valve & decided it was OK. I swapped the control heads & determined that the head was functioning. Didn't change the zone valve or internally inspect it so, I can't be 100% sure the zone valve is OK. For now I'll go by the plumber's experience that it was the shutting heat down while running wood stove problem. This morning it was 22F in the garage. I'm guessing that's where my problem lies.

The heat zone in question is isolated to avoid the "really big leak".

Looking forward to reporting good results tonight.

beenthere · Jan 28, 2003

I think I understand that. I guess I would proceed to open that heat run so it drains out all the water possible, and as the frozen part melts, that too drains back in the pipe to whatever extent is possible.

I learned before I built my house 35 years ago that I didn't like zone valves, because I helped a furnace guy change a lot of them in the winter time as a part time job. When I built in '68, I installed a pump on each of the three heat runs, and since have even installed ball valves on each run so they can be shut off from the rest of the runs and drained, or blown out to remove trapped air, or whatever when work needs to be done. Now I have a wood fired "boiler" plumbed in so the wood heats the water that I pump around. Great not to have to listen to the gas boiler fire up when it is so cold outside. Just the quiet sound of a pump kicking in now and then. (But I do need to throw another log on the fire). /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Hazmat's problem was often a nightmare I had, but so far (knock on wood) have avoided. But I did have a run freeze up once, just no damage done in the way of broken pipes.