Winter Veterans:

[Texasgal]

Tonight we will be below freezing ( Hard freeze ) for more than 12 hours. I have covered ( and disconnected hoses ) from my outdoor spigots with an old towel.

Is that enough? Or should I drip? Inside the heat is on, do I need to open my cabinet doors under the sinks?

We really do not get this cold here. It's going to be in the 20's! BRRRRR!

Thank you for your advice!

[clffrdjk]

1. Lol I think the high around here was like 10 today.

Your towel won't do shit but don't worry, you won't freeze enough of the line to even come close to bursting it. Just have your heat on and you will be fine. Oh yea you might want to consider getting up 10 min early to start your car.

[Texasgal]

13. I don't plan on getting out

we have food and it's the weekend. Thank you for the advice though!

I know it sounds silly, but we are not used to this kind of weather. It's cold and we are whiners.

[Kali]

2. I do drips when we get in the low 20s

I would either add more fabric to the spigot or run the drip - if the hose isn't clogged with ice already you can leave them on for the drip and locate it wherever you want.

if you have household pipes exposed to the cold anywhere you could let them run a little too but mostly they should be OK in a modern house...a few hours of dribbling water is better than busted pipes though, if you are worried.

[Texasgal]

6. North Texas had the ice

it didn't get here in Austin though. It's just cold.

My only exposed pipes are my spigots. Thank you for the advice Kali! It's cold for us Texans!

[clffrdjk]

7. do you think everyone up here leaves the spigot running all winter?

Do you have any Idea how much of a icy problem that would make?

Spigots freeze from the point furthest from the house leading back to the house and only freezing maybe 2 inches. This leaves room for the ice to expand as it freezes. The problem with bursting pipes comes when the ice gradually constricts the pipe and then that last little bit in the center has no where to go.

[Kali]

14. I am speaking to a fellow warm climate dweller

who only rarely gets below freezing temps. our exposed pipe will freeze when it gets in the low 20s, and I have had split spigots after several nights of that kind of low temps. we had a bunch of splits and breaks a year or two ago when the area experienced a hard freeze over a couple of nights into the single digits. there was even a gasline break or some kind of strange disruption for the city of Sierra Vista in SE AZ! my sons were doing landscaping that year and the whole county needed a lot of dead cactus cleaned up all spring LOL - the sun belt don't know from snow, or freezing, we don't even know how to dress for the cold, much less have things like mud rooms!

[Texasgal]

15. Yeah.. I actually had to look up

"mud room" I had no idea what that was!

[Kali]

17. sort of the opposite of a pool changing room, I think

[shraby]

3. Is your place insulated? Do you have heat? If the heat is on, it should be sufficient to

keep the water from freezing.
I live in Wisconsin where it's been known to be 30 below 0. That's what's cold. When you go outside all bundled up and your forehead gets immediately cold, you hike your bottom back inside cause you know even without a thermometer that it's seriously cold.

[pangaia]

19. I can tell when it hits 10 degrees because the hairs in my nose freeze.

[sarisataka]

4. We may see 20 in a week or so...

my wife may even close the bedroom window

You should be fine. If you have a sink in a semi-isolated room, like a mud room you might want to leave the cabinets open but the risk is minimal. Until you are below zero for an extended period, pipes are pretty safe.

Best advice- cuddle up and share body heat

[scarletwoman]

5. Leave your outdoor spigots turned all the way off.

Hard to say about the under sink cabinet doors. In Minnesota we sometimes open them when the temperature starts plunging way below zero, but it really depends on how deeply your water pipes are buried underground. I'd say it wouldn't hurt, since it's probably safe to assume that Texas building standards aren't designed for cold weather the way Minnesota's are.

If having the cabinet doors open is letting too much cold air into the room, you could hook up an incandescent light bulb at the end of an extension cord and hang it in the under sink area and keep the cabinet doors closed. The heat from a good old incandescent light bulb should be sufficient at 20 degrees to keep your pipes unfrozen. (Why I will never switch to CFLs if I can help it - I want light AND heat from my light bulbs!)

[Texasgal]

8. My home is gas heated

and we have it cranked up to 68. We are such babies when it comes to this type of weather! LOL!

Thank you for your advice!

[scarletwoman]

10. Well, temps here are going to be at least -20 tonight.

But I don't have to worry about plumbing since I don't have running water anyway. It's the morning run to the outhouse that gets a bit uncomfortable...

[Texasgal]

11. Oh man!

You are a trooper! I'd be crying!!!

Stay warm!

[scarletwoman]

16. Nah, the secret is a styrofoam seat - warms instantly when you set your bare butt on it.

I'm warm enough in my house, and besides, I'm used to this. I always feel sorry for the folks who don't usually have cold weather - at least I'm well-equipped with all I need to get through the cold.

Hope YOU stay warm!

[pangaia]

20. How do you keep your butt from sticking to the seat?

[scarletwoman]

21. See my post #16 right above your post.

Styrofoam.

[pangaia]

22. OOPPS.

For 19 years I lived on a farm and had a choice to use an outhouse ( which I had built/dug), composting toilet or a flusher..
As long as it was, oh 20 or above, I would use the outhouse, usually, not always.... below that, I chickened out.
I also didn't use it at night..no telling what had crawled down there and might be ready to bite me in the ass. ( And don't ask me why I felt safer in the daytime.)

[scarletwoman]

23. Believe me, at -20 there ain't nothin' gonna bite you in the ass except frostbite.

And a styrofoam toilet seat takes care of that!

[pangaia]

24. LOL

[rdharma]

9. I think you're good. nt

[Texasgal]

12. Thank you!

I knew I could get good advice here!

[GP6971]

18. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and

get a styrofoam spigot cover. They only cost 3 bucks or so, if even that

[pansypoo53219]

25. we open our cupboards.