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So... we have no water.. can you help me troubleshoot?

Zeze

Zeze

Lifer
Long story short:

1. No water since we noticed it at 3am this morning.
2. Called the water company and they said they have no outage and my pipes may be frozen. Apply heat to the pipes (space heater, blow dryer, etc)
3. We turned on 3 space heaters blasting at the pipes for over 6 hours and we're pretty convinced that our pipes inside the house are NOT frozen. They're not too cold to the touch.
4. I contacted the water company again - they said the service line between curb and into my house may be frozen. And it's not their responsibility. They said to call a plumber.
5. We called a plumber we know. There's nothing he can do for outside service line being frozen (if this is true).

Questions:

1. I understand water not coming out, but why is hot water also not coming out? We're not getting a single drop. I mean the hot water heater/tank is in obviously inside our house. What happened to 40 gallons of hot water?

2. Most of other plumbers are not answering due to today being Sunday. What CAN they do? The outdoor service line is nowhere to be seen outside of my house. (the inside waterline goes into ground in my garage)

3. Anything else we can do??? I can't poop.. since no flush. 🙁
 
I'd guess your outside lines. Dunno what to do aside from wait. In the future, try leaving some faucets trickling.

Regarding the water heater... No water flowing in means no water flowing out. To flush the toilet, you can drain some water off the heater into a bucket, and flush using that.

edit:
You could try a heat gun on the water valve or house connection. I don't think that'll work, but it beats staring at the pipes hoping they'll work.
 
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The plumber can't slide a endoscope/borescope inspection camera down to determine if your line is clogged/frozen?
 
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Zeze said:
Long story short:

1. No water since we noticed it at 3am this morning.
2. Called the water company and they said they have no outage and my pipes may be frozen. Apply heat to the pipes (space heater, blow dryer, etc)
3. We turned on 3 space heaters blasting at the pipes for over 6 hours and we're pretty convinced that our pipes inside the house are NOT frozen. They're not too cold to the touch.
4. I contacted the water company again - they said the service line between curb and into my house may be frozen. And it's not their responsibility. They said to call a plumber.
5. We called a plumber we know. There's nothing he can do for outside service line being frozen (if this is true).

Questions:

1. I understand water not coming out, but why is hot water also not coming out? We're not getting a single drop. I mean the hot water heater/tank is in obviously inside our house. What happened to 40 gallons of hot water?

2. Most of other plumbers are not answering due to today being Sunday. What CAN they do? The outdoor service line is nowhere to be seen outside of my house. (the inside waterline goes into ground in my garage)

3. Anything else we can do??? I can't poop.. since no flush. 🙁
Click to expand...


Well, for your first question, if you have a typical gas or elect. standard-type tank water heater, you need an inlet of cold water to displace the hot water out into the pipe for your use.

Look at this pic:

1567s.jpg


The cold water enters from the bottom, forcing hot water out the top via displacement. Rather simple, but if your main water supply line is frozen, nothing will move.
 
Yeah if the main line is blocked then there's no pressure to push the hot water out of the tank.

What you need to do is run high current through the line to heat it up, that may involve hooking up an electrode at your lawn valve or neighbor's and then one inside your house somewhere. Plumbing companies will most likely have the equipment for that and may also have equipment to know where the freeze is. Technically the city should be responsible but it's one of those things where sometimes it's just not worth trying to fight, you just need your water to work. So if city won't do anything call a plumber and see if they can help. I doubt the freeze is inside unless you have some pipes going behind insulation or other bad setup like that, but I guess it's worth trying to rule that out, try the faucet that's the closest to your water main and look for any buldges in your lines. If your main valve has a bleed nipple try that too (if there is water to your shut off then this will result in lot of water spraying, so be ready to turn the valve off)

A few years ago for some reason there was an epidemic of this happening to lot of people, some people went months without water as plumbers/the city could not keep up. People had to put snow on the stove to melt it to get water lol. Not the most efficient way of filling up a bath tub when you can't take a shower.
 
Hot water won't flow if there's no supply pressure.

If your supply line is frozen in the ground, your options are limited.

Best option is to open the line at a connection and using food-grade tubing, force hot water into the pipe...but since your water supply is frozen, unless you can use a neighbor's hot water...you'll need a plumbing contractor anyway.

Dig the line up and thaw the frozen sections... and if the line broke from freezing, you'll have to replace piping...

Wait for it to thaw naturally...and HOPE nothing broke.

If your supply line is steel or copper, the plumber MIGHT be able to thaw the line electrically....with a welder, but that requires access to both ends of the frozen piping...and no non-conductive piping (pvc or similar) in the run.

When we lived in areas that got that cold, we always kept heat tape on any exposed piping....and let water trickle in a couple of faucets. (especially if there was any chance of the pipe freezing in the walls)
 
Red Squirrel said:
Technically the city should be responsible but it's one of those things where sometimes it's just not worth trying to fight, you just need your water to work.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not in Canada, so I cannot speak to your post above in absolutes, but everywhere I've lived in the U.S., the city/water co. is responsible to the meter....the homeowner is responsible for the line after the meter to the house.
 
Meghan54 said:
Well, I'm not in Canada, so I cannot speak to your post above in absolutes, but everywhere I've lived in the U.S., the city/water co. is responsible to the meter....the homeowner is responsible for the line after the meter to the house.
Click to expand...

Yeah they are, but what happens is they'll often try to tell you the problem is in your house, but yeah, I would try them first. Here I believe they are responsible for everything up to the street shut off though. Or maybe it's up to your own shut off, I can't recall. In my city we don't have meters though. In places that have meters then they'd be responsible up to the meter which would be indoors.
 
Most likely it froze at the shallowest point of the line, which might be right by the sidewalk. Do you know if you have a water meter where you can turn off the water? If so, it might have froze right where it comes out of the meter to your home.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yeah they are, but what happens is they'll often try to tell you the problem is in your house, but yeah, I would try them first. Here I believe they are responsible for everything up to the street shut off though. Or maybe it's up to your own shut off, I can't recall. In my city we don't have meters though. In places that have meters then they'd be responsible up to the meter which would be indoors.
Click to expand...

Usually, the homeowner is responsible after the meter...or shut-off...which ever is closest to the water main. (And reduces the water supplier's liability)
 
In the city I work in, the water company is responsible up to the edge of the road right-of-way (right around the sidewalk). Everything closer to the house is the homeowner's responsibility.
 
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In general, you're responsible from your house to the main line. I foresee you digging up your water line in the near future but, have a plumber run a camera through first. What does your homeowner insurance cover?
 
I would keep digging as a last resort as that is going to be really expensive. I'm sure any reputable plumber will have equipment to fix without digging. I'm not sure of any scopes that can go inside a supply line, but there may very well be some. Maybe even some with some kind of small roto zip type attachment. You only really need to poke a small enough hole in the ice to get water to flow. The flow will melt the rest. (you'd want to let it run for a while like hours at least) The plastic tube idea may actually work, get a tub of water and something to heat it, and run a pump. Run the tube as far into the line as you can and then run the pump with the hot water, then see if you can eventually push the tube further. If you cut it make sure you leave a lot of slack so you can push it deeper as you go.

If this is a regular occurrence you might have to leave a faucet running in winter. My grandma used to have to do that actually. Thankfully we are not metered here though. Kinda sucks to do that if you are metered.

In the mean time you may need to melt snow to get water so you may as well premelt a bunch to have it on hand such as for flushing the toilet.
 
Is your garage heated? If not, then your water meter may be frozen. If it is, please keep in mind you'll probably have to buy another from the water company.
 
No cold water entering the hot water heater means no hot water will come out. If the water in the tank is replaced with air instead of water...you might have a problem.
 
You could drain the hot water heater into a bucket and use that to fill a toilet so you can poop.
 
I would avoid draining the water tank, if you do make sure you turn it off. You don't really want it running if it's not full. Whether it's gas or electric it's probably not good anyway.

For water I would just put snow in a big tote box or something and let it melt naturally. You can speed up the process by melting some of it on the stove. Boil some separately and put in bottles for drinking/cooking. Just don't use yellow snow. 😛
 
Papa Hogan said:
How are the scopes going to get through the water line from the house to the street when it's frozen?
Click to expand...

It would hit the ice, but then it would confirm if that's the issue and roughly where abouts it is. Only thing if there's any elbows it may not be able to turn that sharply. Water lines typically don't have any kind of cleanout either so either you have to make one (not a bad Idea I guess, just a Y piece right at the entry with a valve on one end) or disconnect the line from the valve inside.

Try to unscrew the nipple on the valve first though, just to confirm that it's frozen outside. If you get water that comes out (like a lot) then it's not frozen outside. I would close the valve first, open the nipple thing, let the water from inside drain just to get rid of it, then slowly open the valve and see if more water comes out.
 
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