Frozen Pipe got lucky

[TJC]

Well it was 1 of my concerns with putting the pellet stoves in. After talking here and to others thought we would be ok. Not.
Sunday morning I went to use the sink in the upstairs bath only to be greeted with no water. Check of the bathtub had the same results.
Fortunately none of the other bathrooms, sinks etc seemed to be affected.

We go lucky though, turned the heat up a bit for the affected bath/bedroom (they are on their own zone) and I guess the heat produced enough warm air in the walls to free the clog.

I guess the conditions Sat and Sat night/Sunday AM contributed to the problem as we had not had weather or temps like that since we put the stoves in almost 2 weeks ago.
Conditions were: 9 above for a high Sat with high winds hitting the walls of the house were the affected bath was located. Sub 0 temps Sat night into Sunday AM. It was -22 when I got up Sunday morning.

SO, I guess I need to put 1 of those thingy maggigys (tech term LOL) that you all were talking about.
Thermo???????

Thanks for any info.

 

[smoke show]

thermguard http://www.bearmountaindesign.com/

 

[TJC]

Thanks smoke show.
So do you need 1 for each thermostat or does it get installed near the furnace?

We have multiple zones but only 2 that would be of concern with pipes.

 

[imacman]

Thanks smoke show.
So do you need 1 for each thermostat or does it get installed near the furnace?

We have multiple zones but only 2 that would be of concern with pipes.

Normally you need 1 for each zone, but I somehow remember a guy setting one up in the basement on the boiler itself.....maybe it ran 2 zones??? I'd give the company a call.

Or send a PM to forum member "bridgerman"....I think he's the distributor or maker of the ThermGuard. He probably can figure out if you can do that.

EDIT: If you speak to him, ask about a Hearth.com discount....he used to offer that, along w/ the free shipping. Nice unit....eliminated my worries about a frozen pipe when I got the pellet stove.

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Thermguard acts as programmable thermostat.

You can wire across all your zone valves to open the zone valves, or to the boiler control, depending on your setup.

One thing to be concerned with is...

He is freezing his domestic water. Not his boiler water.

If the guilty pipe is against a outside wall away from heating pipes, thermguard, might not stop this from happening. If the room/bathroom are particular cold, and already have their own boiler thermostat, you could consider a better located wireless thermostat where it gets cold.

 

[imacman]

Thermguard acts as programmable thermostat.

One thing to be concerned with is...He is freezing his domestic water. Not his boiler water.....

Understood. But he said that raising the heat zone near the frozen pipe seemed to fix it, so putting a TG on that zone set to go on every 3-4 hours might do the trick.

 

[earl764]

This product is great. I have nothing really to add except that it works very well and gives the desired results. Well worth the money.

 

[Ejectr]

I once rented a house that had an HS Tharm wood boiler. I liked it well enough that when I built my log home in the Berkshires in MA, I put one in of my own. Wish I still had that house and lived there..but....

Anyway...the house that I rented....the owner didn't expect that it would be lived in and rented all the time, so he had antifreeze added to the boiler. The way it was done was the heating tech filled a 5 gallon pail with an antifreeze mixture. Then connected the outlet of a small electric pump to a zone while turning on the circulator and pumped it into the zone running where it eventually mixed with the boiler reservoir water. Voilà! No more worries about frozen boiler/heat pipes.

 

[moey]

you probably could leave the faucet dripping ever so slightly

 

[imacman]

.....filled a 5 gallon pail with an antifreeze mixture. .......Voilà! No more worries about frozen boiler/heat pipes.

Just hope you never have a leak....it will be quite a mess.

 

[Ejectr]

It wasn't car type anti freeze. Some other stuff made for forced hot water systems. Looked kind of redish in color. Clear as well like red Koolaid. There were spills on the floor that just cleaned right up.

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Sounds like Ethylene glycol. I've seen/cleaned up enough glycol spills, it cleans up fairly well, but will color stain / smell for a long while. Still better then frozen pipes.

Glycol does need to be maintenance though...

Which still does nothing for domestic water =)

 

[Ejectr]

This had no smell and it left no stain. I forgot what the guy said it was. It was a long time ago.

As far as the domestic water is concerned, obviously it would be drained and shut off if no one was living in the house. If you're living in a house where the pipes freeze, you have more problems than heat in the house.

 

[SwineFlue]

Was it R/V antifreeze, propylene glycol?

 

[Ejectr]

Was it R/V antifreeze, propylene glycol?

I don't remember. I'm talking 1982.