What Are You Doing For Excitement Today?

[Diane Amberg]

Careful use of a hair dryer perhaps? It's not quite as hot. Borrow a big pan or bucket of water, heat it, wrap the pipes in towels soaked with the hot water several times until  it thaws and then keep the towels around the pipes for insulation?  Electric hot pad around the pipes? Your electric blanket for awhile, well, until bedtime at least? Careful use of commercial heat tape? Or are you 'way beyond these ideas? How badly frozen up are you?

[Diane Amberg]

I thought of another one...I have no proof for this, but one man told me he used hand warmers, you know the kind you light and blow out? Some how he used those to thaw a pipe.  If you are or know some hunters? Even the chemical heat packs we use on the ambulance might work if its a small spot and just barely frozen.
This comes up  in some of our fire safety classes for winter when we talk about not using blow torches and looking for safer alternative ways to thaw pipes. My father some how used the heat from a big metal work light and bulb one time. Our kitchen only had a crawl space under it and some how he "boxed" a place with the light in it around the pipe and it worked.   I'm sure there are some clever solutions out there that I don't know about. Anybody?

[Wilma]

This probably wouldn't work for many people, but Daughter's cold water at the kitchen sink was frozen.  She ran the hot water for awhile and the cold water pipe thawed.  I haven't had any problems since I moved over here.

[Diane Amberg]

We had an extremely cold winter in 1989, our first winter here. We moved in on Jan.6th.  We didn't know any of the house's eccentricities yet and the upstairs bathroom, right in the north corner, had the hot water pipe freeze. After Al thawed it we put a vent in the ceiling of the powder room below, which lets enough heat up there to keep the pipes safe. I'm sure that isn't very energy efficient but it worked.

[Roma Jean Turner]

Go to the Vornado website to read about it.  I didn't put it under house naively.  It is very energy efficient, safe and effective.  They won't talk about thawing pipes..but hey it works.

[Roma Jean Turner]

They just brought my plate of ribs at Logan's........yum..this will be my excitement for the day.

[Diane Amberg]

Ribs? Oh yum! Enjoy!   Actually I did look up your Vornado, sounded interesting so I checked it out. I see why it worked for you. Great minds can invent good things!

[srkruzich]

Careful use of a hair dryer perhaps? It's not quite as hot. Borrow a big pan or bucket of water, heat it, wrap the pipes in towels soaked with the hot water several times until  it thaws and then keep the towels around the pipes for insulation?  Electric hot pad around the pipes? Your electric blanket for awhile, well, until bedtime at least? Careful use of commercial heat tape? Or are you 'way beyond these ideas? How badly frozen up are you?

Way beyond that. I got hot water back but cold is frozen solid. 

[larryJ]

I am always amazed at what challenges each day brings.  I was up early as usual to go over to my daughter's and get my granddaughter up and ready for school.  When I turned on my phone, there was a text from my daughter that she had taken my granddaughter to the hospital during the night.  She was complaining of shortness of breath, coughing and a fever.  I signed on to Facebook hoping for more information before calling and waking them up unnecessarily.  She posted that they had gone to the hospital.  I sent a message hoping for more information.  Not getting an answer, I went through the normal procedure to go over there like always.  Just before arriving my daughter called and said she was staying home today and that my granddaughter was better.  The fever had gone down and she was resting comfortably.  I turned around and came home. 

So------------now my normal schedule is changed.  I have more time this morning to read the Forum.  I don't have to worry about getting out of the dentist's office in time to pick my granddaughter up from school.  I will be able to go along to the vet so Charlie the Cocker can get his next round of shots.  I will be around when the plumber comes back to finish what he is doing--------.

I don't like changes-----------I don't like my day to be much different----------But, then again, I wouldn't like being a rut doing the same old thing every day.  So, I welcome the challenges that today will bring.  I guess that makes sense.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Glad to hear your grand daughter is alright.Your daughter must have had quite a scare. Just a respiratory bug?