Well maybe that's stretching it a little bit, but my wife's hair dryer sure earned it's keep this morning!
Last night a cold front blew in with north winds up in the 20 to 30 mph range and temperatures dropped down to 5 degrees. We had just gone through a cold spell with no issues, so I really didn't think much about it. This morning we woke up and went through our morning routine with no issues, toilets flushed, water ran, etc. Everything was working perfect until I went to take a shower and discovered that there was no hot water! The water wasn't cold, there just wasn't any water when you turned the hot water faucet on.
The cold water was working and that's why we hadn't noticed it earlier so I had the idea that I would just run the water for a while and maybe the hot water pipe that was frozen would be close enough to the cold water pipe that was unfrozen that maybe it might warm it up a little. Well water is supposed to be 60 degrees year round so I figured it was worth a shot. After running the water for about 5 minutes it slowed to a trickle and then stopped. My bright idea didn't turn out too bright as now we didn't have cold water either!
Time for the hair dryer to come to the rescue!
We have an outlet at our well house and the fact that water was running for a while told me that the pipes were okay from the well pressure tank to the house, but the pressure tank must not be refilling. I have a bunch of insulation wrapped around the pipes at the well, but evidently not enough and actually it appeared that some of the insulation may have blown loose a little and allowed a gap to open up that cold air could get in. I concentrated on that area and spent about 15 minutes running the hair dryer on the pipes. I manually switched the pump on and off at the pressure switch and it sounded like it was running so I called Cathy on the cell phone and had her check the water. It was working! I had her run it for a while and made sure the pressure switch activated by itself when the pressure dropped back down in the tank and called it good. I wrapped everything back up in the insulation and headed back to the house.
At the house the hot water was still not running. The water heater is in our garage and normally would stay well above freezing, but it is on the north side of the house and the wind was blowing hard enough that might have had something to do with it. I setup the trusty hair dryer again blowing on the cold water line coming to the water heater and left it running on full blast. I started running the cold water in the house again and sure enough after about 5 minutes or so the hot water started running! The water heater had plenty of hot water in the tank so when it was all said and done it took about 30 minutes from finding out we didn't have running hot water to have everything back up and running. I'm sure luck had quite a bit to do with getting everything going so easily, but miracles do happen with a hair dryer sometimes!
Just thought I would share in case anyone else wakes up with no hot water, and has a hair dryer available it might be worth a shot!
Nathan
Last night a cold front blew in with north winds up in the 20 to 30 mph range and temperatures dropped down to 5 degrees. We had just gone through a cold spell with no issues, so I really didn't think much about it. This morning we woke up and went through our morning routine with no issues, toilets flushed, water ran, etc. Everything was working perfect until I went to take a shower and discovered that there was no hot water! The water wasn't cold, there just wasn't any water when you turned the hot water faucet on.
The cold water was working and that's why we hadn't noticed it earlier so I had the idea that I would just run the water for a while and maybe the hot water pipe that was frozen would be close enough to the cold water pipe that was unfrozen that maybe it might warm it up a little. Well water is supposed to be 60 degrees year round so I figured it was worth a shot. After running the water for about 5 minutes it slowed to a trickle and then stopped. My bright idea didn't turn out too bright as now we didn't have cold water either!
Time for the hair dryer to come to the rescue!
We have an outlet at our well house and the fact that water was running for a while told me that the pipes were okay from the well pressure tank to the house, but the pressure tank must not be refilling. I have a bunch of insulation wrapped around the pipes at the well, but evidently not enough and actually it appeared that some of the insulation may have blown loose a little and allowed a gap to open up that cold air could get in. I concentrated on that area and spent about 15 minutes running the hair dryer on the pipes. I manually switched the pump on and off at the pressure switch and it sounded like it was running so I called Cathy on the cell phone and had her check the water. It was working! I had her run it for a while and made sure the pressure switch activated by itself when the pressure dropped back down in the tank and called it good. I wrapped everything back up in the insulation and headed back to the house.
At the house the hot water was still not running. The water heater is in our garage and normally would stay well above freezing, but it is on the north side of the house and the wind was blowing hard enough that might have had something to do with it. I setup the trusty hair dryer again blowing on the cold water line coming to the water heater and left it running on full blast. I started running the cold water in the house again and sure enough after about 5 minutes or so the hot water started running! The water heater had plenty of hot water in the tank so when it was all said and done it took about 30 minutes from finding out we didn't have running hot water to have everything back up and running. I'm sure luck had quite a bit to do with getting everything going so easily, but miracles do happen with a hair dryer sometimes!
Just thought I would share in case anyone else wakes up with no hot water, and has a hair dryer available it might be worth a shot!
Nathan
1 comment:
This is absolutely a liberating function for hair dryers. I never thought of this. You are definitely a genius Nathan! :)
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