First time homeowner here so please forgive the newbie question. I’m in Texas so our houses aren’t built for the cold. We’re going through freezing temps at night right now, with temps getting up well above freezing during the day. I woke up this morning to my kitchen faucet not having water (at all) when turning it to the hot setting. It’s the type of faucet that you just turn left (hot) and right (cold) and lift to open. The cold water side is fine. The two other faucets found in the two bathrooms have hot water without issues, but they have separate faucets for hot and cold. I’ve been religiously dripping all our faucets every night since last week. Is it possible something froze? And what I can do to start figuring out the problem and possibly fix myself?
Thanks in advance!
Edit: Here’s what it looks like under the sink. The upper left tube is what I believe is the hot water, the right for cold, and the bottom goes to the dishwasher.
Update: Water finally came out! I left the faucet open on hot, then ran hot water on all the sinks and showers in the bathrooms to get the water heater pumping. After around 10 minutes, water started to trickle and eventually went full blast. I’ll make sure to drip the hot water as well and not just cold from here on out! Thanks to everyone who responded!
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I had the exact same situation during Uri in 2021 following 36 hours of no power and dripping faucets, Houston area. Unfortunately I’d only been dripping cold water faucets due to bad advice and not yet understanding the mechanics of the plumbing system. Once I discovered the freeze I opened the faucet fully and once power was restored I set a space heater pointed to the pipes underneath the sink and eventually it started flowing again. No damage but we have pex which are supposed to be more resilient to freezing incidents. Since then I’ve dripped both sides and always treated that area with care in freezes since as that proved that was the weakest link.
Thanks for the response. Unfortunately I also did the same, just dripped the cold faucets. Thankfully the rest of our plumbing seems to work fine though. And ironically our kitchen sink is on an island in the middle of the kitchen, so not by an exterior wall. The pipes under the sink don’t feel frozen and I left the doors open overnight to keep them exposed to the heating. I believe our house uses pex as well. Did you just leave it open on a hot setting? I’ll probably try doing that and see if it eventually flows.
Where is your shutoff valve in case your pipe froze and split?
Turn on the hot water to that faucet.
Feel the pipe under the sink. Is it frozen?
Pipes are typically in the wall, attic, or under the home. Try to get heat to the pipe by opening the cupboard doors to expose that wall to the heat.
Turn your home thermostat up a few degrees.
Thanks for the response.
Where is your shutoff valve in case your pipe froze and split?
Do you mean the main shutoff for the entire house? It’s outside and I can shut if off if necessary. Every other faucet in the house works fine though, and there doesn’t appear to be a loss in pressure.
Feel the pipe under the sink. Is it frozen?
It doesn’t feel frozen. The pipe for the cold water even feels colder.
Try to get heat to the pipe by opening the cupboard doors to expose that wall to the heat.
Our kitchen sink is on an island in the middle of the kitchen, so it’s not by an exterior wall. I’ve also kept the cupboard doors under the sink open throughout the night.
Turn your home thermostat up a few degrees.
Out thermostat is at 70F the entire time. Do I need to turn it up even higher?
Do you have a basement you can use to access the pipes?
If you have a shutoff valve under the sink, shut it off and put the connection hose into a bucket and turn it own to see if it’s a faucet issue or if the pipe is blocked.
If the pipe is blocked you’ll want to figure out where it’s blocked at and put some heat on it.
I’d take this a little bit further and turn the cold water off to the faucet before trying the hot water. If nothing comes out then a pipe is broken or blocked. If cold water comes out then something else is going on.
Hard to say without seeing your setup (and my first coffee hasn’t hit my bloodstream yet) but ya, it’s probably a frozen spot in the line between your hot water tank and the tap that isn’t working.
It happens to me once or twice every year… I live in Canada in a very old house where the weather has been into the -30c (-22f) lately. Open the tap, and You’ll need to pour some heat on that part of the line where it’s frozen to help it thaw using either a heatgun/ hair dryer or torch. (Careful if you’re using a torch or heatgun to not put too much heat on the plumbing joints where they’re soldered… assuming you have copper lines.) Tapping on the line while putting heat on it helps a bit to break up the ice, but be careful not to hit it too hard.
If it’s in a crawlspace you might be able to stuff a space heater in there and let it warm things up too.
Here’s what it looks like under the sink:
The upper left tube is what I believe the hot water, the upper right the cold, and the one at the bottom is for the dishwasher. I don’t know if I’m capable of finding where exactly in the house the piping froze. Can I just wait it out since we’re well above freezing until sunset later?
It probably won’t be under the sink unless it’s really cold there, it’ll be further in towards where your hot water tank is.
As far as the waiting goes… maybe? the outside temp will warm up faster than where your plumbing usually is as it shouldn’t be getting much outside airflow to help it warm up, so it may not get much of a chance to warm without assistance. I’m going to assume you don’t have a basement but just a crawlspace under the floor where the pipes are… is there somewhere you can put a fan blowing underneath to help push some heat under there?
If the hot line running to your island runs close to another hot line, running hot water on your other taps may help warm things a bit down there too, but that’s really slow and not a very efficient method.
Fortunately it’s not too cold out down there so it shouldn’t take too much heat to get things flowing, it’s just a matter of finding where the plug is.
OMG water finally came out! I left the faucet open then ran hot water in the bathroom sinks and showers to get the water heater pumping. After around 10 mins, drops started coming out, then a trickle, then finally full blast. I’m just happy nothing seems to have been broken. Thanks for the responses! Oh and to answer your question, we don’t even have a crawlspace, the house just sits straight on top of the foundation.
Awesome! Glad it worked out for you!
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