One Frozen watee line

[asherdasher63]

Last night it got down to 12°F so I left the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and shower all run with a steady stream. Woke up this morning and went to fill the dogs bowl no water to the kitchen! The bathroom still runs just fine. We have a heater underneath the belly set on 86 pointing right at the water lines and I've blow dried the lines in the kitchen. Every once and awhile you will see little bubbles going up the pipe. There is no water leaking anywhere. This is our first winter in a 5th wheel so any help is very much appreciated!

[Bob_Quinn]

Leaving the water run is the lazy way and as stated it could freeze in the sewer line, I have seen it happen. Put some water in your holding tank and no problems!
Bob

[stetwood]

In the future:
#1 Use your on board tanks when the temps get down below freezing, disconnect and drain your supply hose. (Those frost proof faucets drain the water out of them when they are shut off, leaving them on will cause them to freeze. )
#2 Open your cupboard doors, most plumbing is next to the walls and it is the coldest.
#3 Before turning in at night, shut pump off and open faucets to allow for expansion in case you do have frozen pipes.
#4 FORGET ABOUT running water, a lead pencil size flow is nearly 1000 GALLONS PER DAY. Only if the campground host tells you to run water should you. Can you imagine what 50 campers @ 1000gal per day will do to the water system, bill and sewer system.

We have camped in temps down to zero and used the above cautions and never had a problem. We also live in a climate with temps to minus 30 or greater for days at a time and learn to prepare ourselves for cold weather.

[asherdasher63]

We have 2 30# just one is empty. This weekend a friend is giving us a 100# they have an extra of so that will come in very handy! Also I'll check into that water alarm I've never heard of it.

[AUwing2]

With only one propane tank and temps this low you're looking at a daily task.

[asherdasher63]

Actually just went and had the bottle filled today!

[AUwing2]

Happy things are flowing - sorry to hear about the overflow. Have you check propane levels the last few days? You're going thru a lot of it and would hate to hear that you've run out in the wee hours of the morning.

[time2roll]

If you run water at night, let the HOT water run at more than a trickle.
Glad to hear things are flowing again 🙂


Actually that may not be good advice. If the drain freezes it would overflow. But the idea is to have warm water make it all the way to the sewer.

Maybe a water alarm is in order:
http://www.homedepot.com/s/water%2520alarm?NCNI-5

[2oldman]

Glad you got it unthawed.

[asherdasher63]

So I boiled hot water and dumped Rv anti freeze down the drain and it was unthawed with in the hour. We keep the heater on constantly that why I can't understand why it froze all of a sudden because its been a lot colder here than last night. Our water hose and sewer connection are all heat taped and we hard piped the sewer hose and wrapped it as well. It wasn't the pipe itself that was frozen because I kept the bathroom running all day but the Grey tank or its outlet was the culprit. Everything is in working order now. And my carpet is drying. Thanks for the help everyone. I was in a serious panic today!

[time2roll]

Getting to be late in the day and you have a completely filled tank potentially going to freeze. I would have the sewer hose off and run some water up the drain to help thaw the ice from the inside. If you have a hot water connection use it.

[phillyg]

Unless you have an electric gizmo on your hose, you definately need to turn off the water supply and remove your hose from the bib when the temps head south of 32 degrees. And don't leave any liquid in your sewer hose; I turned one into a poopsicle one cold night.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Put a 600 watt heater in the enclosed waste tank area. Be prepared to wait a few hours.

Project for this summer. Add a 120 volt outlet in the waste tanks area. Plug in a mechanical thermostat or a TC-3 thermocube. Plug in the heater to that.

Are you protecting your fridge from external freeze up? If not, do so.

[time2roll]

asherdasher63 wrote:
The lines are unthawed but it says my Grey tank is full I went outside its open but frozen. Any ideas how to undo that? I filled my sink with hot water hoping it will melt it down. No its not 4 seasons that I know of but the underbelly is enclosed.

Get a new sewer hose if the existing is froze solid. Then put heat on the RV waste pipes.

You need to get access to the pipes and get some heat on them.

If you will be doing this frequently I recommend www.ultraheat.com tank and pipe heaters as needed.

That heater under the RV... did you run that all night? Tonight you will. Do not run the water overnight again.

If you have access to the waste pipes you could wrap with some self regulating heat tape. Need to wrap with insulation also.

If no good access to the sink supply lines you could install a hot water circulating system.

Or just head South already 😉

[asherdasher63]

The lines are unthawed but it says my Grey tank is full I went outside its open but frozen. Any ideas how to undo that? I filled my sink with hot water hoping it will melt it down. No its not 4 seasons that I know of but the underbelly is enclosed.