frozen water pump

[geekyguru]

We had a friek storm come through yesterday. My water pump is no longer working and outside lines are,frozen. I have full fresh water, but no go on pump working. I have now turned central heat on with lp gas water heater. Not sure if we are dead in the water now.

[69_Avion]

I had a water pump freeze and it survived it fine, it just took a while for it to thaw out.

[Old-Biscuit]

Space heaters are great for warming your toes and the immediate area but do nothing for getting heat into the enclosed underbelly (unless you have done some mods to circulate air thru out).

The furnace is needed in cold temps to get warm air down into and around waste tanks/fresh water tank and valves (provided you have a duct from furnace into underbelly).
When temps drop below freezing we run the furnace on 65*F and use space heater in our area. Turn it down to 55*F at night.
We've been in -14*F temps for 2 weeks. 1st night water pump suction line froze up, thawed out the next day and then left inside access door open to water pump area, nothing froze after that......went thru a lot of propane but nothing froze

[geekyguru]

I threw some space heaters in the belly. Ran it with the furnace full blast for a couple hours. Also turned electric and gas water heaters on. Success! Luckily we topped off fresh because the pipes are completely frozen at the facility faucets!!
Tomorrow will be above freezing. Someone told me to set a temp on the furnace (72ish) when I use the water pump, even if we are using space heaters. Guess the theory is that the furnace at some point will kick on and help heat the underbelly.
The for the help guys

[geekyguru]

[geekyguru]

[Old-Biscuit]

Problem may be with the suction line from fresh water tank to pump being frozen vs the pump itself.

[gaymeadowsman]

I always blow air through our waterlines and try to run the pump after ward then blow air though again. Last year I forgot to run the pump and it froze, even though we hadn't used it all year. But when the pump thawed all was well.

[handye9]

Rubber Ducky1 wrote:
Use a hair dryer on the water pump to thaw it out.

Another option -- Check hardware or sporting goods stores (around here, even Home Depot carries them) for disposable hand warmers. Some will heat for up to 18 hours.

Place a few of them around the pump and cover with a towel.

They look like this.

[Rubber_Ducky1]

Use a hair dryer on the water pump to thaw it out.

[Sandia_Man]

Can't say what to expect on your system, but we have had a few instances where weather changed dramatically from prior day's forecast catching us off-guard and thoroughly freezing our plumbing system. We just waited for it to defrost and thankfully experienced no damage to pump or water lines.

[seatboard]

The temp gets low around here sometimes. I Use one of those drop cord lights with a 60 watt bulb that Mechanics hang on the open hood when working. I put it in the Bay where the Water pump is located. I havent checked it lately but it worked last year. If you have such a thing, you might try putting it in there and see. Hope your's will be OK. Good Luck.

[DukeAJuke]

geekyguru wrote:
We had a friek storm come through yesterday. My water pump is no longer working and outside lines are,frozen. I have full fresh water, but no go on pump working. I have now turned central heat on with lp gas water heater. Not sure if we are dead in the water now.

I had my water system freeze up couple times on my old trailer and the water pump survived. I think you will just have to wait and see after things thaw out.

[djsamuel]

Check the fuse for the pump in case it was frozen and blew the fuse.