Water Pump and lines Frozen

[Cheri Smith]

Temperature has been in the teens & Twenty's and I guess our bay heater quit which I was not aware of and our bay water lines and pump froze. What is the best way to thaw the lines so everything will be okay?http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/Smileys/default/huh.gif

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheri

[Gimpy]

Cheri,

Your pump should run even if the lines are frozen, it just won't pump any water. Running it could burn the pump up. To thaw the lines get it into somewhere warm or wrap them with heat tape.

[MrE]

I would put a small ceramic heater in your bay until it thaws. If you're near a Walmart something like this would work. Lasko Heater, Ceramic, Silver/Black - Walmart.com (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lasko-Products-Ceramic-1500W-Heater-Silver-Black/16503225)

[NewellCrazy]

Hair dryer works nice for thawing lines :thumbup:

[prairieschooner]

Agreed try to thaw out everything.
Sorry I do not believe that a Shurflo or Jabsco Pump will run with frozen water inside.

[ccjohnson]

Let us know the outcome. I had an old Executive in CO that gave me fits in the winter with frozen lines. Only had a couple of them split thank goodness! Temps ran to -20F. I agree, hair dryer is great to thaw individual lines. We keep a cheap Lasko electric heater in plumbing bay on the Newell.

[Neweller]

I have had my pipes freeze on at least a couple occasion from the heat not being on, too low of a setting or failure. All great advice here, one other thing I had done on my coaches is installing insulation foam over the pipes. If you have copper pipes which a lot of the older coaches seem to have, I would recommend heat tape prior to adding a quality foam pipe wrap. I would not use heat tape on PVC or plastic pipes. I have used the hair dryer and it will eventually get the job done, getting things heated back up is definitely the trick. I disconnected my pump and took it inside to thaw while I worked on the pipes. I had a pump strainer crack the second time around and replaced it.

I concur with Steve on the Shurflo pumps freezing and just quitting. I have never had a Shurflo burn up from freeze situation they are die-hard pumps. I have ran them for years and they are like a Timex. Jabsco are good pumps too and I have had bad luck with Flojet pumps.

Just my nickels worth of thought.