Cold Morning
Frozen pipes? No problem…
I just don’t understand women… “Not relatedâ€?, you say? I think not.
We awoke this morning to frozen pipes. My wife, none to pleased with the idea of melting snow for coffee and a bath, asked me to “do something.â€? She then told me how to do it. She continued offering suggestions (orders?) while I did the two things that I thought would fix it. I turned the water heater up to 65 Celsius (Japanese houses have water heater thermostats that you can turn off/on and set to the perfect bath temperature. 65 is as high as ours goes.) and put the hot water on full blast. See, the issue was not with “waterâ€?, but with “hot waterâ€?. The cold water pipes were fine, but the hot water just would not pour forth for dish washing and back-side scrubbing. This I just do not understand. Each year our hot water piped freeze, while our cold water pipes are just find and dandy. What the fork is up with that? Anyway, so after doing my two step fix the hot water trick, I was wandering around the house trying to look busy and avoid the wife’s speech on the things I should be doing to fix the pipes:
- Pour hot, but not too hot, water on the pipes outside to warm them (Apparently “too hotâ€? water will burst the pipes…)
- Use a blow dryer on the pipes to heat them up (This involves standing shin deep in snow in sub-zero temperatures, while blow drying the outside of my house. This falls under the category of “amusing the neighbors�, NOT “home repair�.)
- Pull everything from under the sink to get closer to the pipes (She is probably just trying to trick me into cleaning with this one.)
- There were more, believe you me, but I stopped listening.
Suddenly, from the kitchen, “It’s coming out, the hot water is starting to come out!â€?. I stroll into the kitchen, shoulders squared, and inquire “Pardon me?â€? I see that the water is in fact now pouring forth in a healthy and steamy fashion, and I feel a moment of pride in my vanquishing of the frozen pipes.
“You know, you’re lucky you didn’t burst the pipes that way…. should of used the blow dryer….I told you…â€?
I butt in rudely: “Did I not fix the hot water?�
“Yes, you did.�
“Your welcome.� And I walk away, knowing that I did my job, but realizing that somehow my wife was still less than pleased with me.
Frozen pipes? No problem.
Women? Well… I have been told that the front steps need shoveling, and that the garbage needs to be taken out, the dog needs a walk, and my office is a mess…
December 18th, 2005 at 11:40 am
Strange, my mom used to tell me to fill the ice trays with hot water vs. cold - she insisted it froze much faster. I will have to ask my physics professor friend for the reason.
December 18th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
Your mother was correct, kind of. Hot water freezes at a faster rate than cold water, but not faster.
Let’s say that I want to go shopping, and I want to go to a convenience store. I could hop on a plane, and go to a 7-11 in Jersey, or I could get in my car and drive to town here in Japan. Although the plane’s rate of travel is much faster than my car’s, I will still get to the store in town before a plane could get me to the Jersey 7-11. The plane just has much further to go.
Boiling water will freeze at a faster rate than cold water, but it still takes a lot longer.
December 22nd, 2005 at 9:01 pm
Steve- why are you on the computer? The shower head is leaking again! What’s all this clutter in the living room still doing here?!?!
I don’t know about Japan, but there’s foam pipe insulation here that can be added on over existing water pipes.
Your pipes run externally for part of it- to protect them there (so that foam insulation does not fill up with rainwater/condensation and freeze) wrap plastic around the foam OR get thin-walled (no more than 2mm thick) PVC pipe with a diameter 2x greater than diameter of water pipe W/ foam.
Cut PVC down its length to fit over pipe/foam, with cut side DOWN to drain any moisture.
OR– build a nice little pipe roof running alongside your house that cover the external pipe.
–Bob Vila
January 11th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I just wanted to pop in and say hi… so… Hi!
January 15th, 2006 at 2:59 am
Hey Steve, you’re writing again! Had no idea. Just popped in after an abnormally long time away from blogging.
Happy New Year! (there is a card on the way, by the way).
I have the same thing happen with my hot water here in Tokyo. I don’t think it’s the water that is having trouble, but the gas pipes. After all it is methane gas flowing through cooled metal pipes…. most likely it is the gas reacting with the cold. Perhaps heating the gas pipe? Heh, heh. Can’t wait to read about that big explosion in West Nowhere!
January 29th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
I don’t really care about the pipes, I just want to know if you’re my locker buddy at EAHS and if you are, will you come home for our 20th reunion? I emailed you, but the address was from 2003 so I’m not sure if it’s still correct. So if this is Stephen Wentworth Henneberry - can’t wait to hear from you! Kate
March 16th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Mother Superior: “Sister Maria, if you were walking through town at night, and were accosted by a man with bad intentions, what would you do?”
“I would lift my habit, Mother Superior.”
Mother Superior (shocked): “And what would you do next?”
Sister Maria: “I would tell him to drop his trousers.”
Mother Superior (even more shocked): “And what then?”
Sister Maria: “I would run away. I can run much faster with my habit up than he can with his trousers down.”
NOTE FROM SASANE
This comment is obviously SPAM, but the joke is harmless enough.
The URL has been deleted to take away the Google-Juice the spammer is looking for.
June 23rd, 2006 at 9:21 am
:cry:My hot water will not some out of the shower head. the cold comes out real good. same with the bathroom sink, very little hot water. but my hot water in the kitchen comes out real good. its just in the bathroom the hot water will not come through. what gives here? And do you think i can fix it with out calling a plumber?
thank-you for your answer
June 26th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
bECKY,
When my pipes freeze, I usually just park a kerosene heater near the pipes to warm them up. Notice that I said “near”. Don’t melt your pipes!
If you are having trouble with hot water now, in June, then you definitely need a plumber…
If you are talking about a problem during the winter, then I know what your problem is. Japanese water heaters are often closest to the kitchen, so those pipes may not freeze as quickly. Your bathroom (OFURO?) pipes probably run outside of the house, and are more exposed to the cold. If you can see then, wrap them in towels to keep them a little warmer. Of course, actual pipe insulation is the best way to do it…
January 14th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Lol even though I’m a woman, your post made me laugh, hope I’m not like that, but I fear the worst!