250,000 Americans With Frozen Pipes

Frozen temperatures across the U.S. have plumbers working overtime. According to State Farm Insurance more than 250,000 American homeowners experience frozen water pipes every year. You can prevent frozen pipes by:

• Running a small trickle of hot and cold water from your faucets. Running water does not freeze.
• Open the cabinet doors under your sink to expose your pipes to warmer air.
• Make sure you know the location of your main water shut-off valve.
• Finally, wrap your pipes in insulation or heat tape with help from a professional.

In some cases, heat tape doesn’t help. In those extreme cases, plumbers have, what they call, a pipe thawing machine. It looks like a car battery and sends an electric current through the copper pipes and melts the ice inside. If you notice a decrease in water pressure or no water at all, you could have pipes filled with ice that are on the brink of bursting.