If I hear "polar vortex" just one more time....I'm gonna have to turn the TV off!

signed...

Southern dummy

You guys make me happy I live in SoCal. It was 76 degrees today as I was running around. In younger days, I did a decent amount of winter mountaineering and would stay out in the snow for up to a week or two, but the temps in the Sierras were mild compared to what you are all talking about. I think the coldest I remember was around zero to five degrees, and I got ice crystals on the inside of the roof of my tent from breathing.

Its in the teens now. They say, 3* in the AM.:eek::eek:

Ya do everything the way you're supposed to, make sure you drip faucets and whaddaya get for it? A freeking frozen waterline in the garage! I knew I should have just fired up my "Big Buddy" heater and just let it run all night. First round goes to the Polar Vortex... but I'm not a quitter! I'm bringing in the big guns 150,000 but Ready Heater propane salamander. I SHALL PREVAIL!

Crazy thing is, hot water was dripping as was cold. This morning cold is dripping, hot faucet is frozen. Walk over to where bottled water is in the garage... none of it frozen.

Update: Disaster averted! Round 2 goes to Nick! Let's hope I delivered a knockout blow because I don't want to spend the day fighting the cold.

The funny thing is, I have been outside now a few times and it doesn't feel that cold out.

My plumbing stack froze last night and toilets won't flush...good thing my beer fridge is also frozen, and the pizza guy can't get up my laneway or I could be in big trouble

I take it the pipe froze but didn’t break?

Sisu! My friend, sisu!

-19º when I work up this morning. Lots of loud pops overnight as various things froze.

0* here. I good.opened cabinets and let the water trickle all night. So far, so good.

-3°, wnw31

Round 3 goes to the Polar vortex! I was on the computer when I heard a sound like something hit the floor. You guessed it! waterline in the crawlspace burst. OH JOY! and waterline to 2nd floor toilet is frozen. Water is shut off, line open on both ends and heater blowing on the line. Keeping fingers crossed that one doesn't go.
And to make things even more interesting, the power is flickering which means I might be getting the generator fired up. I love cold weather.

Patrick,
It was just frozen at the spigot. If you get to them fast enough they typically don't burst. Obviously I didn't get to the one in the crawl space fast enough. Worst part is It goes to an outside spigot that I forgot to drip! :mad::mad::mad:

The amazing thing to me about the crawl space is, there's at least 3" of foam sprayed on the walls and box end joists and it's STILL cold enough to freeze a line in the crawl. I have an electric space heater in the crawl now, Big Buddy propane heater in the garage and electric space heater going in the second floor bath. I will prevail!... provided the power holds. Power goes out and I'm down to furnace, space heaters and well pump. That's about all my 5000KW generator will run.

Wish I could come up and help, Nick. I’m good at disaster relief and I don’t mind the cold.

I am reminded of a saying I heard in Denmark, “The weather isn’t cold, it’s the way you’re dressed.”“

I have things under control. This isn't my first time in the ring. I just can't believe even after all the things I have done to insulate this place that that I still have lines freezing. The second floor line runs in the joist between the first and second floor, ends about 8" away from the outside wall and comes up through the floor, has insulation all around it, has the ends of the floor joist space sealed off... and it's STILL that cold.. someday when I get around to redoing the 2nd floor bath I'll take the floor up and install pex rather than CPVC. Pex will withstand freezing better than CPCV

Worst case scenario, I have a bottle of Woodford Reserve I'll pop open. By the time I'm done I won't be able to remember what my problem was.

Call from Dave half hour ago. "I don't have heat and the truck has no power. I had heat yesterday".

Have you been adding water to the radiator? "Yes, lots of water this last fall".

Nothing quite like crazy cold temps to show you that no matter how well prepared you are... you still weren't prepared enough.

My car repair shop was in a college town. About once a year we had some kid drive in from down south and we’d have a radiator/engine/heater core job to do. One winter a car came in without brakes. Some idiot had put water in the master cylinder and it froze.

Canadian translation: No such thing as bad weather, just bad wardrobe :)