I have the heated hose...which works great... and i have a 5 gallon heated bucket.. works great.. BUT, ...the pipe in the crawl space that leads to the hose spicket is freezing over night now! ahhhhhhh, it's very hard to get water from the house outside to them, when I'm getting my daughter ready for school, and me ready for work....So If i can figure this out, it would be great.. We even insulated it, with the insulating tube that fits right over the pipe, and then taped that. This pipe is in the crawl space under the house, and then comes right out the back of the house. I diconnect the hose from it right after i use it, but the water must not be draining out of the pipe completely? Help!
Is there some kind of heater that you can put on the pipe? Hope you get it fixed soon. I was so nervous about this problem so in the end I am hauling water with buckets.
Best thing I've found is to leave the spigot running all night long. Just a drip, enough the keep the water moving instead of freezing. A really small drip will do. That or go to Lowe's/Home Depot, they have styrofoam spigot covers for just a few dollars and most are easy to use.
I had a similar problem in Maryland. The pipe was in the unheated garage going to the outside spigot. I covered the spigot outside, turned the water off inside, but it still froze up. Had a plumber come out and turned out the pipe had a dip and water was sitting in it and freezing up. He put a valve in so I could drain the pipe at the lowest point. You can partially insulate your crawlspace, by getting rectangular crawlspace Styrofoam covers that go over the air vents to the crawlspace. Leave one open for air exchange. They just hook in and get tightened with plastic screws. Then get one of the electric pipe tapes and put it below the pipe, mounting it with electric tape and put the foam insulation over it. Put the electric heat tape into one of those thermo cubes so it only turns on when it get really cold down there.
a drip of water. thats good advice. every year it seems we have one house pipe that will freeze up. the hose (pipe whatever) is connected to our well water and that pipe is down in the garage, but next to the outside, sooooo (hope that sort of makes some sense) it freezes. i have some advice to offer for locks that may freeze on our chicken coops. I go outside now with a cup of hot water, i pour some on the locks, and they open right away.
Check out ebay for lock deicer. They have spray cans to will do the trick. Had one In Germany for my car. I later learned that you want your lock to be greased up well so ice crystals cannot form inside. The warm water may work, but in the long run it is not the best choice. Load it up with W40 before it starts to freeze. Graphite is also a good choice. Also grease up the gaskets so they wont freeze to the door.
