Hey all.
I woke up this morning to no heat on my ground floor. I have a two zone system with an older weil-mcclain boiler. The zone upstairs is working fine. I also had a sink freeze up in the back of the house, so I think that is also the problem with my heat. The bathroom was not badly frozen...I just put a kerosene heater in the bathroom for 30 minutes and the water started flowing...no broken pipes either (yay!).
Now, I assume the loop is froze as well, but I cant seem to find where. There are many places where the pipes go through the wall and I have no access. I spent several hours on my belly in the crawlspace with a hairdryer heating as much of the loop as I could find, but to no avail. I am 90% sure it's frozen, as I can open the drain spigot on the loop and no significant water comes out (other than what gravity pulls out).
I am stumped. I was really hoping to not have to call in the cavalry, but I guess I may have to call a plumber/HVAC guy. I have read online about these electric pipe thawing machines that look like large battery chargers w/jumper clamps. Anyone have any experience with these? I assume they use electricity to heat the pipe.
Now, I also assum that it isn't the circulator pump (Taco) as even if the pump was froze-up, water would still exit the drain spigot due to the system pressure and fill valve (which it does not). Correct?
Any advice is very much appreciated!
Thanks!
I woke up this morning to no heat on my ground floor. I have a two zone system with an older weil-mcclain boiler. The zone upstairs is working fine. I also had a sink freeze up in the back of the house, so I think that is also the problem with my heat. The bathroom was not badly frozen...I just put a kerosene heater in the bathroom for 30 minutes and the water started flowing...no broken pipes either (yay!).
Now, I assume the loop is froze as well, but I cant seem to find where. There are many places where the pipes go through the wall and I have no access. I spent several hours on my belly in the crawlspace with a hairdryer heating as much of the loop as I could find, but to no avail. I am 90% sure it's frozen, as I can open the drain spigot on the loop and no significant water comes out (other than what gravity pulls out).
I am stumped. I was really hoping to not have to call in the cavalry, but I guess I may have to call a plumber/HVAC guy. I have read online about these electric pipe thawing machines that look like large battery chargers w/jumper clamps. Anyone have any experience with these? I assume they use electricity to heat the pipe.
Now, I also assum that it isn't the circulator pump (Taco) as even if the pump was froze-up, water would still exit the drain spigot due to the system pressure and fill valve (which it does not). Correct?
Any advice is very much appreciated!
Thanks!