Playing with fire??

[fast pasquale]

So i own a rental property in Cleveland, Oh. It's a side by side unit with 1 of the units vacant.. It's been about 2 degrees here for the last few days. About a month ago i went into the unit and turned on all the faucets... then shut off the water to the vacant side. Next i turned on the basement faucets to "bleed" the system of water. I poured antifreeze in the toilets and down all the drains. My question is the temp in the house was 28 yesterday and i noticed that the kitchen faucet (which is close to an outside wall) had frozen handles. I really don't want to turn the heat on at all b/c even if i leave it a 50.. my bill will still be at least 200 bucks a month. I inspected the pipes and didn't see any bursts... but i know they will be hard to see. Am i doing the right thing here??... Im fine with the pipes freezing, as long as they don't burst. What do you think. I didn't use a compressor to get all the water out. Can the residual amount of water left in the pipes be a problem for me? Thanks so much!!

 

[hj]

freezing

whether the residual water will create a problem or not depends on how it freezes. If it freezes at both ends, for example, and works its way towards each other, then it will probably split the pipe. If the expansion does not get "trapped" then it probably will not, but your problem is that you cannot know which will, or has, happened, and won't until you turn the water back on and the system thaws out.

 

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[Dubldare]

$200/month til spring is probably cheaper than what your plumbing bill will be.

 

[fast pasquale]

ok.. so i went into the house today and it was 28 degrees. i turned the water back on along with the heat and within a few hours got it up to 55 or so...... and amazingly no leaks... I really think i got away with one here. It's a two pipe system (gravity?) and as i turned the system back on i got a LOT of banging coming from the steam pipes... It actully sounded like water was forcing it's way through the pipe and pushing/melting chunks of ice... but im not superman and i couldn't see through the abestos wraped pipes. I did notice that one of the first floor radiator located by an outside wall is only getting warm on the first quarter of the radiator while the rest are all hot throughout.

 

[Plumber1]

check the water level in the glass gauge. Too much water in the boiler will cause banging and limited heat. You should be able to see the water line in the glass and if you can't then drain some water.

Again a plugged vent could cause banging. unscrew the vent and see if the noise goes away the rad. heats up.

 

[fast pasquale]

the site glass was empty first... the low water cut off kept coming on.. so this is when i turned the water on for this unit. it filled up.. site glass was at 3/4 full and pretty much stayed that way.