So we had near record lows and windchill in Norther Maine last week, and frozen pipes are nothing new. Most times I just have to take a heat gun, and heat up this little stem on my water pump to get it flowing again.

This time however, was different.

First, the water flows fine, hot and cold, out of the kitchen sink, but on the other side of the house the bathroom's sink and tub at first started spitting out a brownish water, then it ran clear but at a lower pressure for both hot and cold.

I should mention that one side of the house is currently unheated, so I assumed some of the pipes on my side ran through that side and managed to partially preeze?

It cant be ice, right? I mean, if ice were the culprit, wouldnt the hot water running through melt it?

It is an old house with old copper pipes, so maybe some ice formed, and dislodged some mineral deposit which is obstructing the flow? We supposedly have very "hard" water up here from the well.

I dunno, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ps another oddity is in the same bathroom the toliet seems to be refilling at the same rate it always did, even though it too was refilling with the same brown silty water.

Help!



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Remove the aerators from the faucets and check them for debris. Run the faucets with the aerators removed to flush out anything. The tub unfortunately, would need to have the cartridge/balancer removed for cleaning/replacing.

Is the water from the faucet actually "hot"?

Ill give the aerators a shot, the shower head too.

ps yeah, the water is just as hot as it always was, just slower.

Just wanted to thank you, Steve. I was so fixated on the problem being some buried expensive problem with the pipes that I never thought to just check the damn faucets.

I did, cleaned them out, got a new shower head, and all is well again.

Weird that the cold caused so much crud to get pumped up from the well, been here 10 years and hadnt seen that before.

Thanks again!



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Water freezing inside a pipe puts quite a bit of stress on the pipe, dislodging any debris that may be there.

The debris was not from the well but as NC states, from the freeze action within the plumbing.

On a real cold nite sometimes I recommend a few drops of water running thru the far faucet to prevent potential freezes of the pipes. Where I live -20 to -30 degrees we worry about the pipes except those pipes poorly placed near outside wall.