3 Easy & Fast Ways To Thaw A Drain Pipe

During the cold winter season, when you are enjoying the comfort of your home and sipping a hot drink, a frozen drain pipe can be an absolute nuisance. Without a doubt, frozen water pipes or drain pipes are one of the most threatening plumbing problems, as they can easily put the entire house on hold and prevent normal day-to-day operation.

But if you’re dealing with a frozen pipe, don’t worry; we have your back. In this article, we will discuss different ways you can safely unfreeze a frozen drain pipe.

Why do drain pipes actually freeze?

Before we get into the details of what is happening and how you can effectively counter it, it is essential to understand why this would happen. Well, nobody gets excited at the thought frozen water pipesbut from time to time, we all have to fight this menace.

There are various reasons responsible for frozen drain pipes, and temperature drops are definitely at the top of the list. However, there could be other reasons, for example, faulty or damaged insulation around the drain pipe, a crack in the pipe, or just a lack of water flowing through the exposed pipe. Although, it can be almost impossible to find out the cause of a frozen drain plug.

Why do drain pipes actually freeze?

What happens when drain pipes freeze?

What’s even more problematic is that you can’t just wait and let the frozen drain line thaw on its own. This is because there is a high risk of the pipe breaking due to the ice pressure that builds up over time. During the frost, water undergoes natural expansion, and this eventually leads to blocked pipes. If there is more water in the drain, there will be larger ice blocks, resulting in more significant damage.

If you leave the blockage as it is or wait for it to thaw, you risk further damaging the pipes. This is because as more and more water continues to solidify into ice, there will be an imminent risk of an eruption in the drain pipes which will surely destroy the poplars and may even lead to flooding.

How to effectively defrost a drain pipe

Before we start spilling the beans on how to deal with frozen drains, it’s essential to avoid these two things:

  1. You should never have an open flame, flame or candles near frozen drains. If you do not avoid this, you are exposing yourself to a serious risk of fire, as there have been cases where an entire house caught fire due to this negligence.
  2. It would help if you didn’t use corrosive drain pipe cleaners as they would result in aggressive chemical reactions involving the pipes or ice and could leak a poisonous material or gas to shoot the pipes. This puts you at risk and can lead to serious health problems.

It’s also important to be aware of your home’s primary water shutoff points before you begin working on this project. This will allow you to act quickly if you need to shut off the water supply to minimize any type of damage caused by a leak.

Now that you know all the basics, it’s time to understand how to do it solve a frozen and blocked drain without causing damage.

What happens when drain pipes freeze?

1. Choose the gradual warm-up strategy

Siphoning is often the main nuisance when you have a blocked drain line due to frozen water. One of the easiest things to do is to heat the trap and eventually it would help gradually heat up the drain pipe. Although, you must be careful to avoid extreme heat instantly as it can damage the pipe.

The best strategy is to warm the frozen drain line steadily but gradually. For this purpose, you can use an electrical device (for example, a heater or a hair dryer). Be careful when heating the downspout, because if you end up placing the heaters too close to the downspout, it can cause unnecessary damage to the downspout again.

But what if you don’t have a hair dryer or heater? Well, there’s no need to worry because you can continue down the path of gradual heating using a hot towel or heating pad. Before placing the hot towel near the drain pipe, wring it out well and then wrap it around the pipe. The process can take up to half an hour or a little more, but you should not rush. Once the towel or heater has been in the recommended positions, you can remove them and repeat the process.

Another alternative is get some electric heat tape. It’s basically a ribbon-like device that you can conveniently wrap around the drain pipe with the heating elements. Once you’ve wrapped it securely, you can start gradually heating the drain pipes. The temperature can be adjusted using the thermostat.

As mentioned earlier, any kind of quick heating method is not recommended. For example, heat guns or propane torches can be dangerous and have a high risk of starting a fire, but this is not the only disadvantage, as it can also lead to broken drain pipes or cause a crack. Quick warm-up methods may seem like a time-saving strategy, but they would really add to the to-do list and cause more damage than repair.

Choose the gradual heating strategy

2. Start pouring boiling water down the pipe

Let’s say you don’t have access to either electrical appliances to help with the gradual warm-up strategy, and you don’t feel like going the «hot towel» route either. Another simple alternative could be to pour boiling water down the drain. But be very careful while performing this task, as boiling water can sometimes flow backwards and upwards from the drain pipe (depending on where the blockage is), and this can cause you physical injury.

When boiling water for this operation, make sure you have enough hot water to not only get through the ice, but also to thaw the drain. Be aware of the risk involved in this process, as it is quite possible that the boiling water will be unable to work its way through the ice and instead of helping the situation, it will make everything worse by becoming part of the frozen ice.

3. A little salt can go a long way

If you’ve tried your luck with the two strategies above and still haven’t seen any results, this strategy may come in handy. Although, if nothing works, there will be no other way but to call a professional installer.

We’ve all seen big trucks spreading salt around the ice in the winter. Salt is useful in melting ice because it lowers the freezing point of water. You can use the same logic when trying to fix a frozen drain. Although there may not be instant results, you will definitely see fruitful results after some time.

The best way to do this is to take a handful of table salt and pour it down the drain, then quickly add some boiling water to the drain. You can also pre-dissolve the salt in the boiling water and then pour this mixture down the drain.

A little salt can go a long way

What if the frozen drain has already burst?

One of the worst things that can happen to a frozen downspout is if the downspout bursts due to mounting pressure. However, you must be prepared to handle the situation effectively.

So if the pipe of leak breaks, you must first rush to the main water supply line on your property and turn it off. This will prevent any further damage from leaks or flooding in the home. The next step should be to turn off all electrical sources near the damaged drain pipe. This is an important precaution.

Usually with damaged drain pipes, there are a high risk of leakage into your home, which can eventually lead to dampness, flooding, and mold. In such a situation, you have no choice but to call professionals to step in and repair the damaged drain pipe to stop any further leakage.

Conclusion

It is quite possible that all your efforts have fallen into dismay. Well, it’s quite possible that all your efforts to safely thaw a drain pipe will be in vain. So even if, after trying these three strategies, you don’t see any beneficial results, it’s an indication that the problem may be more complex and you’ll need to seek professional help.

They will be able to discover the main reason and source of the blockage and manage it effectively. One of the great things about having professional help is that they will not only fix the problem for you, but also share some precautions to help you avoid a similar problem in the future.