Dreaded Frozen Pipes.

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Hudson

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Prepare for the novel.

A few days while i was sleeping the burner on my boiler stopped firing. Long story short i woke up freezing. Glanced over at the thermometer for outside and it read a bone chilling -10 Fahrenheit.

House dropped down to 48 degrees. Went downstairs to the boiler, slapped in a new nozzle, changed out the filter - still nothing. Looked in the draft regulator - all soot. Got out the vacuum, vacuumed out the entire boiler, removed the burner, cleaned out in between the casts, yata yata yata. Put it back together, boiled fired - success or so i thought.

I have (4) zones in my house. Downstairs, garage, living room, bedrooms. The downstairs and garage are obviously both downstairs. The other two zones are upstairs.

The living room zone is totally fine.

My problem is in the bedrooms zone. The zone somehow managed to freeze. I have no idea where the pipes are run once they leave the room the boilers in. I don't know if they're all inside, run outside under the awning of the house (Live in a raised ranch) or what. Totally clueless. All i know is that the zone is frozen. Shot an IR gun at all the 90s where it goes into the baseboard heat and they're all between 29-34 degrees.

I've been forcing hot water through the supply side of the boiler and then attempting to purge off the cold water i'm trying to melt on the return side. Needless to say it's not working considering the temperatures out.

I was thinking about hooking up shop air to the entire zone and shooting like 50PSI or so into the lines (obviously using the valves to avoid letting that kind of pressure go into the boiler itself) but i'm kind of weary with this idea.

Anyone have any suggestions? They'd be much appreciated!
 
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My only recommendation is to move out here in Southern California, where today it is a nice 80 degrees!

Seriously, I have no idea but please hang on, someone will be here to provide you an answer to your problem shortly.
 
do you have a welding machine?

clamp the leads , one on one side of the base board heater and the other on the other side..turn it on.

wait 5 minutes and it will thaw redneck pipe thaw machine :D

if you dont have a welder ,,,rent a http://screencast.com/t/Sr49rvyGT9iC



after you get it thawed out, get some glycol in that system [anti freeze]
 
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