Never Thaw A Frozen Pipe This Way — Do This Instead (Old Plumber's Rule)

It's eleven below when he gets up, and the kitchen faucet gives him two drips and quits. The pipe under the sink is frozen solid. He's seen his father deal with this, so he goes out to the garage and comes back with the propane torch. And it works. The water runs, he shuts the cabinet and goes to work. What he can't see is the back of that cabinet, where the flame found sixty-year-old wood. It smolders inside the wall for three hours. In this video, Ray gives you the one rule an old plumber taught him, heat yes, flame never, and then walks you through the morning a pipe freezes, step by step, in the order you'd do it. Then the five-minute habits that keep it from happening at all. In this video: ✓ How a frozen pipe really bursts, and why it isn't where the ice is ✓ Why the leak shows up when the pipe thaws, not while it's frozen ✓ Step one: open the faucet, hot and cold, and leave it open ✓ Checking the other faucets to find which branch froze ✓ Find your main water shutoff before you put heat on anything, and tag it ✓ How to find the frozen spot: frost, a bulge, or the stretch that bites your hand ✓ Four safe kinds of heat: hair dryer, heating pad, hot towels, a space heater at a distance ✓ The old plumber's rule about direction: start at the faucet and work back toward the ice ✓ The two things you never do: open flame, and anything plugged in while you're standing in water ✓ Walk the pipe after it thaws, and what to do if you find a split ✓ When the frozen pipe is inside a wall ✓ The night before: the 20-degree number, dripping faucets, open cabinet doors, the thermostat, never below 55 when you're away ✓ Cheap permanent fixes: foam sleeves, sealing gaps, the garden hose, listed heat cable ✓ Ray's twenty-five-dollar frozen pipe shoebox The guidance follows American Red Cross, IBHS and fire service recommendations on frozen pipes. Ray isn't a plumber. For a pipe you can't reach, or one that's already split, call a licensed one. Watch until the end for the one-minute recap in the order you'd do it. Tell me in the comments: What state are you in, and how cold did it get the last time your pipes froze?