Plumbing and cold weather lesson

[rwanders]

 duhh Thought I would pass on an experience I recently had---A few days ago I "commissioned" a new septic tank after several months of freezing and sub zero weather.  None of the drains would drain---mild concern ensued and I removed clean out near the side of the cabin----now mild panic ensued because the 3 inch pvc pipe was full of ice!  My god, I thought how could that be---the plumbing had never been used---I had only turned on the well pump just that morning. I immediately thought----the entire 1000 gallon tank must have somehow filled with water and was now frozen solid. We then cut the pvc line sloping down from the cabin plumbing and, it too was full of ice!  Now the plumber that was with me was also flabbergasted---even if the tank was full it was buried 10 feet and how would water in it back up 2 feet above the ground? We got the ice out of the sloped line and turned up my tankless heater to 140 degrees and left the clean out cap open and proceeded to let the hot water work on the ice in the lines. After about 15-20 minutes of that we used a 18" bar to chip at the ice through the clean out. Suddenly the drain opened up and flowed freely.  We finally figured out what happened----when I had the sheetrockers/tapers/painters in, they had been running a dehumidifier for several days in very cold weather and the slow trickle of water going down the shower drain had glaciated in the line finally blocking it completely.  Great sighs of relief from me!!  In normal use, even in Alaska. a 3 or 4" drain would not freeze like that----it did illustrate a potential problem if you have a very slow trickle in sub zero weather

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[Bishopknight]

No but it sounds like it was a scary experience. I'm glad it turned out ok though.