Frozen Drain Pipes?

[sound-silver]

This is our first year RV'n and thus our first winter. We just brought the 04 CCD up north. It's 6 degrees at night.
After 2 days the grey needed dumped. I just learned that the drain pipes are frozen. This was a gross oversight on my part.
Any suggestions on how to unfreeze them so I can drain the tanks? Our CCD has heater tanks that I presume are operating just fine.
Please post if you can.

[Janet H]

hmmm... can you skirt the trailer somehow and heat underneath?

Not to be a downer here... but this sounds un-fun. Is it frozen solid?

How about a car wash? They have hot water...

[Fyrzowt]

While I've never used them, folks have used heat strips to keep plumbing, etc from freezing. Maybe one of them will chime in - I'm from California and have never been in 6 degrees...
...don't think I want to either.

[eubank]

Defrosting them, once frozen, is a pretty difficult trick. At best, you build a box-like affair around the exposed pipes and heat, heat, heat.

Good luck! We've certainly seen more than our share of that kind of problem here.


Lynn

[CanoeStream]

I will travel with the furnace on in an unwinterized trailer -- but don't attempt to do this with water in any of the 3 tanks. Did this freeze up while underway or only after you got parked? Underway windchill can aggravate heat removal and freeze-up. thecatsandi rolled through here with frozen fresh water drains last month -- sitting stationary with the furnace on loosened that up in less than a day.

The tank heaters require a 120 volt plugin and do not operate while underway. The tank heater doesn't extend to the outlet pipe & dump valve. So ditto on building up a windbreak under your trailer. I'd try a heatlamp and running the furnace.

[jkcru]

Try a hair dryer,heating only enough to start the process of thawing and not damageing the pipe. Heat lamps also work well.

[paxflyer]

Head on down to your local airport and ask if they will allow you to let your Airstream sit in a warm hanger. You may have to pay a little but you will be entertained at the same time by the passing aircraft.
Just an idea.
James

[sound-silver]

I love this forum! The help that we all share with each other is a beautiful thing.
Anyway, I got hold of an electric blanket this morning. It's been wrapped around the drain pipe area for a few hours now. Not sure what the end result is going to be, we plan on giving it a few hours to see if a more drastic strategy is needed. Will post an update and reread the input y'all have. Thanks!

[Crusty]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I'd be surprised if your pipes haven't split in one or more places.

[jdalrymple]

Bales of straw or hay make quick skirt insulation and are easy to set-up. Also look for electric heat tape, it wraps around pipes and tranfers heat to the pipe directly. Don't force the valves, thats the main damage concern.

[sound-silver]

Well, after much fretting and anguish I can happily report that the the loo floweth!
Thanks to follow ups and research on this forum this situation will not happen again.
Just in case someone else has a similar issue I can report that wrapping the area in an electric blanket was not enough to dethaw the drain pipes. I ended up leaving the electric blanket wrapped up and then building an enclosure and sticking a little space heater inside of it. After 3-4 hours both tanks flowed freely. All appears to be damage free and we are most grateful for such a blessing.
Happy camping!

[Fyrzowt]

Success! Thanks for posting the outcome.

[SKEETER]

Coleman Company makes/made a cataytic coleman heater that is painted green. It burns coleman fule and runs for about 8 hours. I have thought about placing mine in an appropriate place under the trailer on those nights that get really cold, which is not that often in South texas. The heater is about 14 by 14 inches and round.

[SafariSS]

I just returned from a week of traveling with the family in my 30' Safari Bunkhouse, and I also experienced freezing temps. I was in snow, lows at night got down to 14f with a 30mph wind. While the Safari kept me warm my drain valves did freeze solid. (Both sewer and grey water).

Having 4 kids, and trying to have fun I needed to get the valves unfrozen. I started with hot water like the article in Airstream Life said. I used hot water from the outside shower, no such luck.

What did work was about 10 minutes with a heat gun. It gets really hot so you have to keep it moving but, once you get the cap off and the valves opened you can direct the heat up the pipe and it starts to defrost quickly. This whole below freezing camping experience was new to me and I now undestand why people go south for the winter!

[DreamStreamr]

We unwisely turned north from sunny Florida to North Carolina at end of February. Stopped overnight in Colleton SC and camped in a field with 3-point hookups. Well, he called it a campground but it looked like a field to us.

Forecast was 32 degrees, you know, just barely freezing. I awoke at 0500 hours to pee and no water flushed the toilet. Just silence when I pressed the pedal. Hmm, check the outside temp and it says 24 degrees. Always gets colder toward dawn, so how cold will it get?

Oh heck, we left a brand new bag of FL grapefruit in the truck and need to d/c the water hose before it bursts or damages the water hydrant. Moved the fruit into the camper. Almost couldn't turn off the hydrant, barely removed the hose and carried it into our shower to thaw and drain.

Back to sleep another hour or two and it was nineteen degrees outside. Okay, we're leaving anyway. Just wanna dump the tanks 'cause we're going to camp at Deb's parents' house with two-point hookups only. Whoops, can't dump the tanks, the valves are solid froze and I'm not gonna sit in 19 degree morning figuring out how to thaw them. Disconnected the sewer hose and it was too stiff to collapse into the storage tube under the Airstream. I ended up capping it on both ends and carefully throwing it into the bed of the truck.

We ended up gassing up and dumping down at a Flying J in the rv pump section. Very nice setup, we were outta there pretty quick and everything thawed, dumped, and stowed properly.

Prevention is a whole lot easier than the cure. We'll use the fresh water tank instead of the ground hydrant and we'll not leave the waste drain hose out either if the forecast is anything like freezing.

[deauxrite]

I am currently in Calgary, Alberta and had the same problem. I did the hair dryer trick from above and it worked perfectly. Thirty minutes and I was back in business.

I love the Airstream forums