So I've been staying with my parents in Maine for two weeks, and it's been extremely cold - so cold that last night I woke up to the sound of running water in my old room. The pipe attached to the heating register had burst - my parents have a pellet stove, and have been hitting it pretty hard these last few days, so it's no wonder they ended up with a frozen pipe.
We managed to get the main water shut off pretty quickly, thankfully, but the plumber can't come until Tuesday, so I had a few questions. Keep in mind I'm a total amateur, so feel free to talk to me like I'm a child.
First, the furnace came on a little bit ago, and once again water started coming out of the burst pipe. After turning the thermostat down I went into the basement, and tried shutting off a water valve on a specific line (chosen at random, honestly, as the pipes down there are an absolute maze), then tried turning the theromstat back up - to my surprise, once the furnace came on there was no water coming out of the register this time. Did I really just happen to get very lucky on my first try, or is there something else going on? And if I did get lucky and pick the right valve at random, that brings me to my second question: can we get away with leaving that specific valve off, turning the main one back on, and get some showers? If that has the potential to cause more damage then obviously we'll just leave the whole thing off and make do until Tuesday, but I was just curious.
EDIT: After some experimentation, it seems like - regardless of whether or not the aforementioned specific water valve is turned on or off - turning the furnace up no longer causes water to come out of the register, but turning it back DOWN does cause a small dribble. Maybe there's just a bit of water left over in the pipe, and it's getting pushed out? Or something? Anyway, the question still stands: assuming we can find the right valve to shut off water to this specific register, would it be safe to turn the main line back on?
We managed to get the main water shut off pretty quickly, thankfully, but the plumber can't come until Tuesday, so I had a few questions. Keep in mind I'm a total amateur, so feel free to talk to me like I'm a child.
First, the furnace came on a little bit ago, and once again water started coming out of the burst pipe. After turning the thermostat down I went into the basement, and tried shutting off a water valve on a specific line (chosen at random, honestly, as the pipes down there are an absolute maze), then tried turning the theromstat back up - to my surprise, once the furnace came on there was no water coming out of the register this time. Did I really just happen to get very lucky on my first try, or is there something else going on? And if I did get lucky and pick the right valve at random, that brings me to my second question: can we get away with leaving that specific valve off, turning the main one back on, and get some showers? If that has the potential to cause more damage then obviously we'll just leave the whole thing off and make do until Tuesday, but I was just curious.
EDIT: After some experimentation, it seems like - regardless of whether or not the aforementioned specific water valve is turned on or off - turning the furnace up no longer causes water to come out of the register, but turning it back DOWN does cause a small dribble. Maybe there's just a bit of water left over in the pipe, and it's getting pushed out? Or something? Anyway, the question still stands: assuming we can find the right valve to shut off water to this specific register, would it be safe to turn the main line back on?
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