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eljefino t1_j6ktddq wrote

No. They bury the pipe from your well to your basement under +/- four feet of dirt, below the frost line.

This winter has been mild so the frost hasn't gotten very far down, and the snow cover insulates the dirt from the cold air above even more.

Like others said, worry about your basement. Don't use a set-back thermostat, one that drops in temp over certain hours, as the time spent dropping is enough time for your heat pipes to freeze. Get a sliver of ice in an elbow and it blocks flow, thereby stopping your heat dead and making things oh so much worse.

Yes heat is expensive, but for 36 hours this upcoming Fri-Sat, run it at 72 degrees.

We had a "cold winter" ten years back and the city pipes were freezing and breaking, but it was in March, when the frost got down beyond its usual level and got to the pipes. Building codes dictate the "four feet" rule depending on your specific area, including a usually adequate margin of safety.

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MicasNoggin OP t1_j6ku5eg wrote

Thanks. I have a heated basement, hopefully nothing freezes.

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jasonhitsthings t1_j6mewib wrote

Heated basement is 100% fool-proof. If you have a bathroom sink with pipes in the walls of a finished basement, definitely leave the vanity door open. Also, keep the water running on a trickle. It'll prevent freezing. My basement is heated too, but my bathroom sink pipe still froze. It didn't burst thankfully, but it did freeze.

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Oldphile t1_j6mz0qo wrote

100% fool-proof unless it's a walk out basement. My neighbors baseboard heater froze. Nothing between the heater and outside except drywall, 3/4" air gap and concrete. His thermostat was set at 45F. My plumber advised to never set the thermostat lower than 55F.

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jasonhitsthings t1_j6n1eo4 wrote

Ha... my fat fingers betrayed me. I intended to write "ISN'T 100% fool proof. You and I are on the same page.

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badhmorrigan t1_j6mkw9o wrote

I'm turning my heat up today, but I have a heat pump and it doesn't work all that well under 0. (Older unit)

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MaineAlone t1_j6l6a8c wrote

I also suggest leaving open cabinets that house any plumbing. There can be cold spots on exterior walls where the insulation isn’t up to par.

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Smitch250 t1_j6kshc3 wrote

Your well will be fine. I’ve seen -30 many times no frozen wells. Your car might not start due to the battery. If your house isn’t well insulated and your not running the heat your pipes would freeze.

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MicasNoggin OP t1_j6ktl6z wrote

Thanks, I have a heated basement so I hope I should be good.

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curtludwig t1_j6n8ipc wrote

Heck the people that lived in my farmhouse survived -30 and colder with no insulation at all. The north wall of the kitchen doesn't even have any wallboard!

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leeroy20 t1_j6l5mjx wrote

If you have an outside water faucet, cut the water off from the inside, then run it until it's empty so it does not freeze on you

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curtludwig t1_j6n8bz2 wrote

Probably ought to do that in October.

Which reminds me, my hose is still hooked up...

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leeroy20 t1_j6o39j1 wrote

True. I use my over winter to fill up water for chickens and it's been so mild I haven't turned mine off yet

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eljefino t1_j6pb3h3 wrote

Some are frost-free. The valve guts are inside the heat envelope of the building. When you turn it off, the remaining water dribbles out then they're good. More often seen in commercial buildings.

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HughDanforth t1_j6kzo9e wrote

Welcome! We re so glad you are here. Check on the seniors in your neighborhood. Invite them over for a coffee/tea and ask their advice. You'll love the stories about their coldest winters and their childhood. A Lot of the old school advice is practical and reasonable.

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k_mainer t1_j6l345h wrote

The ground serves as insulation for your well. However, if you have plumbing on outside walls and lack proper insulation, it’s a good idea to leave your faucets dripping… not running… very slow. Also, even if you aren’t planning to go anywhere, start your vehicle and let it run for 15 minutes or so every day we have this minus whatever temperature. Definitely warm it up before you plan to leave (10 minutes or so is fine). If you have pets, be sure to keep an eye on them outside. Make them do their business and come back quickly. P.s. Always have a good pair of boots, a hat, gloves/mittens in your vehicle, even if you’re not wearing them. 👍 You’ve got this!

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3490goat t1_j6ljwt2 wrote

And a wool blanket too if you can spare one for your car. And always keep your car over 1/4 of a tank

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RedSnowBird t1_j6lzs7p wrote

Taking the dog out in this weather always stresses me out. I feel like I am torturing them. Had a dachshund and there was no way to make her hurry. Always had to put boots on her when it was in single digits. If I didn't, she would end up picking her feet up and not moving because she was in pain and of course wouldn't go.

Days like the one coming up always made me wish we had paper trained her.

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HostelofMaine t1_j6lfutp wrote

>Also, even if you aren’t planning to go anywhere, start your vehicle and let it run for 15 minutes or so every day

Why?

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3490goat t1_j6lk47q wrote

It recharges the battery and moves the oils and fluid around. So I’ve been told by people who live in Minnesota and that’s just what they do

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HostelofMaine t1_j6mz7oo wrote

Huh.. I'd strongly recommend not starting your car if you don't need to. Cars accumulate most of their wear during cold starts, and significantly more so during these kinds of temps. The oil won't adequately warm up by just idling unless you did so for an hour or so (coolant warms up significantly faster). Also, starting a car when a battery is very cold is going to wear out the battery much more than letting it sit and warm back up after the cold spell. The absolute best thing you could do would be to put your battery on a tender/charger. Also make sure your coolant is topped off and is at least 50% coolant (freezing point -36F).

If you do have to go somewhere during a point where it's in the negative teens or lower, I would recommend a short warm-up period (which is not normally necessary even in cold weather).

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AEKDBull t1_j6lk3lz wrote

At Zero degrees, a battery has about 70% of its starting power

At -30 degrees, a battery has about 20% of its starting power

Also, the amount of power needed to crank an engine increases as the temperature drops. Will just leaving your car in the cold have little to no impact, yeah probably, but if you need it it's best to have been prepared by having the engine and battery warmed up.

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eljefino t1_j6pdl3q wrote

Another vote to not run your car for no reason. If you don't need it Saturday just leave it until Sunday, it'll be fine.

The car itself is the worst way to warm the car up. If you want to do it a favor put a 100 watt incandescent light bulb under the hood.

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Positive_Shelter_936 t1_j6ktbv8 wrote

Don't linger outside.

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gittenlucky t1_j6l8r8i wrote

Don’t spend too long out there, but try to go out and listen for trees cracking. Sometimes if you catch them just right the extreme cold will freeze them and they crack loudly.

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FrogThat t1_j6ljjky wrote

My deck sounds like a bomb going off somewhere. Always jumps me out of my skin.

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eljefino t1_j6pb5tn wrote

That's something once you hear it once you're probably set for life.

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RancidHorseJizz t1_j6ksz2h wrote

Is there a nice toasty layer of snow covering the ground where you are? That will help keep it warm. Also, a deep well is warmed by the earth, which, depending on where you are, is already frozen to about 4 feet deep. Your house pipes, however, not so much. Maintain a slow drip from your faucets.

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MicasNoggin OP t1_j6ktajm wrote

Thanks. Yes, I have a good foot of snow over it with a heated basement.

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eljefino t1_j6pbfmx wrote

And shovel snow up against the base of your house for extra insulation. Cover about a foot of siding above the foundation. The foundation/ wall interface is a bad spot for leaks and there are lots of pipes in the basement ceiling area.

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[deleted] t1_j6laocc wrote

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RedSnowBird t1_j6lz84o wrote

If you have a mobile this is a bad idea unless maybe you have skirting around it that insulates beneath it. It can freeze and plug your sewer line. Found out the hard way "helping" a friend from keeping her pipes from freezing.

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[deleted] t1_j6n5wle wrote

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Ecstatic-Bandicoot81 t1_j6n8mqe wrote

yep.. this is the way. Relieves the pressure in the pipe if it does get a ice up (i was always told it was because flowing water wont freeze... the watched a segment on this okd house that proved me wrong. her, never to old to learn, i guess)

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PoorInCT t1_j6l7wcv wrote

NWS Bangor has issued a metal seat outhouse warning for the following counties.......

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vgallant t1_j6m9ije wrote

You have a full heated basement, you should be just fine. If you were in a trailer or on a slab you could have more to worry about. It hasn't been cold enough to freeze deeply and this weekend isn't going to flash freeze the ground that much. In the 30 yrs I've owned houses in my mid coast town, the only one to ever freeze up was on a slab and the water in pipe came to the slab and was just barely under the ground where it met the house and froze ONCE in the 10 years I had it. Now I have a full heated basement plus a woodstove down there, so I'm not phased by the cold now. I just hate when the power is out and we all have to sleep in the living room lol. Gotta get my house plug hooked up for my generator.

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MrsMaine14 t1_j6lp3ch wrote

It’s windchill, so less to worry about. Real temp won’t be that bad

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_dark-side t1_j6lpwt4 wrote

-27 actual temp- 51 with windchill but I’m way up north

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ChocolateKitchen3324 t1_j6ldobx wrote

No. If you have cw piping near walls you can open tap slightly to keep a flow of water- can minimize potential for pipes freezing. If you have baseboard heat (usually against outer walls) and it doesn’t have antifreeze, make sure to keep the heat running part of the night.

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MuForceShoelace t1_j6mo2rw wrote

Your well won't freeze. After a few feet down the ground stays about the same temperature year round. all your pipes in your house could freeze though.

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AlternativeWay4729 t1_j6mihpk wrote

It doesn't hurt, if you do your own handyman work, to pre-assemble the kit needed to defrost a well line. I keep mine handy. You need about 30 feet of the harder transparent pipe they sell by the foot in the hardware store, depending how far your well is from your basement, has about 1/4 or 3/8 inch internal diameter, as well as one of those black submersible utility pumps, hardware fittings to go from the pump to the 30-foot pipe, and a nice clean five gallon bucket. Set aside enough water to fill that bucket somewhere it doesn't freeze. If your well pipe freezes, you heat that water up super hot on your stove, fill the bucket, turn the well off, disconnect the well line close to the place it comes into the basement, and put the bucket under the end to catch the water and recycle. Pump the hot water into the well pipe, recycling as much as you can. Push the line in as you go. It will melt the ice in the pipe at a rate of a couple inches a second. As soon as it is ice-free, reconnect and turn on the well. Then run the tap furthest from the well for the rest of the hard part of winter. The same kit is good for winterizing onboard and stern drive boat engines and campers, only in that case you pump RV antifreeze instead.

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Fun_Top5285 t1_j6mmyv5 wrote

My kid had one of those fancy thermostats (Nest) that saves energy by shutting down the heat when it doesn't sense movement, figuring you have left the house. Real stupid idea. During a cold spat a few years ago they went out and came back to a frozen pipe in a wall, It cost them dearly.

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northursalia t1_j6mvj06 wrote

Nest thermostats don't shut off the heat if people aren't sensed, it turns it back to the configured 'away' temperature. Getting past that, the default safety temp (temp to call for heat even if the thermostat was manually set to 'off') is 40 degrees. They would have had to intentionally disable the safety temp setting for this to have occurred. That is a fault of the user, not of the thermostat.

We've been using them for years - they save about a tank of oil each year, and we've gone on week-long vacations in the dead of winter with no issues of frozen pipes.

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Fun_Top5285 t1_j6mzubi wrote

Their away temp during the day must have been too low, I guess. Maybe they missed that in the directions. Live and learn. It happened about 8 years ago.

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eljefino t1_j6pe0jc wrote

Coasting from 65 to 40 in the middle of the room is a long time and enough time for cold to infiltrate the walls and get to the baseboard pipes.

Don't do the setback, don't try to save energy this weekend. A service call for burst pipes, if you can even get a guy out there, is way more expensive than an extra 10 gallons of fuel oil.

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biglymonies t1_j6o498f wrote

My well casing/cap froze over a little a couple of months ago, despite having a hard cover (one of those fake rocks).

If you have a cover, I'd buy a heat lamp and run an extension cord over to the well and just leave it on. If you can't get a heat lamp in time, what I did was put a tarp and some moving blankets over my well and it worked out just fine. It didn't freeze again during the next cold snap.

You can also buy one of the insulated well pump covers - it's like an insulated ziploc bag that goes over the pump and does a pretty okay job.

Nothing will beat the heat lamp, though.

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AlternativeWay4729 t1_j6mhkjl wrote

Run the tap that is furthest from the well just a trickle. But remember that the cold has to penetrate the ground to freeze the pipe that comes to the house, which takes more time than this 24-36 hour cold snap. Keep plenty of heat in the house and run that tap.

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jrockyroc t1_j6nrnd5 wrote

The well casing can conduct the cold down into the well and could freeze the line at the pitless adapter. I know this because it happened to me last year and I was without water for almost a week chasing down plumbers to help. My advice is leave a faucet trickling so the pump kicks on at least once every hour. I also insulated the exposed top of my well. The snow cover should help a bit this year. If it does freeze, call someone who services wells, not a plumber. Plumbers will be so busy on emergency calls for frozen pipes and most of the ones I contacted did not have the equipment to handle a frozen well line. Some expressed no interest in taking it on either. One call to my well guy and he was out within a day and opened my lines easily. He said that the moment we lost water, if I had poured boiling water on my pitless adapter, it might have come out of it. For extra peace of mind I'll probably shovel some extra snow where the lines run and bank my well too.

EDIT: If your lines do freeze, make sure you flip the breaker to your well pump off. Otherwise, it will pump continuously trying to get water into your expansion tank. Your pressure switch, or worst case, your well pump, could burn out if you don't. My pressure switch burnt out when my lines froze and had to be replaced.

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Ambitious_Ask_1569 t1_j6oncye wrote

My wife has chickens and has already informed me that my Britts dog crate is being 'repurposed' and placed in the living room. Luckily its only the windchill that's going to be that low.

Make sure you have everything you need as cars don't start well.

If you are worried about you well....leave a cold tap slightly open furthest from where your water enters your house.

Wells fare well and you can thaw pipes. Worry about any animals that may be outside. Once frozen animals don't thaw well. Double down on high energy feed and check water often.

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_j6ng9pf wrote

Am I reading this right, you wrote -30, that would be below zero. If you meant 30 then don't worry, there would have to be a few weeks of single digit temperatures before you would have a problem. We haven't seen weather like that in a very long time. Our winters are trending warmer, even a week of single digit temps is really unpleasant. I'm glad that isn't happening here anymore.

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[deleted] t1_j6ksnqn wrote

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JimBones31 t1_j6lok2j wrote

Looks like you might want to get that checked out...

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