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2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on

Parliament

By Parliament
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Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, hayden_horn said:

so this is the first time i ever heard someone say we should drip our outside spigots? i've never, ever done that. i'm dripping my inside faucets with on external walls, and my shower as well. but i just wrapped the spigots with a sock and a spigot cover. that should be good enough, right?

Same here.  Not running the outside spigots and unless you have them on full blast the drip itself will probably freeze.

I put insulation inside the faucet cover and, for my one spigot that is along the garage wall, running a spaceheater pointed towards that area for about 30 minutes twice a day.

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SubliminalHorn
SubliminalHorn

Power back on. 109 hours. I almost want to cry a little 

Machinator
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BradInATX
BradInATX

I've actually been turning my heat up a degree every time a new Surly member loses power on this thread. It's a nice balmy 94 in here.

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Homercles

Homercles 10205

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Message Board User said:

Same here.  Not running the outside spigots and unless you have them on full blast the drip itself will probably freeze.

I put insulation inside the faucet cover and, for my one spigot that is along the garage wall, running a spaceheater pointed towards that area for about 30 minutes twice a day.

I’ve been running my two small space heaters inside the garage about nonstop here today.  

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clapclapclap

clapclapclap 9000

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Odd phenomenon here in Dallas.  There isn't enough snow to completely cover the grass; however, the streets are lily white (no racist).  In this neck of the woods, we usually get snow covered grass with the streets being warm enough to melt any snow.

Yeah, this dry powder is awesome.  No problems at all driving just now (though of course I didn't go over 30 mph or over any big hills) and wasn't even slippery walking in tennis shoe type soles.  Never needed the slip on spikes kept in the car.

Great time to go to Walmart, no crowds and they actually had in stock what the website said they did.  Oddly, they were playing only Spanish language music (no Tejano, mostly pop), which was fine, except I got an elbow to the ribs when laughing out loud at an unexpected "Ay-yi-yi-ya-yi."

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Look at these idiots. 

 

Yep, that's the very hill I was worried about going over to get to the hotel.  Ain't gonna happen.

csb:  update to a post yesterday... crap in the house wasn't working right, we opted to pay for a hotel in Lakeway for Sun-Thurs.  Update:  crap in the house got working really well, this $&#($&(#* freezing rain crept in (wasn't supposed to until later, but gee, a forecast not accurate?  Say it ain't so!), and we never had a chance of getting out.  Roads iced over here worse than at any point in this whole freezing episode.  We aren't goin' nowhere.

The polar air is starting to filter in now.  Temp was about 24° at 7 a.m.  Now it's 21° where I'm at and going down.  Wind chill 9°.  I was just outside for 30 m. reliving my childhood (and starting a car just to keep it relatively in shape, gonna do it again tonight and thru Monday/Tues).

Whatever it is, it's pretty much here.  The next 24 will be... well... hopefully manageable.  

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The University

The University 851

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

so this is the first time i ever heard someone say we should drip our outside spigots? i've never, ever done that. i'm dripping my inside faucets with on external walls, and my shower as well. but i just wrapped the spigots with a sock and a spigot cover. that should be good enough, right?

i did shut off the irrigation system and depressurized it by running my zone 1 for ~30 seconds, thanks to the helpful advice from a neighbor, so that should be all good, i hope.

city of austin and city of dallas are saying to drip (and wrap if it's possible without getting in the way of the drip) if it's under 28 for more than 4 hours. city of houston said their water pressure is shit in some areas so don't do it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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hayden_horn

hayden_horn 11360

Posted
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5 minutes ago, The University said:

city of austin and city of dallas are saying to drip (and wrap if it's possible without getting in the way of the drip) if it's under 28 for more than 4 hours. city of houston said their water pressure is shit in some areas so don't do it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

like i said, this is the first time i have ever heard of doing this. my neighbors are already reporting that their spigot is now frozen solid and are breaking out hair dryers and shit to thaw it out.

it makes no sense to me. hopefully, my pipes don't freeze, but i'm not going to drip.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 104636

Posted
Posted

Just ran our last errand out of the hood and down Burnet road. Slid a little bit probably 15 times. Kept my speed at 15-20, used brakes as little as possible. The few other cars out seemed to be doing the same, saw no mishaps. Home now...and ain’t going back out in that again. ALL surface roads had some measure of ice on them.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31295

Posted
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22 minutes ago, clapclapclap said:

Yeah, this dry powder is awesome.  No problems at all driving just now (though of course I didn't go over 30 mph or over any big hills) and wasn't even slippery walking in tennis shoe type soles.  Never needed the slip on spikes kept in the car.

Great time to go to Walmart, no crowds and they actually had in stock what the website said they did.  Oddly, they were playing only Spanish language music (no Tejano, mostly pop), which was fine, except I got an elbow to the ribs when laughing out loud at an unexpected "Ay-yi-yi-ya-yi."

I walked around in the 225 and it's mostly powder.  Even before it started light snowing.  But there is just a tad bit of sleet in there from this morning.  Not very slick, I'm sure in part because it's not melting and refreezing, which is what makes shit so deadly here.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45560

Posted
Posted

I have two hose bibs and I'm doing a pencil-thin stream out of each.  I timed how long it took for one to release a quart -- a little over a minute.  So, a gallon every 4 minutes, which means a gallon every 2 minutes for both together.  That's 720 gallons per day, or about $10 per day depending on total usage for the month.  I don't want to pay it, but I don't want to have burst pipes, either.  I will check them every couple of hours.  Another couple of nights with shitty sleep for Dad.

I tried to drip them last night, and the drip dried up.  Each bib had a plug of water at the spigot.  A few minutes with a hair dryer broke those up, but that's at 25 deg F.  I'm thinking the 10 deg F lows are going to be a lot more difficult to deal with.

My hose bibs are really low profile -- there's nothing to wrap.  They go straight into limestone, so I'm hoping things are warmer inside.  I have PEX plumbing, at least inside the house, which can expand way more than PVC, so basically I'm trying to convince myself I'm not fucked.  I'm not doing a very good job of that.

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The University

The University 851

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

like i said, this is the first time i have ever heard of doing this. my neighbors are already reporting that their spigot is now frozen solid and are breaking out hair dryers and shit to thaw it out.

it makes no sense to me. hopefully, my pipes don't freeze, but i'm not going to drip.

so we tested with one spigot wrapped but dripping, and within an hour, it was frozen. cranked it up to get it flowing for a bit, wiped it down as much as possible, and then wrapped it again. i'll be surprised if we won't need a visit from a plumber in the next week from that small test. at this point, all i can do is laugh at my lack of cold weather skills.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45560

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, The University said:

so we tested with one spigot wrapped but dripping, and within an hour, it was frozen. cranked it up to get it flowing for a bit, wiped it down as much as possible, and then wrapped it again. i'll be surprised if we won't need a visit from a plumber in the next week from that small test. at this point, all i can do is laugh at my lack of cold weather skills.

I'm over an hour into small steady flow and no signs of icing yet.  I'll probably fall on my ass in the ensuing ice rink, though.

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52342

Posted
Posted

Great news here!  Was only supposed to get up to zero F today but it’s currently 5 degrees with no wind chill, blue skies, and bright sunshine.  I suggest not driving in this shit down there, too many ignorant drivers with ill-equipped vehicles. Hell I bet most of you don’t even have a winter jacket if you stay in Texas year round. 

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31295

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I have two hose bibs and I'm doing a pencil-thin stream out of each.  I timed how long it took for one to release a quart -- a little over a minute.  So, a gallon every 4 minutes, which means a gallon every 2 minutes for both together.  That's 720 gallons per day, or about $10 per day depending on total usage for the month.  I don't want to pay it, but I don't want to have burst pipes, either.  I will check them every couple of hours.  Another couple of nights with shitty sleep for Dad.

I tried to drip them last night, and the drip dried up.  Each bib had a plug of water at the spigot.  A few minutes with a hair dryer broke those up, but that's at 25 deg F.  I'm thinking the 10 deg F lows are going to be a lot more difficult to deal with.

My hose bibs are really low profile -- there's nothing to wrap.  They go straight into limestone, so I'm hoping things are warmer inside.  I have PEX plumbing, at least inside the house, which can expand way more than PVC, so basically I'm trying to convince myself I'm not fucked.  I'm not doing a very good job of that.

Are they frost free?

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Trey3216

Trey3216 15325

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I have two hose bibs and I'm doing a pencil-thin stream out of each.  I timed how long it took for one to release a quart -- a little over a minute.  So, a gallon every 4 minutes, which means a gallon every 2 minutes for both together.  That's 720 gallons per day, or about $10 per day depending on total usage for the month.  I don't want to pay it, but I don't want to have burst pipes, either.  I will check them every couple of hours.  Another couple of nights with shitty sleep for Dad.

I tried to drip them last night, and the drip dried up.  Each bib had a plug of water at the spigot.  A few minutes with a hair dryer broke those up, but that's at 25 deg F.  I'm thinking the 10 deg F lows are going to be a lot more difficult to deal with.

My hose bibs are really low profile -- there's nothing to wrap.  They go straight into limestone, so I'm hoping things are warmer inside.  I have PEX plumbing, at least inside the house, which can expand way more than PVC, so basically I'm trying to convince myself I'm not fucked.  I'm not doing a very good job of that.

Boston Blackie kind?

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Homercles

Homercles 10205

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

Not to my knowledge.   You're talking about the bibs with a valve that's actuated inside the house when the faucet is turned on?

Believe that’s what he was referencing.  If you open the valve with no hose they just drain what’s in the pipe if I recall.  

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