frozen sewer line

john_177

I've got a frozen sewer line is there anything I can pour down it to thaw it? Tried glycol and I trying methanol right now.

Home Depot Employee

Heat tape

Get hold of some electric heat tape, long enough to reach, ball up the end a bit to concentrate heat, attach it to a fish tape and start sending it down the sewer pipe (inch by inch).

John Starcher_4

Hold on, 'Liz-beth!!!!

That's fine if it's the Frostex or some other "self regulating" type of heat tape. If it's the old style thermostatically controlled type, though, you could be asking for trouble. Those types of heat tape could not be wrapped over itself or "crossed" during the installation. Fires were known to occur.

The glycol should eventually work through the frozen section, if you put enough of it in the pipe.

I've used softener salt (crystal type, not the nuggets) in the past, as well.

Home Depot Employee

Sorry balled up doesn't mean crossed

OK corkscrewed

The heat generated will quickly thaw the ice stoppage.
(I do it occasionally at hunting camp)

jackchips_2

Two suggestions:

1: Put a hose, connected to a hot water draw and feed it as far down the pipe as you can and let it run slow enough for you to keep bailing.

2: Heat the end of a snake and feed it in as far as you can and keep working it and pulling it out, reheating and going back in. Be careful.

Good Luck,

Jack

John Starcher_4

Hey - I was just going by your words.

When you said "balled up," I envisioned a "wad" of the heat tape. In the hands of a novice, this could pose a real hazard - electrically.

If you are "cork-screwing" it around the end of a fish tape, that's an entirely different scenario.

ScottMP

Once again Jack

we're on the same page.

Done both and had both of them work.

Scott

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Dave Yates (GrandPAH)_2

sewer jetter

Works like a champ.