How to Tell If Your Pipes Are Frozen

What are the signs of a frozen pipe?

A frozen pipe rarely announces itself. The first clue is usually that something that worked yesterday does not work this morning, after a night when the temperature fell hard.

• A faucet gives only a trickle or nothing at all, and the problem is limited to one side of the house or one bathroom.
• Both hot and cold are missing at one fixture, which suggests a shared section is blocked, or only cold is missing, which points to the cold supply line.
• Frost or ice on a pipe you can see, such as in a crawl space, garage or under a sink.
• A pipe that is visibly bulging or has a hairline crack.
• Strange sounds like gurgling, or a bad smell from a drain, which can mean a frozen drain or vent line.
• A toilet that will not refill, or an appliance that cannot get water.

What should you do when water stops flowing?

Act quickly but without panic. A pipe that is frozen but intact is a nuisance. A pipe that has split is a leak waiting for the thaw, because ice holds the break closed and the water floods out once it melts.

1. Check whether the whole house is affected by testing a few fixtures. If every tap is dry, call the water utility to rule out an outage or main problem.
2. Open the affected faucet, hot and cold, so water has a place to go as the ice melts.
3. Look and feel along exposed pipes in the crawl space, garage, basement and exterior walls to find the frozen section, which will be colder and may have frost.
4. Look for wet spots, dripping, bulges or cracks. If you see any, close the main shutoff right away.
5. Know where the main shutoff is, and make sure you can turn it, before you start thawing anything.
6. If you cannot find the frozen spot, or the pipe is inside a wall or under a slab, stop and call a plumber rather than opening walls yourself.

How do you thaw pipes safely?

The rule is slow, gentle, controlled heat, starting near the faucet and working back toward the frozen area. This lets melting water and steam escape through the open tap instead of building pressure in the pipe.

Use a hair dryer, a heating pad wrapped around the pipe, warm towels, or a space heater placed safely away from anything flammable and not left unattended. Keep electrical devices away from standing water.

• Never use an open flame, a propane torch, a heat gun on high or a kerosene heater. They can ignite framing, scorch plastic pipe, and burst a pipe through sudden pressure.
• Do not thaw a pipe that is already leaking until the water is shut off.
• Do not use a space heater near wet insulation or in a damp crawl space.
• If you smell gas anywhere, leave and call the gas utility or 911 from outside.
• Keep the faucet open until full flow returns, then check for leaks along the whole run.
• Plastic pipe is more easily damaged by heat than metal, so go slowly if you do not know what the pipe is.

When is a frozen pipe an emergency?

Call right away if you see water leaking, if the pipe is cracked or bulging, if the frozen section is behind a wall or ceiling, if several areas are frozen, or if the house has lost heat. Shut off the main water first when water is leaking, then call.

Rocket lists emergency hours as 24/7. Call or text (385) 722-7638. Rocket is based in West Jordan and serves the Salt Lake Valley.

How do you keep pipes from freezing again?

Once the water is back, think about why that pipe froze. It may have been a gap in the wall, missing insulation, a hose left attached, or a heat source that failed. A pipe that freezes once is likely to freeze again in the same conditions.

Our guide on how to winterize plumbing in Utah covers the full prevention checklist, from outdoor faucets and insulation to vacant home steps. In the short term, leaving cabinet doors open on cold nights and letting a faucet drip slowly during a hard freeze can help while you fix the underlying problem.