The problem is the extreme cold air freezes the vent at the mouth and then it slowly freezes its way down into the heater. Id look at insulation - a loose igloo box around the outside where the hot air is vented. check the where the vent is penetrating the wall as well.
I'm so sorry for your struggles! This was a really deep freeze! We live in Oldtown. We do get them here, quite often. At least with this one, we had snow. We've had them before in November, with no snow. One question - did you keep your hot water taps dripping? Our hot water lines will freeze up, so we drip our hot water, and our cold water when the temps get this cold. I hope that you can figure out a solution! Blessings to you!
No we didn't even think about it. With on demand we didn't think it would matter much since it's on demand and it wouldn't generate any heat with that little of the flow. We know next time to make sure the venting isn't happening the way it is now and maybe self-vent inside during the winter.
@Deerhavenoffgridhomestead how warm is the basement area normally? That is a long run through a space and if the space isn't heated then you could be getting condensation on the pipe interior, causing the freeze up
That's crazy. You have never had this happen in all the years you have have been up there. Glad to see you have a plan for the future.
We have thought about a few more since this video was made and I think we have an idea of what we're going to do that'll work even better.
Scary stuff. Glad you know what to do to prevent it.
We hope so. Hoping for a while befit we get these temps again.
It’s crazy that your vent froze being below grade. Hope your plan works!
So far, so good it has. We will see how it goes with the next below Zero temperatures that we have.
The problem is the extreme cold air freezes the vent at the mouth and then it slowly freezes its way down into the heater. Id look at insulation - a loose igloo box around the outside where the hot air is vented. check the where the vent is penetrating the wall as well.
I'll bring that up to the hubby and see what he thinks, thank you for the great idea
I'm so sorry for your struggles! This was a really deep freeze! We live in Oldtown. We do get them here, quite often. At least with this one, we had snow. We've had them before in November, with no snow. One question - did you keep your hot water taps dripping? Our hot water lines will freeze up, so we drip our hot water, and our cold water when the temps get this cold. I hope that you can figure out a solution! Blessings to you!
No we didn't even think about it. With on demand we didn't think it would matter much since it's on demand and it wouldn't generate any heat with that little of the flow. We know next time to make sure the venting isn't happening the way it is now and maybe self-vent inside during the winter.
Frost in basement on water tanks is bad. Damn sorry for that.
Totally agree
Is this the first winter you have been there "full-time"? Very weird
Is the vent to close to the ground or touching the snow ❄️?
Neither, it's 2 feet off the ground.
@Deerhavenoffgridhomestead how warm is the basement area normally? That is a long run through a space and if the space isn't heated then you could be getting condensation on the pipe interior, causing the freeze up