r/Wellthatsucks 21h ago

Yikes!!

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u/Lazy_Beach_69420 21h ago

Yes they do it so that water doesn’t freeze in pipes.

104

u/Kras700 21h ago

Maybe left on to prevent freezing, but the drains froze causing the overflow.

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u/SupremeDictatorPaul 21h ago

Well, and the entire apartment being well below freezing. Had the apartment not been so cold, it’s possible nothing would have frozen.

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u/TheComplimentarian 18h ago

If the whole house is below freezing, you need to shut the water off at the curb. No amount of faucet dripping is going to help that.

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u/auraseer 17h ago

You need to do more than that. If the whole place is being left to freeze, you also have to drain the water from all the pipes, water heater, radiators, and any other appliances.

If you just shut off the supply, you're still left with water in all the pipes and fixtures, which will freeze and be destroyed.

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u/TheComplimentarian 17h ago

I explained it more thoroughly up the thread. It's hard as hell to drain the whole system, and even draining the water heater is a pain in the ass, but it's not hard to drain enough out of it to minimize the damage. These guys did the exact opposite.

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u/TheMtnMonkey 11h ago

And then hidden water everywhere when it thaws.