No running water

[tgaf1949]

When I got up this am at 3am,when I turned on cold faucet in kitchen, brown water came out for a few seconds, then regular water. When I got up at 7am and attempted to turn on water in kitchen, there was no water. Same for bathroom sink and tub.

There is no sign of burst pipe anywhere in house and no sign of any water outside of house, and no sign of water under house looking down from opening to under house in bathroom.

The utility company's meter in the street is not running. While checking street meter, I noticed red needle is below zero mark. There is a transformer box where water meter is located.I am wondering if problem may be electrical, because of red needle being at below zero mark.

I have run space heaters opposite all plumbing pipes, under kitchen sink and under bathroom sink.

I have opened all faucets, and have a very slow drip coming from bathroom tub faucet.

I reported situation to water company at 8 am this morning, but they are way behind, just getting to Sat and Sunday calls, and probably will not get here today as it's past 3 pm.

Neighbors on both sides of my house and across the street, all have water.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dirty Terry
PS I live in Santa Fe NM and it was below freezing last nite, about 17 degrees I think.Has warmed up to close to 50 degrees today, but will go down to teens again tonight.

[Herk]

Are the pipes accessible? Can you put your hand on them and feel the temperature? You can usually tell if a pipe is cold enough to be frozen. If you have snow, melt some on the stove, then use the hot water with a rag to thaw cold spots in the pipe. That's faster than a blow dryer or a heater.

[tgaf1949]

Are the pipes accessible? Can you put your hand on them and feel the temperature? You can usually tell if a pipe is cold enough to be frozen. If you have snow, melt some on the stove, then use the hot water with a rag to thaw cold spots in the pipe. That's faster than a blow dryer or a heater.

Thanks Herk. We do have snow on ground; followed your suggestion to melt and heat it and put rags on pipes. Still no go.

I noticed when I took street cover off to check meter, that there was ice on underside of cover and that top of transformer box was wet. Do you know what red needle, in same area as meter reading, represents, and is it normal for it to be below zero if meter is not running? Hopefully, utility people will be here tomorrow. The city of Santa Fe bought the water utility a few years ago and that may reflect on it taking them so long to show up.
Terry

[Redwood]

Sounds like a freeze up to me!

I doubt any plumbers around you would have one of these. Quite common around here in the frozen north though.

[Herk]

The red needle probably just spins to let you know that water is passing through the meter. Frost on the cover may or may not mean something. If the meter is frozen, which is quite likely, thawing it may cause a disaster - you may have a broken meter. One year, when it was very cold here for a long time, there were a great number of frozen meters. The city couldn't keep up - the pipes were freezing right down to the mains under the streets. The bottom of the meter will crack, and won't leak until it's thawed.

Thawing the meter isn't difficult, since it doesn't take much heat in that small compartment, but you could suddenly be flooding a very large area.

Do you need a skating rink? This may be your chance.