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I don't know much about anything actually relevant here but for whatever reason the water specifically in our bathroom is basically broken. We live in a trailer so we leave the hot water dripping in the cold temperatures of the winter nights to avoid the pipes freezing but when we checked the water this morning there's a constant trickle of hot water coming from the tub faucet that can't be stopped and the cold water doesn't turn on at all when I twist the knob. The same goes for the sink in the bathroom as well - but the kitchen sink is just fine as is the toilet. Turning the shower knob to turn on the overhead nozzle similarly makes it start dripping but it doesn't seem to want to start. The water is naturally scorching hot and twisting the cold knob all the way does nothing.

Could this just have to do with cold weather and frozen pipes? Did something break? Thanks for any help. ^^

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    Having pipes drip to prevent freezing only works for that pipe. Hot and cold have two separate pipes. Usually pipes closest to outside walls are affected, pipes on/in inside walls not as much. Cold water is probably frozen somewhere.
    – crip659
    Jan 26, 2022 at 15:22
  • I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case then. Thanks for the information!
    – Adam
    Jan 26, 2022 at 15:32
  • If you can open up the walls to let heat in, that should help. Will probably need to check the pipes anyway to see if any have burst. Know where your water shutoff is.
    – crip659
    Jan 26, 2022 at 15:37
  • At this point you just have to hope that the pipes in your trailer have not been damaged by freezing. If your pipes are made of PEX (one type of polymer widely used nowadays), then you probably will not have any broken water pipes. If you do have broken pipes, you will have leaks in walls or underside when the pipes thaw. Jan 26, 2022 at 16:46
  • What about the hot water, why does that not turn off?
    – gnicko
    Feb 26, 2022 at 1:00

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I had a friend whose father-in-law lived in a trailer and had issues with freezing pipes.

He pulled some of the skirting back and climbed underneath with thermally controlled heat tape and pipe insulation. After about an hours work of taping the heat tape to the supply plumbing under the trailer, then wrapping the insulation around that, he plugged the heat tapes into some extension cords and there were no more issues with frozen pipes and no need to leave faucets running.

Drawbacks:

  • You'll have a tangle of "permanently installed" extension cords which isn't necessarily up to code
  • I don't think those heat tapes are designed for that kind of permanent installation.
    • A counter-point - I've had one installed for more than 30 years on my water supply line where it comes out of the ground and into my unheated crawl-space and haven't had issues with it. I don't know if it has ever kicked on or not, but I've never had a frozen pipe. Additionally, this is anecdotal evidence, one single data point, and is likely still a code violation, so that doesn't make it OK.

It's entirely possible that just a good, solid layer of insulation around the piping would do the trick. As added bonuses, this would be entirely code legal and would cost less, so it's probably a better place to start.

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