How to Thaw a Frozen Pipe

Most houses have some pipes outside, and vulnerable to freezing in cold weather.  Fortunately it is fairly easy to thaw a frozen pipe.

When you are looking at how to thaw a frozen pipe, there are several options you can consider.  one of these techniques should help you thaw a frozen pipe though!

1) The hairdryer technique.  If you can get a hairdryer close enough, slowly moving the hair dryer up and down the exposed area can help to rapidly thaw a frozen pipe.

If you use this method to thaw a frozen pipe try not to overheat the pipe, or heat it to such an extent that pressure builds up inside the pipe. As the pipe begins to thaw, begin to run hot water through the pipe if possible.

2) The warm cloth method is most common for those who cannot get an electrical outlet close by for the hairdryer method.  for the warm cloth method take a bundle of cloths and a big bucket of HOT water.  Dip the cloths in to the hot water and place over the frozen areas, only for a second or two to begin with, but as the pipe warms, you can hold them over for longer.

Keep placing the cloths with warm ware over the pipe until it defrosts, if possible as the pipe starts to thaw, run ho water through it.  Do not pour boiling water over the pipe, it may damage it!

3) Running the water, it may seem obvious but just try pouring some hot water down there, preferably with some salt in it.  If there is enough space for water to seep through, keep this up until the blockage is cleared!

I hope one of these methods worked, and that the information on how to thaw frozen pipes was useful to you!

In future try insulating the pipes, or regularly running a small amount of hot salted water through the pipe to prevent a re-occurrence of frozen pipes!

1) The usual easy fix for squeaky doors is lubricating oil such as WD-40.  Spray this in to the hinges and you should see a noticeable improvement almost instantly.

2) Sometimes a quick spot of oil will not do the job, if this is the case try taking off the hinges and remove the hinge pin.  Once you remove the pin rub it down with wire wool.  Respray the hinge with WD-40 and then replace the hinge.  You could also try soap on the hinge pin, this can help remove dirt from the hinge and smooth it’s passage.

3) Sometime the squeaking can be caused by loose hinges.  A good way to fix this is to unscrew the hinges, put match sticks in to the holes and break them off where the screw hole levels off, then replace the screws.

4) If none of this has worked you can always buy new hinges, they are not very expensive, and can be found at any hardware store.

Hopefully this guide on how to fix squeaky door hinges will have fixed your problems!

UK Plug

Sometimes wires get damaged, or you end up buying an appliance from overseas. When this happens you may decide to simply fit a new plug rather than buy a new appliance.

When you need to wire a UK plug you only need to follow a few very simple steps.  If you need to wire a UK plug on to any appliance it is an easy job, and you can usually do it in 5 minutes flat!

1) Strip the wires, you will need to remove just over one inch of the white outer covering, and about half a centimetre of the inner wires.

2) Loosen the screw and take the plug apart and then loosen (Not undo) the three screws inside.

3) Feed the cable through the cable grip, tighten this slightly.  Insert the three smaller wires as per the diagram above. The wires are as follows

• Brown – Live – Middle Right Connection
• Green and Yellow – Earth – Top Connection
• Blue – Neutral – Bottom Left Connection

4) Tighten the three small wires securely

5) Tighten the cable grip and tug the wire to ensure it will not slip out during use.

6) Replace the outer cover, and you are done!

This is the simple easy way to wire a UK plug!