The first year we were in our current house, the winter was pretty mild. The second year, though, had regular temps in the teens and lower. That year was awful as the pipe to our kitchen sink froze several times. We were putting space heaters under the sink and in the basement right below it, trying everything we could to free up the blockages but only the warmer weather could do it.

We even tried leaving the faucet dripping like they say to do. Well, that was too slow and the pipe still froze. I tried leaving it on at a trickle another time, and that didn't even work! I wasn't about to just leave the water on all the time and end up with a $500 water bill, so we just lived with it.

The next spring we replaced our deck, and opened up the floor of the bay window that houses our sink from underneath. What did they find? Well, an uninsulated bay with bare copper pipe! I'm not sure that would have stayed flowing if I had left it on full blast! Thankfully, we never had a leak and now that it's insulated we've never had it freeze up again.