We have a shower on a second floor with a frozen cold-water pipe. It seems to happen every time the temperature falls below 15 degrees F.
Previously I fixed this by taking the plate off around the shower control, where there's some access past the shower tile, and jamming a hair dryer or heat gun in there. But that's a hassle, and I'm worried about the heat acting on the plastic of the shower control.
Currently I'm trying a space heater in the shower with the shower door closed. (There's a nearby sink which isn't frozen, so I think the ice is limited to pipe pretty close to the shower.)
Could I shove some heating tape into the hole near the control as a solution? I wouldn't be able to ensure it was right up against the pipe, though.
I also thought of forcing room-temperature air in there. Is that a reasonably way to try to solve the problem? I don't have a vacuum with reverse, though. What kind of tool could I buy to do that…a cheap air compressor?
For a long term solution, I'd like to put insulation around the pipe, or between the pipe and the exterior wall (it's on the NW corner of the house), but there's pretty much no access at all, unless one were to rip out the shower tile. (No, I didn't own the house when this silly situation was created.) Of course, as the comment below points out, one way to deal with this long-term is to go through the wall from the outside.
Best Answer
You obviously have a severe cold zone where the shower is, what's under the shower" You are going to need to get room temperature air flowing in where the piping is before it turns colder and the pipe bursts when your pipe spits open. If there's a space behind the shower where the pipes are for cutting an opening top and bottom of this space to allow circulation through this space will help or if possible a heating run off the hot air duct discharging from under this space with an opening at the ceiling height to let the air flow through can most likely solve it if you leave the fan run all the time. Poorly designed washroom is the problem with no thought or thoughts to taking out or away any cold air zones when building this house is the only issue. Some builders should stick to fishing for a livelyhood not building houses or really bad designs followed behind by paid off inspectors and the end is always the same, new home buyers need to invest a pile of cash to repair their new houses.