I turned on the hot water to the kitchen sink this morning and nothing came out. Cold water is fine everywhere. My setup is: Water main comes into the house (on a slab, no basement). The water heater is to the immediate right. On the left is a vanity/sink. I’m getting hot water out of that sink. Then there’s the toilet. Then an oversized shower, which is on the corner of an outside wall. No hot at the shower. No hot after it goes along that wall into the kitchen, either. And the hot line between the Sink & shower is exposed to the inside for most of the way before it goes into the wall, so a freeze there is unlikely. Pipes are copper. Just had it all replumbed about 5 years ago. That includes the main.
I turned the pump and water heater off and put my ear up to the wall and don’t hear any running or dripping water. I do get a steady but slow drip at the kitchen tap when I have the single handle turned all the way to hot.
With the help of a space heater, I’ve had the temp in the bathroom up in the 80’s for a couple of hours. It’s been in the -5 to -10 degree range at night for the past 4-5 days. At 8:30 a.m. it’s -2 with a high of 20 predicted and temps rising overnight to 30. I’ve had the cupboards open in the bath and kitchen and the shower curtain open for all of those cold nights. I do turn the furnace down to 60 at night though. I checked around that wall outside and didn’t see any signs of water there. I think I’ve covered everything.
Should it be taking this long? There’s only 20 or so inches of pipe between where it enters the wall behind the shower, and where it branches up to the shower head. I’ve never had to deal with this before. Is it time to call a plumber or am I just being impatient? Could it be a completely different problem?