I had an issue with sewer smell in my home for over 15 years. Asked several plumbers what was causing it. I had snow freezing up in just the top foot of my stink pipes where they exit the roof. Temps would get just below freezing and I would have to go on the roof and unplug them. I must have done this at least 15-20 times every winter. SO FRUSTRATED. So one day I decided to pinpoint where the actual smell was coming from as it was not coming from any of my sink trappes. There was one spot near my kitchen floor where the smell was very strong. My thought was that who ever built this wall may have accidentally put a screw in a stink pipe and it was leaking right there. I cut a hole in the wall and you would not believe what I found................There was indeed a stink pipe on the other side and it was completely OPEN!!!!! When they rebuilt the kitchen area and moved the sink that was once there and they forgot to close off the old stink pipe. So you can imagine how bad the smell was for all these years. Needless to say I plugged it off and never smelled sewer again. Never had to go on the roof again either. So my advice to anyone reading this is to try and find the cause. Make sure all your sinks have traps and make sure the traps have water in them. When you smell the sewer smell try and locate exactly where it is coming from. Also I live where winters get down to -30f

Thank you for the great idea. I made 2 for my roof vents. I hope it keeps me off the roof in the winter. Great safety tip.

i live in nunavut canada , -53 degrees c today, ive been using these for a couple years now, works great. you can also get a bigger diameter piece of pvc slide over old pipe and spray foam the gap ,will keep the inside of pipe from freezing aswell

Thanks for the info. Awesome

Now THAT'S a cool trick! Thx.

“Why did anyone move this far north?!?!” Is what I say everyday. We live in Beaumont Alberta Canada. It has been no warmer than -5F (-15c) and with wind chill has been close to -58F (-50c) on many occasions in the past 3 weeks. I can’t recall long stints of cold like this in my 45 years. It’s brutal! I had never even heard or thought of this issue until I was wiping away some condensation on a window sill and saw my neighbour’s stack. Then the gurgling drains and oddly flushing toilets made sense. Thanks for posting this and everyone stay as warm as possible!

Great idea. Our vent line froze up last week. I poured some rock salt down there and it finally opened back up. I will be making one of these this weekend. Going up on a snowy roof and not getting paid for it is no fun. :D (I go on rooftops for work as an HVAC technician but they're flat and I get paid to do it)

Great idea!

An old plumber told us to extend pipe with 12-18" pvc. Something about the way the wind hits the pipe with the roof line. Worked great. Husband never had to climb back on the roof.

They sell them now. Seems like it will work. I would either paint the stack black or abs asi would like to think that the sun would help too !! A copper sleeve ?

Currently - 28° (feels like - 38°) and stack is frozen...gonna have to get up there with that T, it seems!

thank you for the video. does putting a grated cover over each vent pipe work just as well as the T device?

Those copper T's looked like they did the trick

Great idea, I hope it works for everyone. Available commercially as the "Sewer skewer" if you don't have the skills/ time to make one.

Does copper do any significant role here or can I use simply PVC pipe

Thanks for this video! Do you think instead of pinching the ends it would be a good idea to had a 90 degrees at each end to get even more venting? My toilets are not flushing properly for the second year, all this crazy rain and snow, ice and thaw is the culprit no doubt. Let me know what you think :)

How long should the pipe be that fits into the sewer vent ???? Thanks.

thats a great idea! now for a 59 year old gramma to climb up to the second story roof to unplug the vent..wish me well

You could also paint vent dark color , painting the copper part isn t enough surface area. Hey every bit help s in the winter! Good vid common sense RULES!

Do you drill holes in the "T"

If it makes you feel better its minus 47 Celsius here.

Yikes -23! ❄

Did it work?The ultimate fix is to insulate your plumbing vent stack in the attic space (or cold air space).

That works great until the entire thing gets covered with over a foot of snow. :-)