The problem is that you may not be aware that it is frozen. In this example, you can see split, but there would have been a long time between it freezing and it creating a flood. The reason is that once it expands to the point that it splits open the pipe, there will be a big glob of ice there and no leak. It won’t start leaking until it warms up as the split is blocked with a chunk of ice. Hopefully you’re lucky, you will be home when it thaws, and aware of the damage and flooding so you will be able to turn your water off and minimize the damage.
If you’re not home however, things are less pretty. If this leak has gone undetected, and it happens to warm up while you’re away at work, or sleeping at night, your house will be entirely flooded.
