How to Winterize Your Plumbing: 5 Hacks to Prevent Bursting Pipes in Frigid Temperatures
How to Winterize Your Plumbing: 5 Hacks to Prevent Bursting Pipes in Frigid Temperatures
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The author is making a number of great points on the subject of How to Prevent Frozen Pipes overall in this post further down.
All home owners who reside in temperate environments need to do their best to winterize their pipelines. It is something you need to do during fall before deep winter months genuinely begins. Failing to do so can lead to catastrophe like icy, broken, or burst pipelines. Below are some useful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system protected even if the climate exterior is frightful.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature level drops and it appears as if the frigid temperature level will certainly last, it will certainly help to activate your water both indoors as well as outdoors. This will certainly keep the water streaming via your plumbing systems. Additionally, the movement will certainly decrease the freezing procedure. Notably, there's no demand to turn it on full force. You'll end up losing gallons of water this way. Rather, go for concerning 5 declines per minute.
Open Up Cupboard Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would certainly be helpful to open cabinet doors that are camouflaging your pipes when it's chilly outside. For instance, they could be someplace in your kitchen or restroom. This will permit the cozy air from your heating system to flow there. Therefore, you prevent these exposed pipelines from freezing. Doing this small technique can keep your pipelines cozy and also limit the possibly hazardous results of freezing temperature levels.
Require Time to Cover Exposed Water Lines
One great and also simple hack to heat up freezing pipes is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them first with towels. After protecting them in position, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to let the towels soak up the fluid. You can additionally make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not forget to wear protective gloves to protect your hands from the warm.
Try a Hair Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your dependable hair clothes dryer or warm gun is a blessing. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any kind of clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them might help. However, do not make use of other things that create straight flames like an impact torch. This can result in a larger catastrophe that you can not control. You might end up destructive your pipes while attempting to thaw the ice. As well as in the future, you might also end up shedding your house. Be careful!
When Pipes are Frozen, close Off Water
If you observe that your pipelines are entirely icy or almost nearing that stage, transform off the major water valve immediately. You will usually discover this in your cellar or utility room near the heating system or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off right now to prevent additional damage.
With more water, more ice will pile up, which will eventually lead to rupture pipes. If you are uncertain about the state of your pipelines this wintertime, it is best to call a professional plumber for an inspection.
All homeowners that live in warm climates should do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can spell calamity like icy, split, or burst pipelines. If the hot towels do not help displace any type of working out ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly right into them may help. Transform off the main water valve immediately if you observe that your pipes are entirely frozen or almost nearing that phase. With more water, more ice will certainly pile up, which will at some point lead to burst pipelines.
Planning Ahead for Winter Plumbing!
Given how the weather has been recently here in Kansas City, it may not seem like it, but the truth is winter is quickly approaching. As we near the end of September, it is never a bad idea to start considering which areas of your home could use some preventative maintenance heading into the colder months, as well as what you should remember to do once the colder temps settle in. And considering your plumbing system can certainly be impacted by changing weather conditions, guess what we’ll be talking about today?
For those that are visiting our blog for the very first time, welcome to Stine-Nichols Plumbing. Here on the blog, we post weekly about various aspects of the plumbing world. Whether that be DIY tips, brand highlights or anything else, they’re all designed to make homeowners more knowledgeable about their plumbing systems. Believe it or not, even just some general knowledge about one’s plumbing can go a long way in preventing unneeded repairs and keeping everything running smoothly. As referenced in the previous paragraph, this week’s blog will walk through a few of the steps you can do to your own plumbing system to ensure you’re ready to go for the upcoming winter weather and tips for keeping it all in working order as the winter carries on. Let’s hop right in!
Disconnect Hoses
You’ve likely heard this one on multiple occasions, but it is certainly something worth mentioning. Make sure to disconnect any and all outdoor hoses and then turn off those outdoor faucets at the shut-off. The logic behind this is probably something you would have learned in a grade school science class. When water freezes, it expands. Thus, due to this, it’s going to occupy more space. And if there’s no space to occupy, trouble ensues. It’s as simple as that!
Long story short, if you have room to store them indoors, do so. If not, just be sure to completely drain them and then store them in a dry area, such as the garage or a shed. Failure to disconnect the hoses can easily result in frozen/bursting pipes and plumbing headaches for you, especially if there is still water sitting in the hose! Do yourself a favor and disconnect your hoses once you know you won’t be using them anymore for that season. It’s a quick-and-easy step that’s always worth the time.
Headed Out of Town?
Our next point will likely get more and more relevant as we get into the holiday season. Do you remember the extreme arctic blast that hit the Kansas City area in February of 2021? Sub-zero temps, frigid wind chills, it was definitely not the funnest of times for KC residents. Nonetheless, here at Stine-Nichols Plumbing, it’s safe to say our technicians were quite busy dealing with frozen/bursting pipes. What I’m hinting at here is that you never know when we’ll experience extremely cold temperatures. So if you’re going to be out of town for a little bit, it’s never a bad idea to turn off your water at the main shut-off valve. While this won’t prevent every possible plumbing issue, it will at least limit the damage if something bad were to occur. Especially if you don’t have a family member or friend that’ll be checking on your home while you’re away, make sure to keep this tip in mind!
By the way, it may sound like a no-brainer to most, but if you are headed out of town, make sure to also keep the heat on inside while away. You will have some added energy costs from heating a home while nobody’s there, but if it prevents you from dealing with a plumbing emergency, it’s well worth it!
Leave Cabinet Doors Open
As you may start to notice, the primary winter plumbing problem that you need to be mindful of involves pipes freezing. Whether it be indoors or outdoors, they can freeze for a few different reasons, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of various tactics you can implement to improve your odds of keeping everything in working order. Yet another one of these that you’ve likely heard before is leaving the cabinet doors under your bathroom or kitchen sink open. Will this provide complete protection? Not necessarily. However, this is an easy way to make sure some of the heat in your home is reaching those pipes that aren’t insulated under your sinks.
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