Top 5 Winterizing Hacks to Ensure Your Pipes Survive the Cold
Top 5 Winterizing Hacks to Ensure Your Pipes Survive the Cold
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Nearly everybody will have their private way of thinking on the subject of How to stop pipes from freezing during the winter.
All home owners who stay in temperate environments must do their finest to winterize their pipelines. It is something you need to do during fall prior to deep winter season absolutely begins. Failing to do so can lead to catastrophe like icy, broken, or ruptured pipes. If the weather exterior is shocking, here are some useful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system safeguarded also.
Try a Hair Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipes are virtually freezing, your trusty hair dryer or heat gun is a blessing. Bowling warm air straight right into them may aid if the hot towels do not assist remove any kind of settling ice in your pipes. Nevertheless, do not use other items that create straight fires like a blow torch. This can lead to a larger disaster that you can not control. You may end up harmful your pipelines while attempting to thaw the ice. And in the long run, you may even wind up shedding your home. So be careful!
Open Cupboard Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would certainly be practical to open up cupboard doors that are concealing your pipelines. Doing this small method can maintain your pipes cozy as well as limit the possibly hazardous end results of freezing temperatures.
Take Time to Cover Exposed Pipeline
One very easy and clever hack to warm up cold pipes is to cover them with cozy towels. You can likewise make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, just don't fail to remember to put on protective handwear covers to guard your hands from the heat.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature declines and it seems as if the icy temperature will last, it will certainly aid to turn on your water both inside and outdoors. This will maintain the water moving through your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the activity will reduce the cold process. Significantly, there's no requirement to transform it on full force. You'll end up losing gallons of water this way. Instead, aim for regarding 5 decreases per min.
Turn off Water When Pipelines are Frozen
Turn off the main water shutoff immediately if you discover that your pipes are totally frozen or nearly nearing that phase. You will usually find this in your basement or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off as soon as possible to stop more damage.
Don't fail to remember to shut outside water resources, as well, such as your hookup for the yard home. Doing this will certainly stop added water from filling out your plumbing system. However, with even more water, even more ice will certainly accumulate, which will ultimately cause rupture pipes. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipelines this wintertime, it is best to call a specialist plumber for an examination. Taking this positive technique can save you hundreds of bucks in repairs.
All home owners that live in temperate environments need to do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like icy, broken, or ruptured pipes. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any type of working out ice in your pipes, bowling warm air straight into them might help. Transform off the primary water valve quickly if you notice that your pipes are entirely frozen or practically nearing that phase. With more water, even more ice will load up, which will ultimately lead to break 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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