Essential 5 Winterizing Hacks to Prevent Your Pipes From Bursting in Cold Weather
Essential 5 Winterizing Hacks to Prevent Your Pipes From Bursting in Cold Weather
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We've encountered this great article relating to How to Prevent Frozen Pipes directly below on the internet and reckoned it made sense to discuss it with you over here.
All home owners that live in pleasant environments have to do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can spell disaster like icy, fractured, or burst pipes.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipelines are practically freezing, your trusty hair dryer or warmth weapon is a blessing. If the hot towels do not aid remove any kind of clearing up ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air straight right into them might help. You might finish up destructive your pipelines while trying to melt the ice.
Open Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would be helpful to open up cabinet doors that are camouflaging your pipelines. Doing this little trick can keep your pipelines cozy and also limit the potentially hazardous results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Time to Cover Exposed Pipes
One very easy as well as cool hack to heat up icy pipelines is to wrap them with warm towels. You can additionally use pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not neglect to use protective gloves to guard your hands from the heat.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature drops and it seems as if the frigid temperature level will last, it will certainly help to activate your water both inside as well as outdoors. This will maintain the water moving via your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the motion will certainly decrease the cold procedure. Significantly, there's no need to turn it on full force. You'll end up wasting gallons of water this way. Rather, go for concerning 5 decreases per min.
When Pipes are Frozen, close Off Water
Switch off the main water valve immediately if you see that your pipes are completely frozen or practically nearing that phase. You will normally locate 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 more damages.
Do not fail to remember to shut exterior water resources, too, such as your hookup for the yard house. Doing this will certainly stop additional water from filling up your plumbing system. Unfortunately, with more water, more ice will accumulate, which will at some point lead to burst pipelines. If you are unsure regarding the state of your pipelines this winter, it is best to call a specialist plumber for an evaluation. Taking this aggressive approach can save you countless dollars out of commission.
All property owners that live in pleasant climates should do their finest to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like frozen, broken, or burst pipelines. If the warm towels do not assist displace any settling ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly into them might help. Turn off the major water valve right away if you see that your pipes are totally frozen or almost nearing that stage. With even more water, even more ice will certainly load up, which will at some point lead to burst pipes.
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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