Guidance on Winterize Your Plumbing: 5 Hacks to Prevent Bursting Pipes in Frigid Temperatures
Guidance on Winterize Your Plumbing: 5 Hacks to Prevent Bursting Pipes in Frigid Temperatures
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All homeowners who stay in temperate climates need to do their ideal to winterize their pipelines. It is something you must do during fall prior to deep winter months truly starts. Failure to do so can mean calamity like frozen, cracked, or ruptured pipelines. Below are some helpful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system secured even if the climate exterior is shocking.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipelines are almost freezing, your trusty hair dryer or warm weapon is a blessing. If the warm towels do not aid displace any working out ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them might assist. Nonetheless, do not use other things that generate direct fires like an impact lantern. This can cause a larger calamity that you can not control. You may end up damaging your pipelines while attempting to thaw the ice. And also in the long run, you may also end up shedding your residence. Beware!
Open Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's chilly outside, it would be handy to open up closet doors that are camouflaging your pipelines. Doing this tiny trick can maintain your pipelines warm as well as limit the potentially unsafe results of freezing temperatures.
Require Time to Wrap Exposed Piping
One simple and also cool hack to heat up freezing pipelines is to wrap them with warm towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After safeguarding them in place, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to let the towels take in the liquid. You can also utilize pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not neglect to wear protective gloves to protect your hands from the warmth.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature drops and it seems as if the cold temperature level will certainly last, it will help to activate your water both inside your home and also outdoors. This will certainly keep the water moving with your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the movement will slow down the freezing process. Notably, there's no demand to transform it on full force. You'll wind up losing gallons of water this way. Rather, aim for regarding 5 declines per minute.
When Pipes are Frozen, close Off Water
Shut off the major water shutoff instantly if you discover that your pipes are completely frozen or practically nearing that stage. You will generally discover this in your basement or laundry room near the heating system or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off as soon as possible to avoid more damage.
With even more water, more ice will load up, which will at some point lead to rupture pipes. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipes this winter months, it is best to call an expert plumber for an evaluation.
All property owners who live in pleasant environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can mean calamity like frozen, fractured, or ruptured pipelines. If the warm towels do not aid displace any kind of settling ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air straight into them might help. Transform off the main water shutoff right away if you notice that your pipelines are completely icy or almost nearing that stage. With even more water, 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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