Prevent the Freeze: Five Essential Hacks to Keep Your Pipes From Bursting This Winter
Prevent the Freeze: Five Essential Hacks to Keep Your Pipes From Bursting This Winter
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All home owners that stay in warm environments must do their finest to winterize their pipelines. It is something you have to do during autumn before deep winter months truly begins. Failing to do so can lead to disaster like frozen, fractured, or burst pipelines. If the weather condition exterior is shocking, here are some useful winterizing hacks to maintain your plumbing system secured also.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature declines and it seems as if the icy temperature will last, it will aid to transform on your water both inside and outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water moving via your plumbing systems. You'll finish up wasting gallons of water this way.
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would be practical to open up cupboard doors that are concealing your pipes when it's chilly outside. For example, they could be somewhere in your cooking area or washroom. This will enable the warm air from your heating system to flow there. Therefore, you prevent these revealed pipes from freezing. Doing this little method can keep your pipelines cozy as well as restrict the possibly dangerous end results of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Cover Exposed Piping
One clever as well as simple hack to heat up cold pipes is to wrap them with warm towels. You can cover them first with towels. After securing them in place, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to allow the towels soak up the liquid. You can also use pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not neglect to use protective handwear covers to secure your hands from the warmth.
Try a Hair Dryer or Heat Gun
When your pipelines are virtually freezing, your dependable hair clothes dryer or warm weapon is a blessing. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any settling ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air straight right into them may assist. You may end up harmful your pipelines while trying to melt the ice.
When Pipelines are Frozen, close Off Water
If you observe that your pipelines are entirely icy or virtually nearing that phase, transform off the major water valve right away. You will normally discover this in your basement or utility room near the heating system or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off right away to prevent more damages.
Do not neglect to shut external water sources, too, such as your hookup for the garden house. Doing this will prevent added water from filling out your plumbing system. With even more water, more ice will pile up, which will ultimately lead to break pipes. If you are uncertain regarding the state of your pipes this wintertime, it is best to call an expert plumber for an assessment. Taking this proactive technique can save you hundreds of bucks out of commission.
All property owners who live in warm environments have to do their finest to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can mean disaster like frozen, fractured, or ruptured pipes. If the hot towels do not assist dislodge any type of settling ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air straight right into them may aid. Turn off the primary water shutoff instantly if you notice that your pipelines are totally frozen or virtually nearing that phase. With more water, more ice will certainly stack up, which will ultimately lead to break 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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