5 Practical Hacks for Winterizing Your Home's Plumbing Against Severe Cold
5 Practical Hacks for Winterizing Your Home's Plumbing Against Severe Cold
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Just how do you actually feel about Winterizing Your Pipes?
All property owners that live in pleasant environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can spell calamity like icy, fractured, or ruptured pipelines.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature decreases and also it appears as if the frigid temperature will last, it will certainly help to switch on your water both inside your home as well as outdoors. This will keep the water flowing with your plumbing systems. Additionally, the movement will slow down the freezing process. Significantly, there's no need to transform it on full blast. You'll wind up losing gallons of water this way. Rather, aim for regarding 5 drops per minute.
Open Up Cupboard Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would certainly be valuable to open cupboard doors that are concealing your pipelines when it's chilly outside. They could be someplace in your cooking area or bathroom. This will enable the cozy air from your heating unit to distribute there. Consequently, you avoid these subjected pipelines from cold. Doing this little technique can keep your pipes cozy and also restrict the potentially harmful results of freezing temperature levels.
Require Time to Cover Exposed Pipeline
One simple and nifty hack to heat up icy pipelines is to wrap them with warm towels. You can also make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not fail to remember to put on safety gloves to protect your hands from the warm.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipelines are practically freezing, your reliable hair clothes dryer or warmth gun is a godsend. Bowling hot air straight into them may aid if the warm towels do not aid displace any kind of clearing up ice in your pipelines. However, do not utilize various other items that generate straight flames like an impact lantern. This can cause a bigger calamity that you can not manage. You might end up destructive your pipes while trying to thaw the ice. And over time, you might also end up shedding your home. So beware!
Turn off Water When Pipes are Frozen
Turn off the main water valve quickly if you notice that your pipes are entirely frozen or almost nearing that phase. You will generally locate this in your basement or utility room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off today to stop more damage.
With even more water, even more ice will pile up, which will eventually lead to rupture pipes. If you are uncertain regarding the state of your pipelines this winter season, it is best to call a professional plumber for an examination.
All house owners who live in temperate environments have to do their best to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can mean catastrophe like frozen, split, or ruptured pipes. If the hot towels do not aid displace any type of working out ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air directly into them may assist. Turn off the main water valve right away if you see that your pipelines are entirely icy or almost nearing that phase. With more water, even more ice will stack up, which will eventually 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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