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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The author is making several good points about How to Prevent Frozen Pipes overall in this content directly below.
All home owners who live in warm environments must do their best to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can lead to calamity like frozen, cracked, or burst pipes.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Warm Weapon
When your pipelines are nearly freezing, your reliable hair clothes dryer or warmth weapon is a godsend. Bowling warm air straight into them may assist if the warm towels do not help remove any type of resolving ice in your pipelines. Nevertheless, do not utilize various other things that produce direct flames like an impact lantern. This can result in a bigger calamity that you can not regulate. You might wind up damaging your pipes while trying to melt the ice. As well as over time, you might also end up melting your residence. So be cautious!
Open Up Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would certainly be practical to open closet doors that are concealing your pipes. Doing this tiny method can keep your pipelines warm and restrict the potentially unsafe results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipeline
One very easy and clever hack to heat up freezing pipes is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After securing them in place, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to let the towels soak up the liquid. You can additionally utilize pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply don't neglect to use protective handwear covers to protect your hands from the warmth.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature decreases and also it appears as if the freezing temperature level will certainly last, it will certainly help to switch on your water both inside and outdoors. This will maintain the water moving with your plumbing systems. On top of that, the movement will reduce the freezing process. Especially, there's no requirement to transform it on full force. You'll end up squandering gallons of water by doing this. Rather, go for about 5 declines per min.
Turn off Water When Pipes are Frozen
Shut off the major water valve instantly if you discover that your pipes are totally icy or nearly nearing that phase. You will usually find this in your basement or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall surface closest to the street. Transform it off as soon as possible to avoid additional damage.
Do not neglect to close outside water resources, as well, such as your connection for the yard home. Doing this will certainly stop added water from filling your plumbing system. However, with even more water, even more ice will certainly accumulate, which will ultimately cause rupture pipes. If you are unclear concerning the state of your pipelines this wintertime, it is best to call an expert plumber for an examination. Taking this positive approach can conserve you hundreds of dollars in repairs.
All homeowners that live in warm climates have to do their finest to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can mean disaster like icy, split, or burst pipelines. If the hot towels do not aid remove any resolving ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them may help. Transform off the main water shutoff instantly if you notice that your pipelines are completely icy or practically nearing that phase. With more water, even more ice will load 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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