What're your insights and beliefs on How to stop pipes from freezing during the winter?
All home owners that live in temperate environments should do their finest to winterize their pipelines. It is something you need to do during fall before deep winter season truly begins. Failing to do so can mean catastrophe like frozen, cracked, or ruptured pipes. Right here are some helpful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system safeguarded even if the climate outside is terrible.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Heat Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your dependable hair clothes dryer or heat weapon is a blessing. If the hot towels do not aid dislodge any type of clearing up ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly right into them may help. You might finish up damaging your pipes while attempting to thaw the ice.
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would be helpful to open up cabinet doors that are concealing your pipelines when it's cold outside. For instance, they could be somewhere in your kitchen area or bathroom. This will allow the warm air from your heating unit to circulate there. Therefore, you prevent these subjected pipes from cold. Doing this tiny technique can keep your pipes cozy and also restrict the possibly harmful results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Time to Cover Exposed Pipeline
One easy as well as clever hack to heat up cold pipelines is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can also make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not neglect to wear protective handwear covers to safeguard your hands from the heat.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature level decreases and it appears as if the cold temperature will certainly last, it will certainly assist to turn on your water both indoors and also outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water flowing through your plumbing systems. You'll finish up wasting gallons of water this method.
When Pipes are Frozen, close Off Water
If you discover that your pipes are totally frozen or almost nearing that stage, transform off the primary water valve immediately. You will generally discover this in your basement or utility room near the heater or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off today to avoid additional damage.
Do not fail to remember to shut external water resources, as well, such as your hookup for the yard house. Doing this will certainly stop added water from filling your plumbing system. Unfortunately, with even more water, even more ice will accumulate, which will eventually bring about rupture pipelines. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipelines this wintertime, it is best to call a professional plumber for an inspection. Taking this proactive approach can conserve you countless dollars out of commission.
All home owners that live in warm environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can lead to calamity like icy, cracked, or ruptured pipes. If the hot towels do not assist dislodge any kind of settling ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly into them may help. Turn off the main water shutoff promptly if you observe that your pipelines are entirely frozen or virtually nearing that stage. With even more water, more ice will stack up, which will at some point lead to rupture 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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