Useful Tips for Winterizing Your Plumbing and Safeguarding Against Freezing Temperatures
Useful Tips for Winterizing Your Plumbing and Safeguarding Against Freezing Temperatures
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All house owners who live in pleasant environments have to do their ideal to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can spell calamity like frozen, broken, or ruptured pipes.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipes are practically freezing, your reliable hair dryer or warm gun is a godsend. If the hot towels do not help remove any type of working out ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them may help. Do not use various other objects that generate direct fires like a strike torch. This can result in a bigger calamity that you can not manage. You might wind up destructive your pipelines while trying to melt the ice. And also in the future, you might also wind up shedding your house. Be careful!
Open Up Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would be handy to open cupboard doors that are masking your pipes when it's cold outside. They can be somewhere in your kitchen or restroom. This will enable the warm air from your heating system to flow there. Consequently, you prevent these revealed pipelines from freezing. Doing this small trick can maintain your pipes warm and also restrict the possibly dangerous outcomes of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Cover Exposed Pipeline
One awesome and easy hack to warm up icy pipelines is to cover them with warm towels. You can also use pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not neglect to use protective handwear covers to guard your hands from the warm.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature decreases as well as it appears as if the icy temperature level will certainly last, it will certainly help to activate your water both inside as well as outdoors. This will maintain the water streaming through your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the motion will reduce the freezing procedure. Notably, there's no demand to transform it on full blast. You'll end up squandering gallons of water this way. Rather, go for regarding 5 drops per min.
Turn off Water When Pipelines are Frozen
If you see that your pipes are completely icy or nearly nearing that phase, turn off the primary water valve promptly. You will usually locate this in your cellar or utility room near the heater or the front wall surface closest to the street. Transform it off right away to prevent additional damages.
Do not fail to remember to close exterior water resources, too, such as your connection for the garden home. Doing this will certainly stop additional water from filling out your plumbing system. Sadly, with more water, even more ice will pile up, which will ultimately lead to break pipelines. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipelines this winter season, it is best to call an expert plumber for an evaluation. Taking this positive technique can conserve you thousands of dollars out of commission.
All homeowners that live in temperate environments must do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can mean catastrophe like icy, fractured, or burst pipelines. If the hot towels do not aid remove any working out ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air straight right into them may aid. Transform off the primary water valve right away if you observe that your pipelines are totally icy or virtually nearing that stage. With even more water, even more ice will load up, which will ultimately 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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