Best Guide to Winterizing Pipes: 5 Hacks to Prevent Bursting in Cold Climates
Best Guide to Winterizing Pipes: 5 Hacks to Prevent Bursting in Cold Climates
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Just how do you feel in relation to Prevent Freezing and Bursting Pipes?
All homeowners who live in warm climates should do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can lead to calamity like frozen, broken, or ruptured pipes.
Try a Hair Dryer or Heat Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your trusty hair dryer or heat gun is a godsend. If the warm towels do not aid dislodge any kind of resolving ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly into them might assist. You might finish up damaging your pipes while attempting to melt the ice.
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would be helpful to open up cupboard doors that are masking your pipelines. Doing this little trick can keep your pipes cozy as well as limit the possibly unsafe end results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipes
One cool as well as simple hack to warm up frigid pipes is to wrap them with warm towels. You can cover them first with towels. After safeguarding them in position, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to let the towels soak up the fluid. You can likewise utilize pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply don't neglect to use safety handwear covers to safeguard your hands from the heat.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature decreases as well as it seems as if the freezing temperature will last, it will certainly help to switch on your water both inside your home and outdoors. This will keep the water flowing through your plumbing systems. In addition, the motion will certainly decrease the cold procedure. Notably, there's no requirement to turn it on full blast. You'll wind up throwing away gallons of water this way. Rather, go for concerning 5 declines per minute.
When Pipelines are Frozen, shut Off Water
If you see that your pipes are completely icy or practically nearing that phase, transform off the main water shutoff quickly. You will usually discover this in your cellar or laundry room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Transform it off right now to stop more damage.
Do not forget to shut exterior water sources, as well, such as your hookup for the garden house. Doing this will certainly prevent extra water from filling your plumbing system. However, with more water, more ice will accumulate, which will eventually cause break pipelines. It is best to call a professional plumber for an examination if you are not sure about the state of your pipes this winter months. Taking this proactive technique can conserve you countless bucks in repairs.
All property owners who live in temperate climates should do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can spell catastrophe like frozen, broken, or burst pipes. If the hot towels do not assist dislodge any kind of working out ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air straight into them might assist. Turn off the major water shutoff right away if you observe that your pipelines are entirely frozen or virtually nearing that phase. With more water, even more ice will load up, which will ultimately lead to break 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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