Efficient Methods for Winterizing Your Pipes and Avoiding Freezing in Frigid Weather
Efficient Methods for Winterizing Your Pipes and Avoiding Freezing in Frigid Weather
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On this page below you can discover a good deal of excellent tips regarding How to stop pipes from freezing during the winter.
All homeowners that live in warm environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can spell calamity like frozen, broken, or ruptured pipes.
Attempt a Hair Clothes Dryer or Heat Weapon
When your pipelines are nearly freezing, your trusty hair clothes dryer or warm gun is a blessing. If the hot towels do not aid remove any settling ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly right into them may help. You may finish up damaging your pipelines while trying to melt the ice.
Open Up Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would certainly be valuable to open up cabinet doors that are concealing your pipelines when it's cool outside. For example, they could be somewhere in your kitchen area or washroom. This will enable the warm air from your heating unit to distribute there. Because of this, you stop these subjected pipes from freezing. Doing this little technique can keep your pipelines cozy and limit the possibly dangerous outcomes of freezing temperatures.
Require Time to Cover Exposed Pipes
One simple and also nifty hack to warm up frigid pipelines is to wrap them with warm towels. You can also make use of pre-soaked towels in warm water, just don't neglect to use protective gloves to secure your hands from the warm.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature declines and also it seems as if the freezing temperature level will last, it will help to turn on your water both inside your home and also outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water streaming through your plumbing systems. You'll end up squandering gallons of water this method.
Turn off Water When Pipelines are Frozen
If you observe that your pipelines are entirely icy or almost nearing that stage, turn off the major water valve instantly. You will normally discover this in your cellar or utility room near the heating system or the front wall closest to the street. Transform it off as soon as possible to stop additional damage.
With more water, more ice will stack up, which will at some point lead to burst pipes. If you are uncertain about the state of your pipes this winter season, it is best to call a specialist plumber for an inspection.
All house owners that live in warm environments need to do their best to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can spell disaster like icy, fractured, or burst pipelines. If the warm towels do not help remove any clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly right into them might help. Turn off the primary water shutoff immediately if you discover that your pipelines are entirely icy or virtually nearing that phase. With even more water, even more ice will pile 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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