Cold Weather Pipe Protection: 5 Hacks to Keep Them Intact in Freezing Temperatures
Cold Weather Pipe Protection: 5 Hacks to Keep Them Intact in Freezing Temperatures
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Here down the page you can locate some good data when it comes to Winterizing Your Pipes.
All property owners that live in warm climates have to do their best to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can mean catastrophe like icy, split, or burst pipes.
Turn On the Faucets
When the temperature decreases as well as it seems as if the frigid temperature level will certainly last, it will aid to activate your water both inside and outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water moving through your plumbing systems. On top of that, the activity will slow down the cold process. Especially, there's no demand to turn it on full blast. You'll end up losing gallons of water this way. Instead, go for regarding 5 drops per min.
Open Up Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would be helpful to open up closet doors that are masking your pipes. They can be someplace in your kitchen area or washroom. This will certainly allow the warm air from your heating system to distribute there. As a result, you protect against these subjected pipelines from cold. Doing this small technique can maintain your pipelines cozy and limit the possibly dangerous end results of freezing temperature levels.
Require Time to Cover Exposed Water Lines
One awesome and also easy hack to heat up freezing pipelines is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them first with towels. After safeguarding them in place, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to let the towels take in the fluid. You can likewise make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, just don't neglect to use protective gloves to protect your hands from the warm.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Heat Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your reliable hair dryer or warm gun is a godsend. If the warm towels do not assist remove any working out ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air straight right into them may assist. You might finish up damaging your pipelines while trying to melt the ice.
When Pipes are Frozen, close Off Water
If you notice that your pipelines are entirely icy or almost nearing that stage, turn off the main water shutoff promptly. You will usually find this in your basement or laundry room near the heating system or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off right now to prevent further damages.
With even more water, even more ice will certainly load up, which will at some point lead to rupture pipelines. If you are uncertain about the state of your pipelines this winter, it is best to call a specialist plumber for an inspection.
All house owners who live in temperate climates must do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can spell catastrophe like icy, broken, or ruptured pipes. If the hot towels do not assist displace any kind of settling ice in your pipes, bowling warm air straight right into them might aid. Transform off the main water valve right away if you discover that your pipes are totally icy or nearly nearing that stage. With more water, even more ice will certainly stack 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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