Wise Winterizing Solutions: 5 Approaches to Maintain Your Pipes in Cold Weather
Wise Winterizing Solutions: 5 Approaches to Maintain Your Pipes in Cold Weather
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Just about everyone has their unique opinions in relation to Winterizing Your Pipes.
All home owners who live in warm environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can mean catastrophe like icy, split, or ruptured pipes.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warmth Weapon
When your pipes are virtually freezing, your dependable hair dryer or warm weapon is a blessing. If the warm towels do not assist remove any kind of working out ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly right into them may help. However, do not utilize other objects that produce straight flames like an impact torch. This can cause a larger calamity that you can not manage. You might end up damaging your pipelines while trying to thaw the ice. And also over time, you might even end up shedding your home. Be careful!
Open Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cool outside, it would be practical to open up cupboard doors that are concealing your pipes. Doing this little trick can keep your pipelines warm and limit the possibly unsafe end results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipes
One great as well as easy hack to warm up cold pipes is to cover them with cozy 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 take in the liquid. You can additionally make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, just don't forget to use protective gloves to guard your hands from the heat.
Turn On the Faucets
When the temperature declines as well as it seems as if the frigid temperature will certainly last, it will certainly aid to transform on your water both inside your home and outdoors. This will keep the water flowing via your plumbing systems. You'll end up wasting gallons of water this means.
When Pipes are Frozen, shut Off Water
If you notice that your pipelines are completely icy or virtually nearing that phase, transform off the primary water valve promptly. You will typically find this in your basement or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off immediately to prevent additional damages.
Don't forget to shut external water sources, too, such as your hookup for the garden house. Doing this will stop extra water from filling up your plumbing system. With more water, more ice will certainly load up, which will eventually lead to rupture pipelines. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipes this wintertime, it is best to call a specialist plumber for an evaluation. Taking this aggressive technique can conserve you countless bucks in repairs.
All homeowners who live in pleasant environments should do their ideal to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can spell calamity like icy, cracked, or burst pipes. If the hot towels do not aid remove any type of resolving ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly into them may help. Transform off the primary water shutoff instantly if you see that your pipelines are totally frozen or virtually nearing that stage. With even more water, even more ice will certainly stack up, which will ultimately lead to rupture 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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