Smart Strategies to Preserve Your Pipes in Cold Weather
Smart Strategies to Preserve Your Pipes in Cold Weather
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In this article below you can discover more first-rate information all about Winterizing Your Pipes.
All property owners that live in temperate environments have to do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can mean disaster like frozen, broken, or burst pipes.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Warmth Weapon
When your pipelines are nearly freezing, your trusty hair clothes dryer or heat weapon is a godsend. Bowling hot air straight right into them might help if the hot towels do not assist displace any kind of settling ice in your pipes. Do not use other objects that produce direct fires like an impact lantern. This can cause a larger catastrophe that you can not regulate. You might end up harmful your pipelines while trying to thaw the ice. And also in the future, you may also end up burning your residence. Beware!
Open Up Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would certainly be valuable to open up closet doors that are camouflaging your pipes. As an example, they could be somewhere in your cooking area or shower room. This will certainly permit the cozy air from your heating unit to distribute there. Therefore, you stop these exposed pipes from freezing. Doing this small method can maintain your pipelines cozy as well as limit the potentially dangerous outcomes of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Cover Exposed Pipeline
One awesome and also simple hack to heat up freezing pipes is to wrap them with warm towels. You can likewise make use of pre-soaked towels in warm water, just do not forget to use safety handwear covers to protect your hands from the warm.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature level drops and also it seems as if the freezing temperature will certainly last, it will certainly help to activate your water both inside and outdoors. This will certainly keep the water moving with your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the movement will certainly slow down the cold process. Significantly, there's no need to transform it on full force. You'll end up wasting gallons of water by doing this. Rather, aim for about 5 decreases per min.
Turn off Water When Pipes are Frozen
If you observe that your pipelines are entirely icy or virtually nearing that phase, turn off the main water shutoff instantly. You will usually find this in your cellar or utility room near the heating system or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off immediately to prevent additional damage.
Don't fail to remember to shut external water sources, too, such as your connection for the yard residence. Doing this will prevent additional water from filling up your plumbing system. With even more water, more ice will pile up, which will eventually lead to break pipes. If you are unsure about the state of your pipelines this winter, it is best to call an expert plumber for an examination. Taking this aggressive approach can conserve you countless dollars in repairs.
All homeowners that live in warm climates need to do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can mean disaster like frozen, split, or ruptured pipes. If the warm towels do not aid remove any type of clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling warm air straight into them may aid. Turn off the primary water shutoff right away if you notice that your pipes are totally icy or practically nearing that stage. With more water, even more ice will certainly pile up, which will at some point 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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