Smart Strategies to Protect Your Pipes in Cold Weather
Smart Strategies to Protect Your Pipes in Cold Weather
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On this page below you might get a good deal of helpful answers all about How to stop pipes from freezing during the winter.
All property owners that live in temperate environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can mean calamity like frozen, cracked, or burst pipelines.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipelines are nearly freezing, your trusty hair clothes dryer or warmth gun is a blessing. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any type of settling ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight into them may aid. Do not use various other objects that create direct fires like an impact lantern. This can cause a bigger catastrophe that you can not regulate. You might wind up damaging your pipelines while attempting to thaw the ice. As well as in the long run, you might also end up shedding your home. So be careful!
Open Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's chilly outside, it would be valuable to open up cupboard doors that are camouflaging your pipelines. For example, they could be somewhere in your kitchen or washroom. This will certainly allow the cozy air from your heating system to distribute there. Because of this, you stop these exposed pipes from freezing. Doing this little method can maintain your pipes cozy as well as limit the possibly unsafe results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipeline
One simple and cool hack to heat up icy pipelines is to cover them with cozy towels. You can cover them first with towels. After protecting them in position, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to let the towels soak up the fluid. You can likewise make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not neglect to use protective gloves to safeguard your hands from the warmth.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature level drops and also it appears as if the frigid temperature will certainly last, it will assist to transform on your water both inside as well as outdoors. This will certainly keep the water streaming through your plumbing systems. You'll finish up wasting gallons of water this method.
Shut down Water When Pipelines are Frozen
Shut off the main water shutoff quickly if you observe that your pipes are entirely frozen or virtually nearing that phase. You will typically find this in your basement or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off as soon as possible to prevent further damages.
Do not neglect to shut outside water sources, as well, such as your hookup for the garden house. Doing this will certainly avoid added water from filling up your plumbing system. Unfortunately, with even more water, more ice will accumulate, which will eventually lead to burst pipes. It is best to call an expert plumber for an inspection if you are unclear about the state of your pipelines this winter. Taking this positive approach can conserve you hundreds of bucks in repairs.
All house owners that live in pleasant environments must do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can spell calamity like frozen, broken, or ruptured pipes. If the hot towels do not assist remove any kind of resolving ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air straight into them may help. Transform off the major water shutoff quickly if you observe that your pipelines are totally icy or practically 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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