Efficient Methods for Winterizing Your Pipes and Preventing Freezing in Frigid Weather
Efficient Methods for Winterizing Your Pipes and Preventing Freezing in Frigid Weather
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Are you currently looking for answers about How to Prevent Frozen Pipes?
All homeowners that stay in temperate climates need to do their finest to winterize their pipelines. It is something you should do throughout fall before deep wintertime truly begins. Failing to do so can lead to disaster like frozen, split, or ruptured pipelines. Here are some useful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system secured even if the climate exterior is shocking.
Try a Hair Dryer or Heat Weapon
When your pipes are almost freezing, your dependable hair clothes dryer or heat weapon is a godsend. Bowling warm air directly into them might aid if the warm towels do not aid remove any kind of clearing up ice in your pipelines. However, do not utilize various other things that produce direct fires like an impact torch. This can cause a larger disaster that you can not regulate. You might wind up harmful your pipelines while trying to thaw the ice. And also in the future, you may also wind up melting your home. Be careful!
Open Up Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's chilly outside, it would certainly be valuable to open up closet doors that are camouflaging your pipes. For example, they could be someplace in your kitchen or shower room. This will permit the cozy air from your heating unit to distribute there. As a result, you avoid these subjected pipelines from cold. Doing this tiny trick can keep your pipes warm as well as restrict the possibly hazardous end results of freezing temperature levels.
Take Time to Cover Exposed Water Lines
One cool and also very easy hack to warm up icy pipelines is to wrap them with warm towels. You can likewise make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, just don't fail to remember to put on safety gloves to safeguard your hands from the warm.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature level declines and also it appears as if the frigid temperature will last, it will help to turn on your water both indoors and also outdoors. This will maintain the water moving via your plumbing systems. On top of that, the activity will certainly decrease the freezing procedure. Especially, there's no need to transform it on full force. You'll end up losing gallons of water this way. Rather, aim for concerning 5 drops per minute.
Shut Off Water When Pipelines are Frozen
If you discover that your pipelines are entirely icy or almost nearing that stage, transform off the main water valve instantly. You will usually locate this in your cellar or laundry room near the heating unit or the front wall surface closest to the street. Transform it off immediately to stop additional damages.
With more water, even more ice will certainly load up, which will eventually lead to burst pipelines. If you are not sure concerning the state of your pipes this wintertime, it is best to call an expert plumber for an examination.
All homeowners that live in warm environments should do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can mean disaster like frozen, fractured, or burst pipelines. If the hot towels do not help displace any working out ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly into them might help. Turn off the major water shutoff immediately if you see that your pipelines are completely frozen or practically nearing that stage. With even more water, even more ice will certainly pile up, which will at some point lead to rupture 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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