Helpful Methods for Winterizing Your Pipes and Shielding Freezing in Frigid Weather
Helpful Methods for Winterizing Your Pipes and Shielding Freezing in Frigid Weather
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How do you really feel when it comes to How to stop pipes from freezing during the winter?
All house owners that live in temperate climates should do their ideal to winterize their pipes. It is something you have to do during fall prior to deep wintertime really begins. Failure to do so can mean disaster like icy, cracked, or burst pipes. If the weather outside is shocking, below are some helpful winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system safeguarded also.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Heat Weapon
When your pipelines are nearly freezing, your reliable hair dryer or warmth gun is a blessing. If the hot towels do not help displace any type of settling ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly right into them may help. You might finish up harmful your pipelines while trying to thaw the ice.
Open Cupboard Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would certainly be valuable to open up cabinet doors that are concealing your pipelines. They can be somewhere in your kitchen or restroom. This will enable the warm air from your heating unit to distribute there. Because of this, you stop these revealed pipelines from freezing. Doing this little trick can keep your pipelines cozy and also limit the potentially dangerous outcomes of freezing temperature levels.
Take Time to Wrap Exposed Piping
One simple and also awesome hack to heat up cold pipes is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After securing them in position, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to let the towels absorb the fluid. You can additionally utilize pre-soaked towels in hot water, just do not fail to remember to use safety handwear covers to safeguard your hands from the warmth.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature decreases as well as it seems as if the icy temperature level will last, it will certainly assist to transform on your water both inside and also outdoors. This will keep the water moving with your plumbing systems. You'll finish up wasting gallons of water this method.
Shut Off Water When Pipelines are Frozen
If you notice that your pipes are totally icy or practically nearing that stage, turn off the main water shutoff right away. You will normally discover this in your basement or utility room near the heating unit or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off today to prevent additional damages.
Do not neglect to shut external water resources, also, such as your hookup for the garden residence. Doing this will avoid extra water from filling up your plumbing system. With more water, even more ice will pile up, which will eventually lead to break pipes. It is best to call a professional plumber for an evaluation if you are not sure concerning the state of your pipelines this wintertime. Taking this proactive method can conserve you countless dollars in repairs.
All homeowners who live in warm environments must do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can spell calamity like frozen, split, or ruptured pipelines. If the warm towels do not assist remove any kind of clearing up ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly right into them might help. Transform off the primary water shutoff instantly if you discover that your pipelines are entirely frozen or practically nearing that phase. With even more water, even more ice will pile up, which will eventually 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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