Intelligent Winterizing Solutions: A Handful of Approaches to Protect Your Pipes in Cold Weather
Intelligent Winterizing Solutions: A Handful of Approaches to Protect Your Pipes in Cold Weather
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All home owners that stay in pleasant environments need to do their best to winterize their pipes. It is something you need to do during autumn before deep wintertime genuinely starts. Failure to do so can lead to disaster like icy, split, or burst pipelines. Below are some convenient winterizing hacks to maintain your plumbing system protected even if the weather exterior is frightful.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature declines as well as it appears as if the freezing temperature level will last, it will certainly assist to activate your water both indoors and also outdoors. This will certainly maintain the water streaming with your plumbing systems. Additionally, the motion will certainly slow down the cold procedure. Notably, there's no requirement to turn it on full force. You'll end up throwing away gallons of water by doing this. Instead, go for regarding 5 drops per minute.
Open Up Cupboard Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cold outside, it would be valuable to open up closet doors that are masking your pipelines. Doing this tiny trick can maintain your pipes warm as well as limit the potentially harmful results of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipeline
One cool and easy hack to warm up cold pipelines is to cover them with warm towels. You can cover them first with towels. After securing them in place, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to allow the towels soak up the liquid. You can additionally use pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not fail to remember to wear safety gloves to safeguard your hands from the warmth.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Warm Weapon
When your pipelines are almost freezing, your reliable hair clothes dryer or warm gun is a blessing. If the warm towels do not assist dislodge any clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight into them might help. Nonetheless, do not utilize other objects that produce straight fires like a blow lantern. This can result in a larger catastrophe that you can not control. You might wind up damaging your pipelines while trying to thaw the ice. And in the long run, you might even wind up melting your home. So be careful!
Shut Off Water When Pipelines are Frozen
Turn off the major water shutoff promptly if you discover that your pipes are totally frozen or almost nearing that phase. You will typically discover this in your cellar or laundry room near the heater or the front wall surface closest to the street. Turn it off immediately to prevent further damages.
Don't fail to remember to shut outside water resources, also, such as your connection for the garden residence. Doing this will certainly protect against extra water from filling out your plumbing system. With more water, more ice will certainly stack up, which will eventually lead to break pipelines. If you are unsure about the state of your pipes this winter, it is best to call an expert plumber for an examination. Taking this aggressive approach can save you thousands of dollars out of commission.
All property owners who live in warm climates should do their best to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can spell calamity like icy, cracked, or burst pipes. If the warm towels do not help displace any type of clearing up ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air straight into them may aid. Turn off the main water shutoff right away if you discover that your pipes are entirely icy or practically nearing that phase. With even more water, more ice will pile up, which will ultimately 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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