Stop Pipe Bursts in Cold Weather: 5 Effective Winterizing Hacks
Stop Pipe Bursts in Cold Weather: 5 Effective Winterizing Hacks
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Are you currently hunting for help and advice around Winterizing Your Pipes?
All house owners that live in temperate climates must do their ideal to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can lead to calamity like icy, split, or burst pipelines.
Try a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipes are almost freezing, your dependable hair clothes dryer or warm weapon is a godsend. Bowling hot air straight into them might assist if the hot towels do not aid displace any resolving ice in your pipelines. Do not use various other things that create direct fires like a strike 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. And also in the long run, you might also end up melting your house. So be cautious!
Open Closet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's cool outside, it would certainly be useful to open up closet doors that are masking your pipes. They might be someplace in your kitchen or bathroom. This will allow the cozy air from your heating unit to circulate there. Consequently, you avoid these subjected pipes from freezing. Doing this tiny technique can maintain your pipelines warm and also restrict the potentially unsafe end results of freezing temperatures.
Take Time to Wrap Exposed Piping
One nifty and simple hack to heat up freezing pipelines is to cover them with cozy towels. You can likewise utilize pre-soaked towels in warm water, simply do not fail to remember to use safety handwear covers to safeguard your hands from the warm.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature drops as well as it appears as if the freezing temperature level will certainly last, it will certainly help to turn on your water both inside your home and also outdoors. This will keep the water streaming with your plumbing systems. You'll end up losing gallons of water this way.
When Pipelines are Frozen, close Off Water
If you see that your pipes are totally frozen or practically nearing that phase, transform off the main water valve quickly. You will generally find this in your cellar or laundry room near the heater or the front wall surface closest to the street. Transform it off as soon as possible to prevent additional damages.
With even more water, even more ice will pile up, which will eventually lead to burst pipes. If you are not sure about the state of your pipelines this winter months, it is best to call an expert plumber for an inspection.
All home owners that live in pleasant environments must do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can spell calamity like frozen, split, or ruptured pipes. If the warm towels do not aid dislodge any type of working out ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly into them may aid. Transform off the main water valve promptly if you discover that your pipelines are entirely frozen or nearly nearing that phase. With even more water, more ice will load up, which will eventually lead to burst 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.
https://www.stinenichols.com/kansas-city/planning-ahead-for-winter-plumbing/
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