Five Essential Hacks for Winterizing Your Pipes Against Frigid Temperatures
Five Essential Hacks for Winterizing Your Pipes Against Frigid Temperatures
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How do you actually feel in regards to Prevent Freezing and Bursting Pipes?
All homeowners who stay in pleasant environments should do their finest to winterize their pipes. It is something you have to do during fall prior to deep winter season absolutely starts. Failing to do so can lead to catastrophe like icy, broken, or burst pipelines. If the weather outside is terrible, below are some convenient winterizing hacks to maintain your plumbing system secured even.
Switch on the Faucets
When the temperature level decreases and also it appears as if the icy temperature level will certainly last, it will help to switch on your water both inside your home as well as outdoors. This will keep the water moving through your plumbing systems. On top of that, the motion will certainly reduce the cold process. Especially, there's no need to turn it on full blast. You'll wind up throwing away gallons of water in this manner. Instead, go for concerning 5 decreases per minute.
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would be handy to open cupboard doors that are camouflaging your pipelines when it's chilly outside. They could be someplace in your kitchen or restroom. This will certainly permit the warm air from your heater to flow there. As a result, you avoid these revealed pipes from cold. Doing this small trick can maintain your pipelines cozy as well as limit the potentially hazardous outcomes of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Pipeline
One very easy and also clever hack to warm up freezing pipelines is to cover them with cozy towels. You can cover them first with towels. After securing them in position, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to let the towels absorb the fluid. You can also make use of pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not fail to remember to wear protective handwear covers to secure your hands from the warm.
Attempt a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warmth Gun
When your pipes are practically freezing, your trusty hair dryer or heat gun is a godsend. If the hot towels do not aid displace any clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight right into them might help. You might finish up damaging your pipelines while attempting to melt the ice.
Shut down Water When Pipes are Frozen
Turn off the primary water valve promptly 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 heater or the front wall closest to the street. Transform it off as soon as possible to avoid more damage.
With even more water, more ice will certainly pile up, which will eventually lead to rupture pipes. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipes this winter, it is best to call a professional plumber for an inspection.
All home owners who live in pleasant climates need to do their finest to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can spell disaster like frozen, cracked, or ruptured pipelines. If the warm towels do not aid displace any settling ice in your pipes, bowling hot air straight into them may assist. Turn off the main water valve quickly if you observe that your pipelines are entirely frozen or virtually nearing that phase. With more water, even more ice will pile up, which will at some point 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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