Ways to Protect Your Pipes From Bursting in Frigid Weather: Top 5 Winter Hacks
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All house owners who live in pleasant climates should do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can spell calamity like frozen, cracked, or burst pipelines.
Attempt a Hair Clothes Dryer or Heat Gun
When your pipelines are almost freezing, your reliable hair clothes dryer or heat gun is a blessing. If the warm towels do not help dislodge any type of resolving ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly right into them might aid. Do not use other objects that produce direct flames like a strike lantern. This can result in a bigger calamity that you can not control. You may end up destructive your pipelines while attempting to melt the ice. And in the future, you may also end up melting your residence. Be cautious!
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would certainly be useful to open cabinet doors that are concealing your pipes when it's chilly outside. For instance, they could be somewhere in your cooking area or restroom. This will certainly allow the warm air from your heater to flow there. Because of this, you stop these subjected pipes from freezing. Doing this little trick can maintain your pipelines warm and restrict the potentially harmful outcomes of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Wrap Exposed Piping
One awesome and very easy hack to heat up freezing pipes 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 slowly to allow the towels absorb the liquid. You can additionally use pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply don't neglect to use protective handwear covers to safeguard your hands from the warmth.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature declines and also it appears as if the freezing temperature level will last, it will certainly aid to switch on your water both inside as well as outdoors. This will keep the water moving through your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the activity will slow down 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 about 5 decreases per min.
When Pipelines are Frozen, shut Off Water
Turn off the primary water shutoff immediately if you see that your pipes are completely frozen or nearly nearing that phase. You will usually locate this in your cellar or laundry room near the heating system or the front wall surface closest to the street. Transform it off immediately to avoid additional damages.
Do not neglect to shut exterior water resources, as well, such as your connection for the garden house. Doing this will prevent additional water from filling up your plumbing system. With even more water, even more ice will certainly load up, which will at some point lead to burst pipes. If you are uncertain regarding the state of your pipes this wintertime, it is best to call a professional plumber for an evaluation. Taking this proactive technique can save you thousands of dollars in repairs.
All home owners that live in pleasant environments need to do their finest to winterize their pipes. Failure to do so can lead to catastrophe like frozen, fractured, or burst pipes. If the warm towels do not help displace any settling ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air directly into them might assist. Transform off the major water valve immediately if you see that your pipes are completely frozen or nearly nearing that stage. With even more water, more ice will certainly pile up, which will at some point lead to burst 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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