Get Ready for Winter: Five Essential Hacks to Protect Your Pipes From Bursting
Get Ready for Winter: Five Essential Hacks to Protect Your Pipes From Bursting
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Just how do you actually feel on the subject of How to stop pipes from freezing during the winter?
All property owners that live in pleasant climates have to do their ideal to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can lead to catastrophe like frozen, split, or ruptured pipelines.
Attempt a Hair Clothes Dryer or Warmth Weapon
When your pipelines are almost freezing, your trusty hair clothes dryer or warm gun is a godsend. If the hot towels do not help dislodge any type of clearing up ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly into them might assist. Nevertheless, do not use other items that generate direct flames like a strike lantern. This can result in a larger calamity that you can not control. You might wind up damaging your pipelines while attempting to melt the ice. And also over time, you might also wind up shedding your residence. So be careful!
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
When it's chilly outside, it would be practical to open up cupboard doors that are camouflaging your pipes. They might be somewhere in your kitchen area or shower room. This will certainly permit the cozy air from your heater to distribute there. Because of this, you protect against these revealed pipelines from cold. Doing this small trick can keep your pipelines cozy and also restrict the possibly hazardous results of freezing temperatures.
Take Some Time to Cover Exposed Pipes
One great as well as very easy hack to warm up frigid pipes is to cover them with warm towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After securing them in place, you can pour boiling water on the towels. Do it slowly to allow the towels soak up the fluid. You can likewise use pre-soaked towels in hot water, simply do not forget to use safety handwear covers to protect your hands from the warm.
Turn On the Faucets
When the temperature declines as well as it seems as if the frigid temperature level will last, it will certainly assist to activate your water both inside your home and outdoors. This will keep the water moving with your plumbing systems. In addition, the motion will certainly decrease the cold process. Significantly, there's no requirement to turn it on full blast. You'll wind up throwing away gallons of water by doing this. Instead, aim for concerning 5 decreases per min.
When Pipelines are Frozen, shut Off Water
If you see that your pipelines are entirely icy or nearly nearing that stage, turn off the major water shutoff right away. You will normally discover this in your basement or laundry room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off today to stop more damage.
With even more water, more ice will certainly load up, which will at some point lead to rupture pipelines. If you are not sure about the state of your pipes this winter season, it is best to call an expert plumber for an inspection.
All homeowners that live in pleasant environments should do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failing to do so can mean disaster like icy, fractured, or burst pipelines. If the warm towels do not help displace any settling ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air directly right into them may aid. Turn off the main water shutoff right away if you notice that your pipelines are completely frozen or virtually nearing that stage. With more water, even more ice will certainly pile up, which will ultimately lead to break 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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