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All home owners who stay in warm environments should do their best to winterize their pipelines. It is something you should do throughout autumn before deep winter months absolutely begins. Failing to do so can mean disaster like icy, cracked, or ruptured pipelines. Below are some convenient winterizing hacks to keep your plumbing system protected even if the weather condition exterior is terrible.
Attempt a Hair Dryer or Warm Gun
When your pipes are virtually freezing, your dependable hair dryer or warm gun is a godsend. If the hot towels do not help dislodge any kind of resolving ice in your pipes, bowling hot air directly into them may help. You may finish up harmful your pipes while trying to melt the ice.
Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing
It would be useful to open cabinet doors that are masking your pipelines when it's cold outside. They can be someplace in your kitchen area or shower room. This will allow the cozy air from your heater to circulate there. Therefore, you protect against these subjected pipes from cold. Doing this small technique can maintain your pipelines cozy as well as limit the possibly hazardous results of freezing temperatures.
Require Time to Wrap Exposed Pipes
One cool and very easy hack to heat up frigid pipelines is to cover them with cozy towels. You can likewise utilize pre-soaked towels in warm water, just don't forget to wear safety handwear covers to safeguard your hands from the warm.
Activate the Faucets
When the temperature declines as well as it appears as if the icy temperature level will certainly last, it will certainly help to switch on your water both inside and outdoors. This will maintain the water streaming through your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the movement will certainly reduce the freezing process. Especially, there's no demand to turn it on full force. You'll end up losing gallons of water this way. Rather, aim for about 5 declines per min.
When Pipelines are Frozen, close Off Water
If you see that your pipelines are entirely frozen or almost nearing that stage, turn off the primary water shutoff right away. You will normally find this in your basement or utility room near the heater or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off right now to stop additional damage.
Do not neglect to shut outside water sources, too, such as your hookup for the yard house. Doing this will certainly prevent added water from filling out your plumbing system. With even more water, more ice will load up, which will at some point lead to burst pipes. It is best to call a specialist plumber for an examination if you are not sure regarding the state of your pipes this winter. Taking this aggressive technique can save you hundreds of bucks in repairs.
All homeowners that live in warm environments should do their best to winterize their pipelines. Failure to do so can lead to catastrophe like frozen, split, or burst pipes. If the hot towels do not assist dislodge any kind of working out ice in your pipes, bowling warm air directly right into them may assist. Turn off the primary water valve immediately if you observe that your pipelines are totally icy or practically nearing that phase. With more water, even more ice will load up, which will ultimately lead to break 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.
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