Best Ways to Guard Your Plumbing From Bursting in Cold Temperatures

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Almost everyone maintains their own individual opinion on the subject of Winterizing Your Pipes.

All house owners that live in warm environments should do their best to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can mean calamity like frozen, fractured, or burst pipelines.

Switch on the Faucets

When the temperature decreases and it appears as if the frigid temperature will certainly last, it will assist to switch on your water both indoors as well as outdoors. This will certainly keep the water moving through your plumbing systems. Furthermore, the movement will slow down the freezing procedure. Notably, there's no requirement to transform it on full blast. You'll wind up wasting gallons of water in this manner. Instead, aim for concerning 5 drops per min.

Open Cabinet Doors Hiding Plumbing

When it's cool outside, it would certainly be handy to open cabinet doors that are concealing your pipelines. As an example, they could be someplace in your kitchen or shower room. This will certainly permit the cozy air from your heater to circulate there. Consequently, you protect against these exposed pipes from freezing. Doing this little technique can maintain your pipelines cozy and also restrict the potentially unsafe end results of freezing temperatures.

Take Some Time to Cover Exposed Pipes

One cool as well as easy hack to warm up freezing pipes is to wrap them with cozy towels. You can cover them initially with towels. After protecting them in position, you can put boiling water on the towels. Do it gradually to let the towels absorb the fluid. You can additionally use pre-soaked towels in hot water, just don't neglect to put on safety gloves to safeguard your hands from the warmth.

Try a Hair Dryer or Warmth Gun

When your pipes are nearly freezing, your dependable hair dryer or warmth weapon is a godsend. If the hot towels do not assist dislodge any kind of working out ice in your pipelines, bowling hot air straight into them might help. Do not make use of other objects that create straight flames like an impact torch. This can cause a bigger calamity that you can not manage. You might wind up damaging your pipelines while trying to thaw the ice. And also in the future, you might even end up burning your home. So be cautious!

Shut down Water When Pipes are Frozen

Switch off the main water valve instantly if you observe that your pipelines are totally icy or almost nearing that stage. You will usually discover this in your basement or laundry room near the heating system or the front wall closest to the street. Turn it off immediately to avoid additional damages.
With more water, more ice will certainly load up, which will ultimately lead to rupture pipes. If you are unsure concerning the state of your pipelines this wintertime, it is best to call an expert plumber for an inspection.
All property owners who live in temperate environments should do their best to winterize their pipes. Failing to do so can lead to disaster like frozen, split, or burst pipes. If the warm towels do not assist remove any type of resolving ice in your pipelines, bowling warm air directly right into them may aid. Transform off the primary water valve instantly if you notice that your pipelines are totally frozen or virtually nearing that stage. With even more water, more ice will certainly stack up, which will eventually 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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