How to Keep Those Pipes From Freezing, 5 Tips
The temps have been in negative numbers, your Facebook feed is full of your friends complaining that the pipes have frozen at their house and there is damage. Your heart goes out to them. Then you start asking yourself, 'What do I need to do to make sure this doesn't happen to me?' Here are a few things, according to FamilyHandyman.com, that you can do to keep you out of the 'frozen pipes situation.'
- Turn up the heat. Sounds easy, right? It is if your home heats evenly. If it doesn't you might want to get a space heater in the rooms that have pipes that also share and exterior wall. Keeping the pipes warm is the number one way to keep them from freezing.
- Leave the doors to cabinets under vanities or the doors to closets that have a water heater or pipes in them open. The warm air circulating around the pipes will help to keep them from freezing. This is especially important if the cabinet or closet is on an outside wall.
- Let the water run. Keeping water running through the pipes, might be what your mom told you to do, so your initial reaction might be to not do it. Believe it or not, keeping the water at even just a trickle, will keep that pipe from freezing.
- Heat the pipe. You can use an electric heating cable to keep the pipe from freezing. The pipe has an automatic on/off switch that goes on based on the temperature. The heat will keep the pipe from freezing.
- Lastly, insulation. If you have an area or a pipe zone that has a tendency to freeze every year, then fix it. Fix it when the weather is warm, by insulating the entire area and taking extra precautions in the off season. Extra work in June or July, could mean less issues in the winter.