How To Prevent Frozen Pipes

If you’ve ever had your pipes burst in the winter, you already know it can be devastating to your home.

Far beyond the cost of replacing the pipes is the expense and heartache of restoring or replacing the structure and your personal belongings damaged by a deluge. If you haven’t yet been one of the thousands of people who’ve suffered the consequences of frozen pipes, consider yourself blessed.

As you probably learned in science class as a kid, water expands when it freezes, which is a big problem if it’s in an enclosed space with nowhere to go. You may be surprised to learn, though, that most breaks don’t occur where the ice forms. Instead, pipes usually rupture between the ice and the faucet. The ice expands, pushing the water toward the faucet, but because the faucet is closed, the water has nowhere to go. The pressure builds up until—KABLOOEY! Then water begins to gush out, soaking your floors, walls, carpeting, furniture, family heirlooms, and whatever else you have near.

Fortunately, you can prevent your pipes from bursting in the future by taking a few simple steps before you have to deal with that unpleasant situation.

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Insulate your pipes:

Many newer homes have their pipes securely concealed within insulated walls and floors. If you have exposed pipes in your home, though, be sure to wrap them with electrical heating tape or rubber insulation. Then cover their entire length with a sheet of fiberglass insulation for good measure. These inexpensive items can all be purchased at your local hardware store.

Turn off your water:

If you plan to be away from home for more than a day, or even overnight during a brutal cold spell, shut off your home’s water at the main valve and bleed your pipes dry by opening your faucets until the pipes are empty. The minimal amount of water left in your pipes won’t be able to expand enough to cause a break.

Leave your heat up:

As costs for heating fuel rise, many people try to save money by lowering the temperature in their homes while they are out or by turning off the heat in unused rooms. Those are excellent strategies for saving money and energy, but don’t take them too far. Turning your heat down much below the upper 50s can be a recipe for trouble. Remember that the thermostat measures the temperature in the specific room it’s in. The outlying areas of your home—especially unheated rooms, closets, and crawl spaces—can be much colder than that. If you know an unused room has water pipes traveling through it, don’t seal it off. Open the door and allow the heat to circulate inside.

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Open your cabinet doors:

Much kitchen plumbing abuts outside walls, which can be very cold. To keep the temperature up, open up the cabinet doors beneath your sinks. Likewise, if your bath or shower pipes are accessible through a closet, try to keep that door open at night or when you aren’t home.

Let your faucets drip:

You may have heard that if you let your faucets drip in the wintertime, the movement of the water will prevent your pipes from freezing. This is not strictly true. Even a roaring river will freeze when the temperature is cold enough, and a little drip from your faucets won’t make much difference one way or the other. But, if you are worried that your pipes may freeze on a particularly cold night, and you don’t have time to insulate them, leaving your faucets open a little bit can prevent your pipes from bursting by relieving the pressure inside the pipe. Of course, this option does waste water and money and should be used only as a last resort.

If you find that your pipes have frozen, but haven’t yet burst, you can try to thaw them with a hair dryer. Open up your tap and blow hot air along the length of the pipe until the water starts flowing again. Never use a lighter or other open flame to heat a frozen pipe! If the hair dryer doesn’t work, call a plumber.