How To Prevent Frozen Pipes in CNY

We've heard the warnings - we'll probably see the coldest temperatures of the season this weekend. So what can you still do to prepare your home and keep your pipes from freezing?

Perhaps the easiest thing you can do is turn the heat up a little. But if your heating system doesn't keep your whole house evenly warm, you might want to turn to space heaters in rooms with exposed pipes or pipes against outside walls. However, this can lead to other dangers in the home. What safer alternatives are there?

Run water through your faucet. According to the Democrat and Chronicle, it's important to run a trickle of cold water through the faucet furthest from where the water line enters your house. This way there is water circulating through the entire system in your home. Something else you can do is leave vanity doors under your sink open. This will allow a little more warm air to circulate around those pipes.

It may be too late for this, but hopefully you've already disconnected any outdoor hoses and turned those outdoor faucets off from inside the house. Frozen water in a hose can put pressure on your inside plumbing and lead to more problems.

Consider "heat tape" for exposed pipes inside your home. Most pipes in the house will be fine since there is some heat present, even in the basement. But if you have pipes running through a garage, attic or crawl space, wrap them with simple foam insulation. In our extreme cold climate, you could take it one step further with an electric heating cable that automatically turns on when it reaches a specified temperature. This project can be a little bit more costly than other options, but it may prevent even more costly repairs in the future.

If you happen to be down South for the winter, you're probably experiencing some unwelcome cold too. But it's nowhere near as bad as back home in Central New York. If you haven't already winter-proofed your plumbing, now would be a good time to send a friend or relative over to your "summer home" to implement some of these tips.

Stay warm during this cold snap and be sure to download the Lite 98.7 Mobile App for weather alerts, school closings and more on your smart phone.

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