Tips to keep water pipes from bursting during the cold - KPLC

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - Colder weather means colder water and a potential for bursting pipes.

Keeping water constantly circulating is important to prevent water freezing inside pipes.

“The reason we’re telling you to run your water is so that you have a stream of water recirculating in your line because it’s harder to freeze moving water than still water,” Ace Master Plumber Jesse Wright said. “So you definitely want to have a little small stream going through, not just a drop. it’s really not going to do anything.”

It’s important to circulate both hot and cold water to make sure your entire water system keeps running.

“You do have water lines that are in the exterior walls and maybe possibly through the attic that are going to be exposed into the extreme temperatures that we’re going to be experiencing,” Wright said. “So, you’ll want to drip, not just that cold water, but the hot water too, as well. You want to have fluctuation of water through the entire system.”

Some residents become concerned that running water over night will cause water pressure to drop.

“I definitely recommend running the water over worrying about if you’re going to have a pressure loss from running your water,” Wright said. “I think even your neighbors would be happy if you take a little bit of pressure from them and save their house.”

Insulating your hose bibs could prevent your house from flooding, and is very important to do during a freeze.

“All your hose bibs outside would be the the faucets that you see on your outside walls,” Wright said. “If you don’t have the insulation cups that suck up against your wall, you’re going to want to go ahead and wrap some towels around them, because towels will insulate them as well; if it’s too late to buy them if they’re out of stock anywhere.”

During the freeze in February of 2021, multiple homes flooded because of hose bibs bursting.

“We had at least 50 hoses busted inside the wall and it was definitely a flood issue because at that point it’s actually inside your house,” Wright said.

Tankless water heaters require attention also. If you have a tankless water heater you need to take precautions.

“Everybody that has tankless heaters outside, it’s imperative that you turn them off; loose hot water in your house for a little while, and drain those heaters,” Wright said. “Because whenever those parts bust inside there, you’re not going to be able to get them next day; there’s going to be a mass amount of people needing them; you want to save that here by losing hot water for that night.”

Grant Tassin, of Sabine Pools said these tips can help protect your pool:

• Run your pool equipment continuously during the freeze.
• Change timers to run the pool equipment at night and continue to run the equipment as long as freezing temperatures continue.
• If you have freeze protect, your equipment should turn on automatically and will cycle on and off throughout the day.
• Do not wrap pipes: the pool pump will get hot and create a fire hazard.

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