With the first days of winter approaching, outdoor temperatures are dropping. Winterize your house by performing a few things to have a trouble-free winter season.

Irrigation

Outdoor irrigation lines can freeze and break when temperatures drop below freezing. These lines should all be blown out with compressed air to remove the water. Generally, you will find a hose bib where the irrigation line connects to your home’s water supply line. It’s used to feed compressed air into the system. Then irrigation zones are opened one at a time until no more water is flowing from the sprinkler heads.

Hose Bibs

If your home has standard outdoor hose bibs they also require to be shut off and drained. There may be a shutoff valve located at each hose bib or there may be one shut-off valve that serves all of your home’s hose bibs. Either way, to properly winterize, you will need to shut the water supply off to the hose bib, open the hose bib and drain the water from it. If you cannot locate a shutoff valve for your hose bib, you may need to contact a licensed plumber to help locate the valve or install one to ensure you can properly winterize your hose bibs.

Garden Hoses

When winter weather hits ensure you have disconnected your garden hoses and drained all the water from them. If left connected to your outdoor hose bib, the garden hose will not drain properly and will freeze, causing damage to your hose and your hose bib!

Home Heating Equipment

Regardless of whether you heat your home with a furnace, heat pump, boiler, or other, maintenance is very important. Preventative maintenance of heating equipment includes cleaning, component testing, safety checks, and overall system operational checks. Fixing small issues while performing maintenance can prevent your equipment from breaking down on the coldest days of the year, preventing you from being cold and uncomfortable. Cleaning is the most undervalued part of all maintenance. The design of heating equipment ensures it operates in the same condition it arrived. Dust, dirt, and debris can build up on integral components like blower fans, heat exchangers, and coils causing airflow restrictions. Restricted airflow can cause many issues resulting in lower efficiencies and shorter equipment life.

Be prepared for winter weather, if you have questions or would like assistance with any of these tasks, give our professional plumbers at Twin Peaks Plumbing, Heating & Gas a call today.

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