It’s a bitter cold night. Frost covers the window panes. Gusts of wind pound your house. Yet when you curl up under the blankets, you’re warm, content, and safe—the cold can’t get inside now. Right?

Wrong. The cold finds another way to break in: your pipes. When the temperature drops low enough, and the wind blows hard enough, the water in your pipes can freeze into solid ice.

When your pipes freeze, your water won’t flow — but that’s the least of your problems. The ice in your frozen pipes expands, rupturing — or bursting those pipes. When your pipes burst, thousands of gallons of water spill everywhere, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

Read on and learn how to prevent frozen pipes this winter — and avoid thousands of dollars in damage.

TIPS TO PREVENT FROZEN PIPES

1. Look for — and fix — exterior holes in your home

Cold air can penetrate your home through cracks and holes in exterior walls. By finding and sealing those cracks you can limit how cold your pipes will get.

Just sealing outdoor cracks isn’t enough to prevent frozen pipes. However, NOT sealing big holes and cracks put your home at an aggravated risk for frozen pipes.

2. Keep Bathroom Cabinet Doors Open

Opening your bathroom cabinets allows room temperature air to counteract the cold outdoor air attacking your pipes. In fact, our veteran plumbers say closing your bathroom cabinets on a cold night is akin to sealing your pipes in a refrigerator.

We have seen anywhere from a 5 degree to a 20 degree difference in cabinet temperature as the result of leaving your doors open. With the temperature well-below freezing, you need to save every degree you can.

This tip proves especially true for bathrooms located along exterior walls. So take a minute to open the cabinet doors before you curl up under the blankets.

3. Let Faucets Trickle
Ever heard the adage: “a rolling stone gathers no moss?” This is the same principle. Letting your faucets trickle throughout a cold night keeps the water moving and less likely to freeze into solid ice.

Generally, we’re all about saving water, but in this case a little waste is worth it. You’ll pay a few pennies for a whole winter’s worth of wasted water. You can potentially save thousands when you prevent frozen pipes and the damage of burst pipes that potentially comes along with it.

4. Control Your Temperature
If you have a programmable thermostat, you put yourself in a good position to save money by dropping the temperature at night.

On extremely cold nights, you should override your money-saving programmable thermostat and keep the temperature high throughout the night. While we love saving energy and money with programmable thermostats, you need to keep the temperature warm to prevent frozen pipes.

5. Consider Wi-FI Freeze Detectors
These 21st century innovations monitor the temperature of your pipes. If the temperature drops to a dangerous level, these Wi-Fi enabled alarms will send you a message — so you can call us ASAP.

Check it out.

While this device doesn’t prevent frozen pipes, it does limit the damage.

6. Don’t Let Your Heat Die
The gist of these tips to prevent frozen pipes boils down to keeping your house warm to keep your pipes warm and unfrozen.

So what happens when your heating system dies, and the indoor temperature matches the outside? You’ll be cold, miserable, and at a serious risk for frozen pipes.

Contact our sister-company One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning to ensure your heating system can make it though winter.

7. Have Us Install Heat Tape – for Serious Protection
Meet the heavy-duty step to prevent frozen pipes.

Heat tape is a specialized electrical wire installed on your water pipes. When powered on, the heat tape produces electrical heat that keeps the water and the pipes themselves warm.

Contact us to install heat tape to prevent frozen pipes this winter.

WHAT IF YOU DON’T PREVENT FROZEN PIPES?

Of course you prefer to prevent frozen pipes this winter. However if your pipes do freeze, what do you do?

First of all, you don’t have time to waste. When you notice the frozen pipes, you could be minutes away from the expensive destructive disaster of burst pipes which sends thousands of gallons of water flowing into your home. Get in contact with us immediately. When you don’t have a minute to waste, you need a plumber who won’t waste your time – that’s Benjamin Franklin Plumbing.

PREVENT FROZEN PIPES: WRAP-UP

Now when the wind howls and frost looks like a spider web on your window panes, you’ll know for certain you’re safe. You can keep warm with a mug of cocoa or curl up for bed feeling 100% safe.

No matter how cold it gets, no matter how hard the wind blows, you’re safe. Because you took the necessary steps to prevent frozen pipes this winter.

If your pipes do ever freeze, we’re your on call expert to thaw your pipes and prevent the damage.

Contact us to install heat tape, to thaw your frozen pipes, and for all of your plumbing needs.