Draining Your Pipes to Prevent Freezing
If you have lost power and don't have heat, and you are expected to be
without power for more than a day, it would be wise to shut down the cold
water main in your basement and disconnect the union connection on the
meter. Carefully separate the meter connection on the house side just
enough so that you can drain out the water in the pipes. Make sure you
put some type of container under the connection to collect the water being
drained. Go to all faucets and shower valves and open them up. This will
break the vacuum within the pipes and allow some of the water to drain
out. At this point you will have to drain the hot water pipes as well.
First, you will want to shut off the gas valve on the hot water tank.
In front of the water heater where the gas pipe connects to the gas control
on the water heater there is a knob on top of the control that has three
(3) positions on it: OFF-PILOT-ON. The knob should be in the ON position
and you want to turn it to the OFF position by just turning it and lining
the OFF position with the black mark on the valve. Then you will need
to attach a hose to the bottom of the heater where there is a drain valve.
Keep in mind that you will be draining the entire contents of the tank
and the water within the pipes going throughout the house, so you will
need to make sure the hose is draining to a sufficient drain. Next, proceed
to open the hot water faucets to allow them to drain.
NOTE: This procedure will drain most of the standing water within
the piping, but there may be some low lying areas and pockets that will
not drain on just gravity. In order to completely drain all the water
you will need an air compressor to blow out all the water.
If you have a forced hot water system and it is subject to freezing, you
may also want to have it drained out. This will take a Licensed
Plumber.
If you would like to schedule an appointment please call our office and
we will come drain it for you.
978-251-1800
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