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.
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