Not sure if you noticed but it is a bit cold in places at the moment. Winter is no big deal unless you know you haven’t had one for 70+ years. Are you scrambling to winter-ize your home and prepare for the chill?
Here is a tutorial by Clumsy Crafter on how and why you should be wrapping your pipes with her homemade faucet cover.
Hunker also has a tutorial to show you how to make your own faucet cover.
For my tutorial, I am going to suggest you find an old oven mitt from the kitchen. I mean who uses those things for the actual oven anyways (not me)? Open up the insulated mitt and wrap the tap in the mitt. If you have a little extra time on your hands, you can sew in some ties so that you can wrap it around your faucet to prevent the water from freezing.
When the weather is very cold outside, let the cold water drip from the faucet served by exposed pipes. Running water through the pipe – even at a trickle –
The dripping faucet should be as far away from the water source as possible so the water will flow through the entire length of the system. If you aren’t sure where the incoming water source is located, setting any faucet to drip will help. A common misconception is that the drip prevents water from freezing because it stays in motion when it’s running through the pipes. Although this helps, the truth is that at extreme temperatures water can freeze even while it is flowing. The real reason a dripping faucet can help prevent pipes from bursting is that the constant drip relieves pressure that is building up in the pipes between the ice blockage and the faucet, and helps to prevent them from bursting when the pipes begin to thaw. (Source)
Still have some time to prepare for the big chill? Check out these Faucet covers
to help protect taps outside.
Leave a Reply