How to Prevent Frozen Pipes

Frozen pipes are bad news. As water freezes from liquid to solid form, it expands. This puts great pressure on your pipes, leading to cracks or leaks if left unaddressed. 

However, we also realise that rising energy bills make us reluctant to put the heating on or to insulate our homes. To help balance your responsibility to both your pipes and to your pocket, read this article to see how you should be preventing frozen pipes.

What temperature do pipes freeze at?

Pipes are more likely to freeze when the external temperature drops below 0℃ and remains there for a long period of time. If left unresolved, this could eventually lead to water freezing and causing pressure to build as that frozen water expands, potentially resulting in burst pipes. 

How to prevent frozen pipes

Your next thought will be how to stop pipes freezing to save yourself this headache. Here are our handy tips to keep in mind: 

• Service your boiler: A heating system that is inefficient and not performing at its best will be more susceptible to frozen pipes. As such, it’s recommended to get your boiler serviced at least once a year. Here at PJH Plumbing, we ensure your heating system is working at peak performance all year round with our full heating system installations and plumbing services. 

• Insulation: We insulate other areas of our home to keep them warm so why not our pipes and tanks? Areas that may benefit from insulation include pipes in cold areas of your home, such as outside pipes, loft pipes and water tanks. This option is relatively cheap too. 

• Heating: We understand that heating bills are high at the moment. However, it’s recommended that when external temperatures are dipping, you should ideally have the heating set on a low setting throughout these cold periods. This will just ensure that a constant temperature is maintained to prevent pipes from freezing. 

• Turn taps on: Ensure that water has a chance to flow regularly. Make sure that you’re turning all taps on and off at least once a day in the peak of winter. 

• Circulation of air: Opening up cabinet doors and loft hatches can ensure that warm air can circulate around the home more easily, preventing these tucked-away areas from becoming too chilly. Equally, you should avoid opening windows and letting cold air in, and make sure that window draughts are sealed to ensure more effective warm air circulation around your home. 

These above tips should hopefully stand you in good stead for preventing frozen pipes.

What to do if your pipes freeze

If your pipes have frost on them, if you smell bad odours, or if there is little to no water coming out of your taps, you may have a frozen pipe. 

First, switch on the heating to see if this helps unfreeze them. Turn on a few taps to get things flowing too. If you know precisely which pipe is affected, you may wish to use gentle heat from a hairdryer on the pipe. Never use harsh heat such as boiling water or flames to heat a pipe as this could cause them to burst. 

If these techniques haven’t worked, or if you’re not sure whether you have a frozen pipe in the first place or where it is, then you should seek the advice of a professional plumber. Only an expert can safely locate and resolve the issue in these cases.

Contact PJH Today!

Do you need a fast and reliable plumbing service? Here at PJH Plumbing, we’re responsive plumbing engineers for Bedfordshire, London, Milton Keynes, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and the wider area. Whatever your issue, give us a call and we’ll be right with you.