Water off for 2 day trip?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all. Stop.

If you were closing up your cabin or beach house for the season, you'd turn off the water and drain the pipes. You don't do that for your DC metro home that you'll be returning to in 48 hours. You'll certainly be turning down the thermostat or putting it in vacation mode, but not during your HVAC completely off. The pipes aren't going to freeze.

I have friends with a rental in Tahoe that have days between renters. They don't even do this.

IF you are worried about a power outage, remember that a well-insulated home will take many hours to dip into the 30s...and the temps in DC are already above freezing today and will continue to climb.

Nobody is talking about turning off the HVAC. If you're turning the heat completely off you have to winterize the whole house, which is a much bigger job.

A small plumbing leak can do enormous damage if it goes undetected for even a couple of days. Turning the water off takes 30 seconds and protects against that happening. I do it every time I go away, winter or summer.

Now, maybe I'm a little extreme, but I had my outdoor faucets plumbed so that I can turn off the main water but leave the outdoor faucets on. That way in the summer when I go away I can turn the house water off but leave the faucets on so someone can come by and water the plants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shutting off the main without also draining the pipes will not prevent pipe freezing.
Close the main, then open every faucet in the house and flush the toilets.

Sure but will WAY limit the damage from any burst pipe or spontaneous leak

Exactly. It's not about keeping the pipes from freezing. It's about limiting damage if there is a leak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all. Stop.

If you were closing up your cabin or beach house for the season, you'd turn off the water and drain the pipes. You don't do that for your DC metro home that you'll be returning to in 48 hours. You'll certainly be turning down the thermostat or putting it in vacation mode, but not during your HVAC completely off. The pipes aren't going to freeze.

I have friends with a rental in Tahoe that have days between renters. They don't even do this.

IF you are worried about a power outage, remember that a well-insulated home will take many hours to dip into the 30s...and the temps in DC are already above freezing today and will continue to climb.

Nobody is talking about turning off the HVAC. If you're turning the heat completely off you have to winterize the whole house, which is a much bigger job.

A small plumbing leak can do enormous damage if it goes undetected for even a couple of days. Turning the water off takes 30 seconds and protects against that happening. I do it every time I go away, winter or summer.

Now, maybe I'm a little extreme, but I had my outdoor faucets plumbed so that I can turn off the main water but leave the outdoor faucets on. That way in the summer when I go away I can turn the house water off but leave the faucets on so someone can come by and water the plants.

Their point is that if you aren’t turning off the HVAC, there is no way your house is going to dip into freezing temps. Your pipes aren’t going to freeze…unless you have bad insulation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shutting off the main without also draining the pipes will not prevent pipe freezing.
Close the main, then open every faucet in the house and flush the toilets.

I have a cabin in the mountains where it is MUCH colder than here and don’t take it that far. I have a basement and just open the lowest faucet (which is the slip sink) and it drains the entire house above that point.

Temps are warm this week and I wouldn’t bother in my primary home for 2 days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shutting off the main without also draining the pipes will not prevent pipe freezing.
Close the main, then open every faucet in the house and flush the toilets.

Sure but will WAY limit the damage from any burst pipe or spontaneous leak

Exactly. It's not about keeping the pipes from freezing. It's about limiting damage if there is a leak.

+1

Had a water damage happen to us and in just 6 hours, while we were sleeping entire basement damaged and two rooms in main level. If we were on vacation during this time, I can imagine how much worse it would have been.

[Anonymous]

My parents were visiting when their pipes at home in Dallas froze and burst during a freak winter storm.

So, shut the water main off, drain the pipes. Shut off the water heater. Every. Single. Time.