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lunar_unit t1_j1j4ws6 wrote

Reply to comment by TheFakePlissken in PSA: Always turn off your house main water supply when you go out of town in the winter by Charlesinrichmond

Amen. I just did this before I left town on Friday.

I actually installed a valve where the water comes into my house, with a hose attached, so I can drain my entire water pipe system in a few minutes.

A few years back, I didn't do this and came home after a 3 week trip in January, to the terrible sounds of water spewing.

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TheFakePlissken t1_j1j54k1 wrote

I can’t imagine coming home too that. I turn mine off at the meter by the street. It’s easier than in the crawl space.

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balance07 t1_j1jwlda wrote

I turned mine off in crawl space on Wednesday before we left town, and left kitchen sink open. I'm worried about the couple feet of pipe upstream of the shutoff valve, in the crawlspace. That's full and pressurized.

I am assuming all is ok, been monitoring temps in my vented attic which must be much colder than in crawl space, and it only got down into 20s for some hours. I think crawlspace was fine.

But now I'm gonna turn off at street from now on. I hate the crawlspace.

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balance07 t1_j1jwwd6 wrote

Oh also put house at 72 deg (thanks for remote access, nest!) so hoping that helped crawlspace too.

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Charlesinrichmond OP t1_j1kskvn wrote

Truth is even pressurized if you dump 5 gallons it will be a pain in the ass but not a disaster. One room's worth of hardwood floors say

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balance07 t1_j1ksy6n wrote

If the line from the city bursts, it'll dump until it's shut off tho, unless I'm missing something?

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Charlesinrichmond OP t1_j1l0a9c wrote

Yeah but the shut off for that is usually right inside and in truth I've never heard of anything busting there even though the ones a foot in make me a little nervous

Best reason for Street key is how easy it is though unless you have a basement and a quarter turn

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balance07 t1_j1luh7s wrote

Thanks for the reassurance that it's super unlikely that that section would freeze and burst. Def gonna always shut off from street meter from now on.

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fl_man_in_rva t1_j1j7l2y wrote

A few years ago I had a pipe break in the middle of the night so it was only going for a few hours. I don't even want to think about a few days.

I isolated and drained outside spigots and irrigation system. Furnace was kept on at normal temperature so I should be ok.

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ArmoredFan t1_j1kea0q wrote

Isn't this bad to also do though? Often when you shut off water and drain, when it comes back on a lot of sediment stirs up and can clog various things

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lunar_unit t1_j1kh7at wrote

Where would this sediment come from?

I've never had any issues doing it.

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Charlesinrichmond OP t1_j1ksr8n wrote

All water city and well usually has some gunk in it that gets stirred up. But you only need to pop the aerators and whatever filters to fix it it's not actually a big deal. Sort of thing that will take you two minutes

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Charlesinrichmond OP t1_j1kso0l wrote

While true it's not a big deal you just pop the aerators off

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ArmoredFan t1_j1kvwd0 wrote

Unless you know, water runs into various other things besides a faucet.

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Charlesinrichmond OP t1_j1l0ide wrote

Tell me more I've only been doing plumbing on houses for 25 odd years or so... Always more to learn

But so far the places sediment plugs up are pretty consistent and yes that would be the faucet aerators. So we bleed something without an aerator first then we pulled the aerators and bleed the faucets. It's really not a big deal except for the new grohe aerators which are complete pain if you misplace their stupid doohickey

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ArmoredFan t1_j1l2gwb wrote

Oh of course please education me more on 25 years of professional doohickey fixing.

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Charlesinrichmond OP t1_j1qhl7e wrote

nope. you clearly aren't interested. And not very good at comprehension. So it's unlikely to be useful

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