My Chicago house will be vacant for 3 months this winter. would it be enough to shut and drain all the water piping and leave gas water heater and gas furnace(67 degrees) on?
Read your insurance policy. There may well be a clause that if your house is sitting empty, they aren’t responsible for covering damage.
What if the furnace goes out? Do you have an alarm? Will anything be hurt if it does? And if you drain the pipes and leave the water heater on, imagine what that will do – either explode or trip a safety cutout. Maybe you meant drain the pipes and turn off the water heater?
I would put a very small amount of oil in each sink and tub drain (a few drops are probably enough. This will help prevent the traps from drying out and letting sewer gas into the house.
Many people will pour antifreeze (not car antifreeze) into toilet/sink/tub drains.
A freeze alarm either internet based, dial up or even a flashing light that your neighbors can see and report is a very good idea. Some web based thermostats also will provide freeze alerts, or at least allow passive monitoring. Having a second heat source, even oil filled electric space heaters set to a lower temperature then your gas heating system provides a backup.
Turn off your water heater, or place in on vacation setting.
67F is high. Not only will it be costing you more money, but putting more hours on your furnace, which will wear it out a bit more and have a greater risk of malfunctioning. 60F would be the max I would consider unless there is issues with very uneven heat in the home and 67F would be needed to ensure that the house it heated properly, 55F is what I do use. I’ve heard don’t go below 50F as that stresses things like drywall and may cause cracks. Not that this is the end of the world, but it usually causes more cost and trouble then the savings.
Also you many consider letting the place go dark and cold. It’s a option but required a lot of prep, and recommend a professional the first time. Even still expect repairs on the return. This is more of a option for people who go away every winter (summer house/snowbirds) as it will be more expensive at first, but may be a long term savings.
Thanks,but I was hoping for an answer to my question, I have already looked into insurance and all other aspects of the situation.
Great catch, Musicat, turn off the water heater before you drain anything … and Tastes of Chocolate is spot on about insurance, an “owner occupied” policy won’t cover anything if the owner isn’t occupying the residence … otherwise just draining the water out, and I mean ALL the water (water heater, traps, blow out the lines), will keep your water lines and drains from breaking …
Houses just don’t wear well if unoccupied … three months isn’t too terribly long but there will be some consequences … broken water lines is just the beginning of the list of things that could go wrong, all of which are most likely uninsured … for example, all the rats in the 'hood are going to move in and you’ll come back to one hell of a nasty mess …
Please forgive me for moving into IMEIO territory here in GQ … but what you need is a house-sitter … some trustworthy relative who’d be interested in three months free rent … someone who can smell rotten eggs and call the gas company before your house blows up …
Here is a checklist:
You may need to hire someone to shovel the sidewalks.
thanks guys,everything’s resolved but the water heater. with water shut off and drained there’s no pressure coming in,with 3 hot water sink faucets left on easing outlet pressure from water tank line and heater left filled and left on with lowest heat setting I can’t see any problems am I wrong? and lets just assume the house will not have any heat problems.
I suggest leaving the door open on any cupboards that your plumbing runs through, especially if they are mounted on an outside wall. The inside of my cupboards gets much colder than the rest of the house.
what are you talking about, can’t you read my question HOT WATER TANK NOT COLD WATER LINES.
Tastes of Chocolate is trying to be “helpful” by giving you excellent advice … because it’d suck for a cold water belly to freeze, break, thaw and siphon out your hot water heater … but you said your insurance company will be happy to rebuild your home … why are you asking people on the internet if risky behavior is okay?
If there’s a specific reason you want to leave your hot water heater on, unattended, for three months then do it … our advice is to turn it off and drain it …
Do you get that part about using an air compressor to blow out all your water lines?
I don’t live in a particularly cold-weather city, so forgive if this is obvious, but why would you do this? My understanding is that the general problem is that water expands when it freezes, so if your pipe is full and under pressure, it could rupture. But water doesn’t expand that much - about 9% - so wouldn’t removing most of the water from the pipes be sufficient? Wouldn’t turning off the master water to your house and opening a faucet accomplish that?
Are you using gravity to drain the water out of the pipes? … this could leave a substantial length of pipe un-drained because the water has no way to move over a hump in the line … then when the water freezes it will expand and break the pipe …
I was a laborer on a project installing an irrigation system and we used a transit to make sure all the pipes had negative slope down to the lowest valve … all the owners had to do was turn off the water, open the upper valve and lower valve and all the water was sure to drain out of the lines … don’t really do this for homes since they’re typically occupied at all times per insurance rules …
beginning of my post reply right above Taste’s giving advice that’s already been factored in. “Thanks guys everything’s resolved but the water heater”. why would taste give repetitious advice, only conclusion is he didn’t bother reading my question.
Gravity plus pressure. Even if part of the pipe is ‘full’, if the water isn’t under pressure, wouldn’t its expansion push into the non-full parts of the pipe, since that’s an easier way for it to relieve pressure than bursting the metal. I could imagine if you froze the water fast enough, maybe you’d get pipe breakage, but under real-world circumstances, I’d imagine the pressure would just diffuse through the pipes and possibly even push a little more water out of the open tap. I’m also picturing pipes inside a house rather than an irrigation system.
The ends freeze first, forming plugs … house, underground makes no difference, it’s about temperature … and it gets stupid cold in Chicago … the water in the bellies will break the pipes when it’s -40º …
I see how that would happen. Thanks for the answer.