A few weeks ago, I came home from a week long vacation to find that my furnace had failed. Fortunately it was not cold enough that any pipes froze.

I have since had the furnace repaired, however I am wondering what the proper procedure would be to prevent damage from occurring had the outdoor temperature been colder. From browsing the net, it sounds like I would just need to turn off the main water to the house and leave one faucet open to drain. Is that accurate? Is there anything else recommended?

Thank you in advance...

From browsing the net, it sounds like I would just need to turn off the main water to the house and leave one faucet open to drain. Is that accurate? Is there anything else recommended?
IF you're asking how to "winterize" your house completely there's much more then simply shutting off then water and opening up a faucet, The pipes should be blown out to evacuate any water left in th lower pipes, especially if your house is on a slab.
What about the water left in the water heater, toilets and every trap in the house?
If you plan on shutting your house down for the winter we can walk you through it step by step. Regards, Tom

Hi Jashins...

If you are really worried about freeze ups a more proactive approach here may be to install a heat monitor alarm system (about $90.00) that will actually call you and up to 4 neighbors/friends/family members that could help if you were away and the heat system failed... ;)

Check out this one example:

Phone Out Freeze Monitor - tiptemp.com (http://www.tiptemp.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=25489)

There are even fancier models that you can hook to your computer system... check them all out at:

Alarm Systems - tiptemp.com (http://www.tiptemp.com/ProductList.aspx?CategoryID=914)

In my opinion, this is a much better approach to your concern than partially winterizing your home every time you go away... ;)

Questions? Let us know, OK?

Mark

Great idea Mark,
But wouldn't that put the responsibility of going in and winterizing the house on the neighbor if the owner were on vacation? I'm looking for a practicable application here. Regards, Tom

Hi Tom:

In the unlikely event that the system goes down again, these alarms will notify the owner and a trusted family member/friend that there is an issue and they will call in a predesignated heat technician/plumber to fix the problem well before freezing becomes a concern... why these are so neat! Also nice here, is that this is practical in that it can notify you of issues even when not away on vacation, but just out working... allows time to call people and time to get home so it's not such an emergeny upon arrival home.

If we look at these alarms using a forced hot water system as an example, you can see where they could really help prevent a major catastrophe if the boiler failed and the heat pipes themselves actually froze/burst in multiple locations behind walls... ;)

Now, if this was a cabin in the woods, I'd opt. for winterizing, of course, but it sounds like the main residence to me.

Mark

Great explanation Thanks Mark.

Thank you all for the responses. Very helpful...