Leaving for Winter?

Leaving for the winter? Here are some tips on winterizing your home by turning off your water. Perhaps could save you the cost of having to hire a plumber.

Shutting down your main:

You will have a ‘gate valve’ or a ‘ball valve’ main in your home.

Gate Valve: (The handle will be round) Turn valve clockwise until the handle stops turning freely. When it stops, the valve is closed. There are times that you may find the packing nut around the base of the handle sometimes leaks. In this particular case, you can simply take a wrench and slightly tighten the packing nut which typically stops a leak.

Ball Valve: (Ball valves will have a straight handle that will normally be in line with your regular piping). To shut down, turn the handle ¼ turn so the handle is perpendicular to your piping. The handle will only move ¼ turn to the off position.

Next Step:

Go to the kitchen sink and open the faucet on the cold water and let drain until the pressure is out of the system (piping). If pressure does not slow down and water continues to run your main water shut off may not be working and should be replaced.

If you have a reverse osmosis water system, the storage tank should be emptied. To empty the storage tank, open the drinking water faucet in the kitchen until water stops flowing from it. Close the handle when the water stops flowing.

All water treatment should be left as is. There is no reason to put your softening system in bypass mode or unplug electricity to the unit.

The water shut down procedure should be complete.

Turning the water back on:

Open the water system slowly and you will hear the system become pressurized. Once the system is pressurized, you should turn the valve on completely. Your system will be pressurized when the water stops running.