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Winter Plumbing Maintenance

With the winter months well underway, it’s important to ensure that your plumbing is safe and well to avoid any nasty surprises as we enter the New Year. Luckily, this winter has been mild so far but it’s best to assume that the incoming months will get a little frosty before spring shows its face. To help keep your boiler system up to scratch this winter, we’ve compiled a list of tips to enact to keep any plumbing problems at bay and ensure the smooth running of your household. Nobody wants fault heating in the coldest months of the year! Keep the cold weather trouble at bay with the following tips.

Use Your Heating Before The Frost Appears

Although winter is in full swing, the temperatures have been fairly kind for the most part so far, however, don’t wait for it to get worse before turning on your heating.  As you would with an underused car, it’s best to start it up now and then to check everything’s running okay and ensuring nothing has seized up. 

Even if you just have it on low and infrequently, this periodic start-up will help keep everything working well and also alert you to any issue that need fixing before you need your heating the most.

Bleed Your Radiators

A common issue found in radiator function is caused by trapped air. This air prevents the radiator from heating and, therefore, functioning properly which means the boiler system ends up running on all cylinders in an attempt to compensate for the radiators malfunctioning. 

However, all this does is put unnecessary extra strain on your boiler whilst also hiking up your heating bill, just to get the house to a normal temperature. How you avoid this, is ensure your radiators are bled. This frees the radiators of the trapped air and allows full flow of water, allowing your heating to function as it should. 

Aside from the obvious reduction in excess cost and strain on your heating system, being diligent about such checks helps to reduce unnecessary extra energy output, which is always an environmental plus.

Power Flushing

Despite what you may think, this is not about installing a strong handle on your cistern (!). Power flushing is essentially a deep clean for your boiler. It helps to detoxify the system by getting rid of any build-up of residue that has accumulated over time. The build-up of sludge in a boiler system can limit its efficacy and, in turn, interfere with the energy output and the functioning of your heating. 

By treating your boiler to a deep clean you will rid any rust and lime scale and get your boiler back to its former glory. This is usually carried out upon installation but can be hugely beneficial when carried out as part of your periodic maintenance too.

 

Annual Servicing

It can feel tedious to spend money on your system when there’s nothing currently wrong with it, but as they say, a stitch in time saves nine. By keeping up with regular maintenance you avoid much bigger (and more expensive!) problems down the line. 

You don’t have to break the bank to keep things tip-top, just contact a plumbing company and see what maintenance programmes they offer or recommend and choose the one which best suits your needs.