I didn’t know I had a problem until I turned on the pump. Busting copper pipes sound like rifle shots. When I had left the last time, late fall, I had thought I had drained the pipes. I thought I had opened the faucets. I didn’t even think of blowing the lines. Any and all were a costly mistake, in time, money and enjoyment of my precious time off. Luckily I was able to do most of the work myself, but still I would rather have been spending the time and money fishing or hiking or just sitting on the porch.

Probably the single biggest self-caused calamity that can strike a cabin owner is busted pipes due to water freezing in the lines. Not only is it a financial setback but also it ruins whatever you had planned for your relaxing time away from home. The real crime is that it is completely preventable.

First, let me clear up a common misconception about busted pipes. According to Institute for Business and Home Safety and several home builders and plumber organizations, it is not specifically the freezing and expanding of the water that breaks pipes. Rather, the buildup of pressure behind or between the ice blockage(s) that causes pipes to burst. This pressure can become thousands of pounds in some cases. Preventing this costly mishap is a two-fold process. First is preventive plumbing and second is properly shutting down and opening up your water system.

Preventive plumbing follows two simple rules. First, eliminate any horizontal runs. Now, I am not talking about much of a slope. Just having a one inch drop from one end of the main feed to the other is enough to achieve enough downhill slope to help drain the system. Second, have the entire system drain to a lowest spot where you have a drain faucet. In my original system the water came through the basement wall about 8 inches up from the floor. It then dropped down to floor level and ran to my pressure tank. This created a trap, which never drained. At first I wrapped this area with heating tape, which did its job until the electricity went out for a couple days just before I arrived. During my retrofit, I eliminated this freeze prone area by raising the pressure tank above the inlet pipe and adding a faucet at what was now the lowest point in the system. Now when I drain the system is all drains out this one faucet. Two other changes made my pipes as bust free as I can make them. I got rid of the hot water tank. I always irked me to drain out 30 gallons of hot water and I never knew if it had totally drained. Now I have a tank-less water heater which 1) gives me an endless supply of hot water for when the relatives come, 2) saves me money since I don’t have to keep 30 gallons hot all the time and 3) has a drain screw on the bottom so I know the system is empty. Both the cold water and hot water pipes have faucets on them to facilitate draining. The other change was to replace the regular kitchen sink faucet with one designed for a utility sink. This type of faucet has threads sized for a standard garden hose connection; more on this in a minute.

Making sure you do everything and in the proper order to shut down and open up is equally important. To ensure that I do everything every time I use a “Shutdown Checklist.”

1.) Shut off the LP gas.

2.) Shut off the pump breaker switch and open all the faucets. My basement faucets all drain into a sump.

3.) Take the drain plug out of the tank-less water heater and remove the water filter casing.

4.) Flush the toilet and hold the handle down so that almost all of the water drains from the tank then sponge out the remaining water.

5.) Close all but the kitchen faucet and the bottom drain faucet.

6.) Blow out the lines. I have a small 3-gallon air compressor that I use with a modified hose. The hose has a standard female fitting at one end and on the other a male air hose fitting that attaches to the air compressor. This is why I replaced the kitchen faucet. Now I just screw the hose onto the kitchen faucet (which in my case is furthest from the well) and let the compressor run for a couple for minutes.

7.) Put 1-1/2 cups of RV antifreeze in each of the U-traps. The toilet bowl gets 2 to 2-1/2 cups, which I “flush” into the toilet bowl. The sump gets the rest of the gallon.

8.) Open up all the faucets again to let any drips escape.

9.) Open all below sink doors. This ensures that warm air will circulate when I open up the cabin.

This entire process takes 30 minutes or less. I do this each time I leave. Even in the summer I do everything except put the RV anti-freeze in on the assumption that I might not get back until January.

When opening the cabin I also take some precautions. Since we usually go up on a Friday night. I turn on the heat, light a fire and than go for fish fry. I turn all utilities off when I leave, as I don’t want to think that just because there is electricity when I left it will stay on. Almost every winter my cousin says the power goes out at least once. By the time we get back, the cabin and pipes have warmed up. I shut off the whole house valve and turn on the pump. I open the whole house valve slowly and make sure water trickles out each faucet before I open the system to full pressure.

If I sound a bit obsessive about this I guess I am. I redid my plumbing once due to my own stupidity and I certainly don’t want to do it again.