House winterizing?

[RusM]

So it's going to actually be cold, maybe even below zero here in Washington next week and we're leaving for the holidays. I've drained the outside hose bib and covered it and covered the one that's in an insulated wall. Planning on leaving the heat to normal setting and not turning it down. Also planning on leaving all the closets, cupboards and doors open for airflow.

Am I missing anything? Should I leave a faucet cracked inside? Set up a heater on low in the uninsulated garage? Water heater and valves are in garage. All pipes are PEX also.

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[YotaAtieToo]

I'm in too

I'll admit, I've never really lived in a super cold area. We'd get snow and freezes, but nothing like the - 20* lows and single digit highs were supposed to get next week.

 

[Wilson]

How reliable is your power? If there is a chance for a sustained outage, you could do more. Otherwise if the house will be at normal temp, you should be good

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Ours is pretty reliable, talking to locals, outages are rare. First snow it was out for a few hours. The town maintains their own power, so like volunteer fire fighters, they seem to get **** done since they have skin in the game.

Worse case our little gas stove works without Power.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

meh

I'm going to pick up garden hoses and call it good

 

[BUCKLAND]

We leave our house on the Canadian border vacant for 3-10 days at a time.
Turn of electric hot water heater
Set t-stat to 55
Always let the faucets trickle

Only time that hasn’t worked is when someone forgets to leak the water running and it freezes up out on the street (town water). Or break ins. **** thieves

 

[Etyler2]

Crack faucets, leave heat at 55. In Tahoe they fill the pipes with antifreeze.

 

[Poke]

That’s not cold enough to care. Wouldn’t think twice

 

[Here4memes]

If any doubt, at $3.50 a gallon, the RV pink anti-freeze stuff is so cheap...

https://www.lowes.com/pd/SPLASH-1-Gallon-Antifreeze/1001303072?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-hdw-_-ggl-_-LIA_HDW_214_Auto-Batteries-_-1001303072-_-local-_-0-_-0&ds_rl=1286981&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2ZCOBhDiARIsAMRfv9L7HQf7hYxCBv8pRjOpRzG4JPiHXys9OQCz0svAMMKbR5L8SJ5TkgIaAo1mEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[arse_sidewards]

Get the house like 85deg before you leave. It'll probably still be 45 by the time you get back unless it's a massive **** heap with no insulation.