Advice on when to completely shut off water

[iyiyi]

It has been super cold here this year. I have a well. Is there a general rule of thumb when you should completely turn off the water when traveling/leaving the house for extended periods (over a week)?
I have a few water lines that are in exterior walls and I'm nervous they may freeze without being used daily like when I am home.
Between the well pump and propane tankless water heater I'm not comfortable leaving things to drip for that long.

Are there any issues with just shutting off the water and running the lines dry before leaving? Even if something does freeze, I'd prefer it happened once I got home and not while I'm gone with unlimited water possible flooding the house.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Twowaxhack]

Shut everything down and completely drain everything including water heater and you’re golden. For toilets and traps use RV antifreeze.

 

[pasadena_commut]

This isn't relevant to the freezing issue, but...

We turn off the water inside the house when we will be away for one night or more. The outside irrigation, which is on timers, remains active. We started doing that after when we were just about to leave for a trip I went into the kitchen and turned on the faucet, I think to wash my hands, and the hose under the sink exploded. We also turn off the water heater. This isn't much work for some peace of mind, and because we don't travel much, it only needs to be done a few times a year.

 

[RS]

We turn of our well pump and water heaters any time we are gone overnight, and when we are gone for 5 months in the winter, we blow out the entire system with compressed air, even though we heat the house to 50F. It's a lot easier to do that than re-plumb the house!

 

[havasu]

On my vacation home, I shut off my electric water heater and all water to the inside, leaving only the landscape water on. We never get to freezing temperatures.

 

[iyiyi]

Thanks for the advice. Also, to clarify, the house will be heated when I would be away (usually left around 65).

So should I just turn off the water and shut off the breakers for the well pump and hot water heater and just let all the water run out of faucets?

Is antifreeze and draining the hot water heater necessary for being gone a week or so?

 

[RS]

How much do you trust your heating system? Do you have an alarm system that will alert you if it fails? Do you have a reliable person that could come and get the heat on again? Just shutting off the power to the pump and water heaters is good enough for us, for a week or less. We haven't had a problem in the 11 years that we've been gone 5 months, but it's one less thing for me to worry about, and I can easily do the winterizing myself.

 

[iyiyi]

How much do you trust your heating system? Do you have an alarm system that will alert you if it fails? Do you have a reliable person that could come and get the heat on again? Just shutting off the power to the pump and water heaters is good enough for us, for a week or less. We haven't had a problem in the 11 years that we've been gone 5 months, but it's one less thing for me to worry about, and I can easily do the winterizing myself.

I have a smart thermostat so can easily check on how it's working. It has been reliable. Getting someone to fix the heat in an emergency is possible, but definitely want peace of mind for freezing pipes.

Do you drain your hot water heater and do you put anitfreeze in anything? (when only leaving for short periods, not winterizing)

 

[RS]

No, I only drain the water heater when we are gone in the winter, using compressed air. The air goes down the dip tube and agitates any sediment in the bottom, it seems to do a thorough cleaning. I hook up the compressor by the well pressure thank, with the regulator set at about 55 psi. The only place we use antifreeze is in the traps, and only when gone for 5 months.

 

[iyiyi]

No, I only drain the water heater when we are gone in the winter, using compressed air. The air goes down the dip tube and agitates any sediment in the bottom, it seems to do a thorough cleaning. I hook up the compressor by the well pressure thank, with the regulator set at about 55 psi. The only place we use antifreeze is in the traps, and only when gone for 5 months.

Thanks! Yeah, for just a week I probably wouldn't drain the heater or use antifreeze unless there is a reason that would be bad after shutting off the water

 

[pasadena_commut]

I wonder if leaving a WH "empty" for months at a time might result in significantly more rust inside than leaving it full. The sacrificial anode normally protects any iron containing metal inside from rusting, but that needs a complete circuit, and if the anode is just hanging in the air there will not be one. A drained tank is not normally completely dry (which would also prevent rust) but usually has some water sticking to the sides and mixed in with any remaining sediment, which would result in moist air inside. To really dry it out would probably require blowing dry warm air through it for a fairly long period of time. Alternatively, fill it with 100% nitrogen so that there is no oxygen available for the reaction.

In any case, better some rust than the tank splitting open from an expanding block of ice inside.

 

[iyiyi]

I wonder if leaving a WH "empty" for months at a time might result in significantly more rust inside than leaving it full. The sacrificial anode normally protects any iron containing metal inside from rusting, but that needs a complete circuit, and if the anode is just hanging in the air there will not be one. A drained tank is not normally completely dry (which would also prevent rust) but usually has some water sticking to the sides and mixed in with any remaining sediment, which would result in moist air inside. To really dry it out would probably require blowing dry warm air through it for a fairly long period of time. Alternatively, fill it with 100% nitrogen so that there is no oxygen available for the reaction.

In any case, better some rust than the tank splitting open from an expanding block of ice inside.

Think it's ok to not drain it for a week of low temps?

 

[RS]

I have thought about that, I was given a water heater once that had been empty for a few years, and when I hooked it up it leaked! But I have been blowing out the one at our cabin for about 23 years, and its pretty bad water, lots of iron, but we have a softener. The 2 in series at the house I have been blowing out for at least 11 years, that water has a lot of iron too, but we have a softener there too.

 

[pasadena_commut]

Think it's ok to not drain it for a week of low temps?

Below freezing at the WH location with the WH turned off? I wouldn't think so.

That volume of water is going to freeze and as the ice expands something is going to break.
The tank will most likely freeze from the top down, as ice floats, and that is going to wall off the hot water outlet first. If the cold water inlet is open but that pipe has been emptied for a while water will be shoved into that through the dip tube as the pressure below the ice increases. However, if the WH is anything like mine, that inlet pipe is not insulated and will likely freeze solid too. That leaves nowhere for the pressure go but outward towards the walls of the tank and downwards into the floor of the tank. Seems likely to crack the seam where the two meet.