Recent extreme weather has put millions of homes across the US at risk of severe flooding caused by burst pipes. As temperatures drop to extremes, water in the pipes begin to freeze and expand. This increase in pressure can cause the pipe to burst, resulting in flooded basements, collapsed ceilings and walls, and thousands of dollars in damage repairs. Over 250,000 homes suffer water damage from burst pipes annually, resulting in up to $500 million in damage a year. While Flume is there to instantly catch your burst pipes, we would love it if you never have to experience the stress of a burst pipe in the first place.

Here are some tips & tricks you can use to minimize your risk of burst pipes:

  1. Use water to save water: On extremely cold days, keep one or two faucets slowly running. The water moving through your system will help prevent your line from freezing and bursting.
  2. Bundle up your pipes: Pipes near a window or external wall are usually at higher risk of bursting; if possible, try to direct warm air to the colder parts of your home using a space heater if available. You can also cover exposed pipes with foam insulation.
  3. Release your garden hose: If you have a hose attached to an outside faucet, be sure to disconnect it from the spigot. Water will need to drain out of your spigot to prevent it from freezing and breaking.
  4. Leave your cabinets open (but your windows closed!): Kitchen sinks are usually on an external wall, meaning the pipes connected to your sink are at high risk of freezing. Leave your cabinets open to allow the warm air circulating in your house to reach your pipes.
  5. Install a Flume and set up a custom Flume usage alert: Flume installs in minutes without the need for an expensive plumber and can be your first line of defense against inclimate weather. Flume’s Usage Alerts are always on-guard notifying you immediately in the event of a leak. See real-life cases of Flume in action below, and visit www.flumewater.com to get Flume.

How Flume can help protect your home from a leak disaster:

With Flume, you’re able to monitor your water usage in real-time to make sure none of the pipes in your home have burst. Read on to see how Flume users in Texas were able to protect their homes from severe water damage by utilizing Flume as their first line of defense in the fight against burst pipes!

Flume makes checking for broken pipes as easy as glancing at your phone — two Flume users describe the convenience and peace of mind they felt knowing Flume was monitoring their water:

“You can’t imagine how incredibly grateful I am that I got your water monitor. During the outages and freezing weather here in SAWS I constantly used the app to check for leaks and water flow during the outage. An extremely stressful situation, made a little better knowing we didn’t have a leak going on – I would have made 100 trips to the attic otherwise looking for pipe breaks. Thank you all so much!!!”

“Thanks for your support, yesterday after you all notified us about the water running at 10.08 gallons per minute, we checked and found a major leak…today we got another message that we were using 5.42 gallons per minute, checked again and found another major leak inside the wall. We turned the water off until we can fix it….we are over 70 years old and have a 3,500 s/f house, so this message really helps us, thanks for your support.”

Another Flume user describes the stressful situation created by the recent cold weather in Texas; Flume was able to alleviate some stress by monitoring for frozen pipes.

“The situation in Texas has been an absolute nightmare for us, but many people here have had it even worse. We were without power for 24 hours while snow fell and the temperature outside dove way below freezing…and just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, we lost water…for 31 hours. When we got water pressure back, the Flume helped us to determine that the plumbing was intact and it allowed us to switch on one tap after another, switch them off, and monitor pipe integrity. I could tell from the gpm if the bibs started freezing. The Flume’s next task is to help me determine if my depressurized sprinkler pipes sustained damage, once things thaw and I re-pressurize them. I went with the Flume to better manage water consumption and as a safety in case of a leak. I never thought it would help me manage pipe safety during hard freezes.”

In times of crisis and natural disaster, Flume hopes to assist wherever possible to alleviate stress from your life. With Flume protecting your home, you can focus on staying safe and warm — let Flume worry about your pipes while you worry about the rest.