From District Gov - Weather Advisory

[Bogie Shooter]

National Weather Service Hard Freeze Advisories
The National Weather Service has Hard Freeze Advisories for Central Florida, including The Villages. Low temperatures are expected to be around 25 degrees on Saturday night and 33 degrees on Sunday night before a warming trend on Monday. Residents should take the time now to protect your property from the potential impacts of a hard freeze including:

Turn off pick up and put away outside garden hoses as they may freeze and burst;

Keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines located inside;

Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warm air to circulate around the plumbing;

Keep the heating thermostat set at a consistent temperature both day and night;

If going out of town during cold weather, leave the heat on in your home. Set the thermostat to a temperature no lower than 55 °F, and open cabinet doors where there is plumbing;

Check that all storm windows and windows are closed and latched;

Close curtains and blinds at night to help insulate windows;

Minimize use of kitchen and bath exhaust fans;

Cover exposed pipes and plumbing;

Run your pool pump continuously when temperatures are near or below freezing. You don't need to run your heater, moving water will not freeze. Water feature pumps should be run and valves should be open;

Install backflow preventers or arrestors on outside faucets;

Cover plants susceptible to damage from freezing temperatures;

Do not run your sprinkler system during a hard freeze as this will cause damage to your irrigation system;

Minimize exposure to the cold and dress appropriately with gloves and hat which cover your ears,

[Bjeanj]

Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about some of these.

[asianthree]

Sunday morning courses will not have tee times until 10am

[CWGUY]

Sunday morning courses will not have tee times until 10am

And pools will open at noon. :cold:

[Stu from NYC]

Is it necessary to trickle water from faucets?

[fdpaq0580]

And pools will open at noon. :cold:

For ice skating!

[mtdjed]

For ice skating!

Cmon Man! This is the sunshine state. No snow shovels to clear the ice.:pray:

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Is it necessary to trickle water from faucets?

Why would you do that? We never had to do that up north - is there something about faucets inside houses in Florida that makes them more likely to have problems if they aren't "off" when not in use?

Even the folks across the street who didn't have basements, didn't have to trickle their faucets.

But the outside spigots is good to remind me about - that's a thing we normally always did as part of our late Autumn preparation - rake the leaves, clean the gutters, and shut the water to the outside spigots off and remove the hoses.

Wondering now if we need to do anything special in the laundry shed. The shed itself is partially insulated but there's no heat in there. Should we buy a space heater and run it for an hour in there before bedtime maybe?

[tophcfa]

Really, talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. Cover sensitive plants and relax. A few short hours below 32 degrees is no big deal. Now, if you were on Cape Cod, that would be different. They are expecting about 30 inches of snow along with category one hurricane force winds.

[tophcfa]

And pools will open at noon. :cold:

Bummer, there goes the Sunday morning lap swimming before afternoon golf : (

[La lamy]

Why would you do that? We never had to do that up north - is there something about faucets inside houses in Florida that makes them more likely to have problems if they aren't "off" when not in use?

Even the folks across the street who didn't have basements, didn't have to trickle their faucets.

But the outside spigots is good to remind me about - that's a thing we normally always did as part of our late Autumn preparation - rake the leaves, clean the gutters, and shut the water to the outside spigots off and remove the hoses.

Wondering now if we need to do anything special in the laundry shed. The shed itself is partially insulated but there's no heat in there. Should we buy a space heater and run it for an hour in there before bedtime maybe?

We have issues with laundry pipes freezing up north. It all depends how well insulated walls are around pipes, and here, manufactured homes are not well insulated at all. Hence the warning of opening sink cupboards. I may run a space heater in shed for an hour before bed where I have my laundry and stored all my potted plants.

[snhmhg]

Why would you do that? We never had to do that up north - is there something about faucets inside houses in Florida that makes them more likely to have problems if they aren't "off" when not in use?

Even the folks across the street who didn't have basements, didn't have to trickle their faucets.

But the outside spigots is good to remind me about - that's a thing we normally always did as part of our late Autumn preparation - rake the leaves, clean the gutters, and shut the water to the outside spigots off and remove the hoses.

Wondering now if we need to do anything special in the laundry shed. The shed itself is partially insulated but there's no heat in there. Should we buy a space heater and run it for an hour in there before bedtime maybe?
People here drip faucets inside to keep their outside well pumps kicking on to keep them from freezing up.

[Nucky]

The Manufactured Houses predominantly use PVC pipe for the plumbing under the home. “Northern homes” probably used copper or lead running to the outside spigots. It is a concern because the temperature has never been lower than what is forecasted since we’ve lived here.

[MandoMan]

National Weather Service Hard Freeze Advisories
The National Weather Service has Hard Freeze Advisories for Central Florida, including The Villages. Low temperatures are expected to be around 25 degrees on Saturday night and 33 degrees on Sunday night before a warming trend on Monday. Residents should take the time now to protect your property from the potential impacts of a hard freeze including:

Turn off pick up and put away outside garden hoses as they may freeze and burst;

Keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines located inside;

Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warm air to circulate around the plumbing;

Keep the heating thermostat set at a consistent temperature both day and night;

If going out of town during cold weather, leave the heat on in your home. Set the thermostat to a temperature no lower than 55 °F, and open cabinet doors where there is plumbing;

Check that all storm windows and windows are closed and latched;

Close curtains and blinds at night to help insulate windows;

Minimize use of kitchen and bath exhaust fans;

Cover exposed pipes and plumbing;

Run your pool pump continuously when temperatures are near or below freezing. You don't need to run your heater, moving water will not freeze. Water feature pumps should be run and valves should be open;

Install backflow preventers or arrestors on outside faucets;

Cover plants susceptible to damage from freezing temperatures;

Do not run your sprinkler system during a hard freeze as this will cause damage to your irrigation system;

Minimize exposure to the cold and dress appropriately with gloves and hat which cover your ears,

I suspect that there are thousands of us who come from the lands of ice and snow laughing our heads off at these draconian measures all because of six hours a little below freezing. Yes, cover tender plants, but otherwise this is excessive. Some of these are things I normally did in the fall, like emptying the hoses and disconnecting them, but a lot of these are things I would only do if I were closing up a seasonal house for the winter.

[terryf484]

I plan to drip water at kitchen sink. Tankless water system is on outside of garage wall and no protection for water lines. Something we use to do when fulltime RVing, when camping where there was going to be freezing temperatures.

[Petersweeney]

Where did I put my pjs….oh there they are….

[Teemotay]

Why would you do that? We never had to do that up north - is there something about faucets inside houses in Florida that makes them more likely to have problems if they aren't "off" when not in use?

Even the folks across the street who didn't have basements, didn't have to trickle their faucets.

But the outside spigots is good to remind me about - that's a thing we normally always did as part of our late Autumn preparation - rake the leaves, clean the gutters, and shut the water to the outside spigots off and remove the hoses.

Wondering now if we need to do anything special in the laundry shed. The shed itself is partially insulated but there's no heat in there. Should we buy a space heater and run it for an hour in there before bedtime maybe?

Of course there is something different about southern homes than northern homes, which would cause you to leave your faucets trickling! The houses are built differently because the climates are different. Next to zero insulation in southern homes compared to northern homes: particularly in the walls.

I lived in western New York, Montana, northern Minnesota and the upper peninsula of Michigan for the first 57 years of my life and never had a frozen pipe. Moved into a brand new house in Madison, Mississippi in 2014 and experienced my first frozen pipe the very first winter in it! Moved to Hattiesburg in southern Mississippi in 2017. This house was 3- years old and our pipes froze there also. The water lines are not buried very deep and nearly all insulation is in the attic of southern homes. We don’t take any chances now. We built our current home in Harbor Hills in 2020 and I will be letting water trickle from a couple of faucets tonight. If it’s only freezing for an hour then it’s not as critical. The forecast I saw shows it being below freezing for several hours. That’s where the trouble is.

[Villages Kahuna]

These are the freezes that destroyed huge amounts of orange groves. Oranges used to be grown as far north as the Florida panhandle. Now the northernmost orange groves are south of Orlando. In fact Orlando itself was at one time a huge orange grove owned by a single individual, Dr. Phillip Phillips, MD. He sold out to the big orange juice makers, who later sold out to home builders and the theme parks when the groves were destroyed by hard freezes like tonight.

[PugMom]

Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about some of these.

agreed. i haven't had to worry about frozen pipes for awhile now

[PugMom]

Is it necessary to trickle water from faucets?

i would do it, just like we used to. i wouldnt want to risk it here

[PugMom]

Why would you do that? We never had to do that up north - is there something about faucets inside houses in Florida that makes them more likely to have problems if they aren't "off" when not in use?

Even the folks across the street who didn't have basements, didn't have to trickle their faucets.

But the outside spigots is good to remind me about - that's a thing we normally always did as part of our late Autumn preparation - rake the leaves, clean the gutters, and shut the water to the outside spigots off and remove the hoses.

Wondering now if we need to do anything special in the laundry shed. The shed itself is partially insulated but there's no heat in there. Should we buy a space heater and run it for an hour in there before bedtime maybe?

my inlaws had frozen pipes some years back- it was an expensive nightmare. they had to stay @ hotels & our house while it was repaired.

[PugMom]

I suspect that there are thousands of us who come from the lands of ice and snow laughing our heads off at these draconian measures all because of six hours a little below freezing. Yes, cover tender plants, but otherwise this is excessive. Some of these are things I normally did in the fall, like emptying the hoses and disconnecting them, but a lot of these are things I would only do if I were closing up a seasonal house for the winter.

"come from the lands of ice and snow,"---from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow? subtle zep reference :coolsmiley:

[Miboater]

i would do it, just like we used to. i wouldnt want to risk it here

I thought all the water pipes are in the slabs so there is no risk of them freezing.

[Stu from NYC]

Why would you do that? We never had to do that up north - is there something about faucets inside houses in Florida that makes them more likely to have problems if they aren't "off" when not in use?

Even the folks across the street who didn't have basements, didn't have to trickle their faucets.

But the outside spigots is good to remind me about - that's a thing we normally always did as part of our late Autumn preparation - rake the leaves, clean the gutters, and shut the water to the outside spigots off and remove the hoses.

Wondering now if we need to do anything special in the laundry shed. The shed itself is partially insulated but there's no heat in there. Should we buy a space heater and run it for an hour in there before bedtime maybe?

We came here from Va and the pipes were close to the exterior of the house and would freeze from time to time unless precautions were taken.

Several times pipes froze and once burst.

Now you should understand my concern. Will trickle tonight.

[Michael G.]

I thought all the water pipes are in the slabs so there is no risk of them freezing.

Nothing to do with the slaps, it's the pipes in the exterior walls that could freeze.

[Miboater]

Nothing to do with the slaps, it's the pipes in the exterior walls that could freeze.

I'm here in Michigan for a few weeks and this morning where it was 2 degrees this morning in my 60 year old house. I never worry about pipes freezing until it gets around -10 F and then I'll turn on the gas fireplace in the basement to get some added heat. I'm hoping my new house in Hawkins would be able to handle a few hours in the 20's!

I am worried about my month old landscaping. The landscapers came by yesterday and covered most of the new plants but ran out of the material and could not find any more. Keeping my fingers crossed!

[UpNorth]

I'm here in Michigan for a few weeks and this morning where it was 2 degrees this morning in my 60 year old house. I never worry about pipes freezing until it gets around -10 F and then I'll turn on the gas fireplace in the basement to get some added heat. I'm hoping my new house in Hawkins would be able to handle a few hours in the 20's!

I am worried about my month old landscaping. The landscapers came by yesterday and covered most of the new plants but ran out of the material and could not find any more. Keeping my fingers crossed!

This is the first hard freeze in the past 4 years. Several plants used here will not survive the 4 to 5 hours of freezing temperatures. Heard a known landscaper this morning on the radio say that in a couple of days, The Villages will look like a fire went through it. So much for the pretty flowers on the roundabouts too.

[worahm]

I agree. Talk about overreach... A couple of hours of below freezing temperatures is not going to cause bursting hoses. Cover your temperature sensitive plants and go on with your life....

[Stu from NYC]

This is the first hard freeze in the past 4 years. Several plants used here will not survive the 4 to 5 hours of freezing temperatures. Heard a known landscaper this morning on the radio say that in a couple of days, The Villages will look like a fire went through it. So much for the pretty flowers on the roundabouts too.

Last few days landscapers out in force doing new planting while the weather channel was reporting a hard frost. Wonder why planting was not postponed?

[retiredguy123]

We came here from Va and the pipes were close to the exterior of the house and would freeze from time to time unless precautions were taken.

Several times pipes froze and once burst.

Now you should understand my concern. Will trickle tonight.
I don't think it's necessary, but, If you are going to trickle anything, you should trickle the outside hose bibbs.

I trickle every night, but I call it tinkle.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

I agree. Talk about overreach... A couple of hours of below freezing temperatures is not going to cause bursting hoses. Cover your temperature sensitive plants and go on with your life....

It's not a couple of hours. Forecast for Lady Lake is 32° and below from 1AM til 9AM tomorrow morning. That's 8 hours of freezing or below temperatures.

Even if it takes 2-3 hours for an uninsulated laundry shed to get as cold inside as it is outside, that still means over 5 hours of below-freezing. That's enough to freeze a 2-litre bottle of water. And that means it's enough to freeze pipes.


My question to the ones who say to trickle the water - I really have never heard of this, and I'm in a manufactured home. It's well insulated INSIDE - including the windows themselves which have been replaced with Andersen double-hung double-panes. The laundry shed, as I said previously, is only partially insulated. There's no attic, but the AC and heat ductwork runs above the ceiling - not in the floor like the older model double-wides. The hot water heater is accessed through a panel outside the house, not inside it. It is not insulated at all.

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!

[retiredguy123]

It's not a couple of hours. Forecast for Lady Lake is 32° and below from 1AM til 9AM tomorrow morning. That's 8 hours of freezing or below temperatures.

Even if it takes 2-3 hours for an uninsulated laundry shed to get as cold inside as it is outside, that still means over 5 hours of below-freezing. That's enough to freeze a 2-litre bottle of water. And that means it's enough to freeze pipes.


My question to the ones who say to trickle the water - I really have never heard of this, and I'm in a manufactured home. It's well insulated INSIDE - including the windows themselves which have been replaced with Andersen double-hung double-panes. The laundry shed, as I said previously, is only partially insulated. There's no attic, but the AC and heat ductwork runs above the ceiling - not in the floor like the older model double-wides. The hot water heater is accessed through a panel outside the house, not inside it. It is not insulated at all.

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!
If you are going to trickle, you need to trickle a faucet that will allow water to flow through the pipes that you don't want to freeze. The outside hose bibbs are dead ends, so trickling an inside faucet will not prevent them from freezing. The water heater most likely does not have a dead end pipe. The AC unit does not have a water pipe running to it. The only water near the AC unit is the condensate drain pipe, which is an open drain that would probably not burst even if it froze.

[rustyp]

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!

Easy solution. SOP (standard operating procedure) - go to the bathroom and flush several times tonight. Use the bathroom farthest away from where the main enters the house (near the main shutoff valve). Then the new water in the pipes will need to get to the freezing point again. For you boys this maybe a good justification to selling the old gal you need to have a few extra brews today.

[Miboater]

I still think this is much worry about nothing. I've been here in Michigan since the 20th and it's never got close to 32 degrees since I've been here. No special precautions besides having the furnace set to 71 degrees. If your house or manufactured home is unheated then you may need to worry a little bit but even then to get the inside of your house below freezing will take a while. I have my Villages house wifi thermostat heat set to kick on at 60 degrees and when I checked this morning it was 64 degrees this morning inside at 8am.

[EdFNJ]

I have my Villages house wifi thermostat heat set to kick on at 60 degrees and when I checked this morning it was 64 degrees this morning inside at 8am. But temps never even went below 38 last night. Tonight it is most likely to go below 30. Last weeks one night below 30 killed off a whole bunch of plantings in our new landscaping. Some varieties may come back but many are obviously DOA. My poor orange tree is about to have it's first real "crop" since we planted it just under 5yrs ago. Tried to cover it but the cover won't stay on. Probably will have some frozen OJ by tomorrow. :(

[Altavia]

It's not a couple of hours. Forecast for Lady Lake is 32° and below from 1AM til 9AM tomorrow morning. That's 8 hours of freezing or below temperatures.

Even if it takes 2-3 hours for an uninsulated laundry shed to get as cold inside as it is outside, that still means over 5 hours of below-freezing. That's enough to freeze a 2-litre bottle of water. And that means it's enough to freeze pipes.


My question to the ones who say to trickle the water - I really have never heard of this, and I'm in a manufactured home. It's well insulated INSIDE - including the windows themselves which have been replaced with Andersen double-hung double-panes. The laundry shed, as I said previously, is only partially insulated. There's no attic, but the AC and heat ductwork runs above the ceiling - not in the floor like the older model double-wides. The hot water heater is accessed through a panel outside the house, not inside it. It is not insulated at all.

If trickling is the trick to preventing frozen pipes, which faucets do you trickle? Is having the kitchen sink drip for 8 hours good enough? Or the master bathroom? Or all of them, or just the tub in the guest bathroom? Or at least two? Whichever is furthest from the hot water heater?

I honestly have zero idea how this works!

Could be interesting how the tankless hot water heaters installed south of 44 plumbed on the exterior walls hold up...

Running water will take longer to freeze than still water. A pencil thin stream from outside hose bibs and faucets (hot and cold) on exterior walls is cheap insurance.

If a pipe should become frozen, then there are two reasons for keeping an inside faucet open. First, it will allow for the freezing water to expand without bursting the pipe and second, as the water in the pipe thaws, it will temporarily have a higher water pressure since the remaining ice will be restricting its flow. This higher pressure could damage other parts of the plumbing system if there is no where for it to flow.

Don't know what to do with commodes with water lines on exterior walls other than flush them occasionally.

[rustyp]

[QUOTE=Robbie0723;2054930]

If a pipe should become frozen, then there are two reasons for keeping an inside faucet open. First, it will allow for the freezing water to expand without bursting the pipe and second, as the water in the pipe thaws, it will temporarily have a higher water pressure since the remaining ice will be restricting its flow. This higher pressure could damage other parts of the plumbing system if there is no where for it to flow.


/// Actually the expansion of ice will cause the same volume of water to be trapped in less space (water does not compress) and that will cause the the burst. Anyway same results.

[Miboater]

But temps never even went below 38 last night. Tonight it is most likely to go below 30. Last weeks one night below 30 killed off a whole bunch of plantings in our new landscaping. Some varieties may come back but many are obviously DOA. My poor orange tree is about to have it's first real "crop" since we planted it just under 5yrs ago. Tried to cover it but the cover won't stay on. Probably will have some frozen OJ by tomorrow. :(

I'm not worried about my pipes freezing but I am really worried about my new landscaping. It made it through last weeks freeze ok said my neighbor but this one may be a different story. Keeping my fingers crossed!