How To Prevent Your downspouts from Freezing in Winters?

Keeping your gutters functional and working in winters is a tough job. You have to look for several aspects and make sure each one of them is perfectly functioning. Preventing your downpipes from freezing is one of those steps that holds great value because once the downpipes freeze, there is no chance of water flowing down, causing the gutter blockage, leaking, and other issues.

Why It Is Necessary to Prevent Downspouts from Freezing?

In most cases, if the downspouts are filled with ice, they will put more pressure on the pipes as ice is heavy. It will also cause downspouts to tear loose due to compacted snow and solid blocks of ice. All of it will put extra stress on your gutter, causing roof damage or other serious issues that can cost you a lot.

So, there are many ways to prevent your downspouts from freezing and one of the most effective ways is pouring down some warm water through the pipe. It will melt any ice inside and make it functional again. However, it is not so effective with hard ice because you will require a lot of warm water to melt them. Luckily, there are many alternatives to de-ice and make your gutters functional again.

In this blog, we will discuss a few ways to prevent freezing in the first place and also know about how you can un-freeze the downspouts.

Keep Your Downspouts from Freezing with These Steps

To prevent your gutters and downspouts from freezing, you need to know about a few simple steps that will help you in both maintaining and de-icing them.

Regular Clean

Pine needles, dirt, leaves, and other items make a jam in your downpipes. The wind and rain bring these items to your pipes and gutter which leads to minor or major blockages. For the starter, you may not notice them, but then in winters, they start to form solid blocks.

So, you should clean them every fall for better maintenance and prevent other issues. Also, while cleaning your gutters, make sure that everything is flowing well in the downspouts. To inspect them, you can visually see them from the top and it will give you a clear idea about where the most cleaning is needed.

Use Proper Gutter Guards

Gutter guards are used to avoid large pieces of ice and other items from entering the gutter. They also keep the roof drain system functioning well by only allowing water through the pipes. However, make sure that this is a stainless gutter guard as you would not want to change it every once in a while when there is rust and other stains.

The best part of these gutter guards is they prevent your downspouts from freezing so they’re worth investing in as you get to save a lot of money.

Now, let’s have a look at some methods to un-freeze your downspouts

Methods To Un-Freeze Frozen Downspouts

1. Pour boiling water over the surface of your downspouts to melt down any ice formed inside them. It is a cheap and easy way to un-freeze your downspouts, however, you might have to do it again and again for better results.
2. Wrap around a special heating tape at the surface of your downspouts that will automatically heat them and you would not have to do it yourself. However, this method is not as efficient as pouring boiling water but is a great way to prevent ice-forming inside the downpipes.
3. Clear away any snow that is forming at the exit of the downspout and make sure to keep checking it and remove it.

These techniques are proved to be efficient and many people have tried them. So, you can also use them to keep your gutters functioning well.

What NOT To Do When Downspouts Are Frozen

Panic creates many mistakes and you can do many mistakes intentionally or unintentionally while de-icing the downspouts. Here are a few things that you should avoid when you have frozen downspouts.

1. Do not climb a ladder in order to pour water into the downspouts. You can hit anything or spill boiling water on yourself and it can be dangerous. So, make sure you ask for someone’s help to climb and use proper gears.
2. Do not hit the downspouts with a hammer or other tools to break up the ice, it will only make things worse by tearing apart your downspouts.
3. Do not forcefully stuff something inside the downpipes because ice already makes things feeble and you can easily break them.

Avoid these things if you do not want to spend even more money on purchasing another downspout.

Key Takeaways

Using boiling water or warm tapes will gradually melt down the ice from your downspouts. However, for maintenance, you should clean every once in a while and make sure to use the proper gutter guard. With them, you will always feel more confident and stay out of many gutter issues during the winter season.