It’s time to winterize your home and car

Single-digit temperatures are at hand for Central Oregon. People who don’t take precautions now to winterize their home and car could regret it down the road.

“Worst case scenario with this kind of weather is your main line freezes and then you have no water, period,” Daniel Johnson, the owner of Einstein Plumbing and Heating, said Tuesday.

Daniel Automotive owner Jason Daniel, said the cold can wreak havoc on vehicles, too.

“It can do damage to radiators and cylinder blocks, because ice expands,” he said.

They agreed that taking precautions early saves a lot of grief later.

The most common mistake Daniel sees is not having the correct mix of antifreeze. He recommends a 50/50 water-to-antifreeze mix. He also said not having properly charged batteries is a common mistake.

Daniel had a lot of suggestions to make the winter a little more bearable for drivers. Keeping the gas tank full will not only prevent freezing, but can also provide comfort for a stranded motorist.

“If there’s an emergency and you need to stay warm, having a full tank is good,” he said.

Johnson offered tips for around the house. In addition to leaving a faucet dripping and opening cabinets to expose pipes to warm air, he said a fan works well to get that air to places it might not normally reach.

He also recommended walking the perimeter of a house, looking for any openings cold air could get in, and winterizing the outside as well.

“Take the hose off the hose bib, so outside you have an outside faucet, if you take the hose off it’ll prevent it from freezing and breaking,” Johnson said.

He also said unexpected things like toilets can freeze, so leave any doors around them open to make sure warmer air can circulate.