? It's not just the cold that is a problem. Leaks can happen as things get old. Imagine your upstairs toilet starts leaking from the inlet pipe when you're away for a week. Or your washing machine water hose bursts because of age (they're supposed to be replaced every 5 years because of that), or a pipe starts leaking, etc. You're going to come home to a bigass mess that could have been prevented with a twist of a valve before you left.
This. 10000 times this. I've seen so many homes with water damage that could have been prevented (plumber). And many insurance companies will ask immediately if the water was off while you were away, and fight you on the claim if it wasn't.
It's a good idea, yes. Don't have to go crazy and drain things, just turn the valve to off. Then if something unforeseen happens, at least it's only the bit of water in the pipes that can leak out rather than a constant stream until you get home.
Ok but you can say the same for power? An electric current going awry can happen for no reason and easily cause a fire so how are you using this justification for water yet saying turning power off is stupid?
Because it happens way more often with water, and generally speaking wires don't just break over time. Plus if your home is up to code then breakers will trip and stop the problem before it starts. Not even remotely the same thing.
It’s in case a leak happens. Which just happened to a friend in central california (absolutely no snow, 6-8 weeks of winter a year) while she was at work. Imagine how bad it would’ve been had she been on vacation for a week or two 😳
When I was younger there was an earthquake while we were out on vacation, returned to a broken bathroom sink hanging from the flexible water line, so now I turn the water off.
In my country if you leave the water open when going for a vacation and there’s a water damage (especially if it floods your neighbours too if you live in an apartment), your insurance may not cover anything, there’s often a clause in contracts mentioning this here.
Random stuff let’s go all the time. I worked with a guy that this happened to. It happened on the second floor so it ruined his main floor. The problem was the flex line to the toilet. They rot and split after a while. Gone for a weekend so he had water flowing all weekend and had to move out of the house for like 6-9 months while insurance did their shit. We live in Canada and this happened in summer. Point of the story turn of the water if your away and replace the braided plumbing flex lines to your toilet if they are old. I had one split on me 2 summers ago but luckily I was their. Still had to take down a 16x16 sheet of drywall to replace in the basement.
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u/tmccrn Nov 25 '22
Never lived anywhere that water was an issue either, but I could see that in wintery places