Winterizing in Japan: Saving your water pipes

For those ALTs, CIRs, and expats and other friendly foreigners that come from year-round temperate-to-warm places on the globe, this little blurb is specifically for you because winter is coming or already here depending on when you read this.

Where I grew up in the United States of America, the weather was warm to broiling hot much of the year. While winters were often mild, when they got cold, they got frigging cold!

Cold winter nights always meant one thing; leaving the water faucets on to keep the pipes from freezing and breaking.

A busted water pipe is bad news for many reasons. To be short, as water freezes, it expands. This expansion exerts outward pressure on the inside of the pipe until it gives way and breaks open, resulting in water damage.

The only way to mitigate damage in the case of a broken water pipe is to shut the water off entirely. This means no running water; welcome to your own personal off the grid experience. These pipes can be difficult to get to, which means walls may need to come down to access them. Then, they need to be replaced. This means you will be paying a lot of money for labor costs, including whatever purposeful destruction was created to solve the issue at hand. If you’re incredibly unlucky, parts of the floor will need to be replaced too.

Now imagine dealing with this issue in a foreign country where you may not be fluent enough in the native language to navigate this unfortunate event with a decent level of grace, competence, and comfort. All of this amounts to what I call a “bad day.” However, there are 3 actions you can take to keep your pipes and happiness intact.

NUMBER 1: Leave the bathroom and kitchen sink faucets dripping overnight.

This is the most common thing I did during winter nights back home in Kentucky. It’s an act I brought over to Japan and use to prevent frozen pipes before they happen.

Leaving the faucets on and letting them trickle a little water keeps the water inside the pipes moving, and moving water is less apt to freeze and cause problems. Always do this at the very least. No need to open them up full blast; just a trickle is necessary. I recommend at least doing this in the kitchen overnight each time the temperature is at or below freezing. More often than not, I leave my bathroom sink trickling as well for extra security.

NUMBER 2: Turn on the water heater.

When the temperature reaches freezing (0 Celsius, 32 Fahrenheit), it’s time to turn on the water heater. This will help prevent water from freezing in its tank and breaking it open by warming the water inside up. My supervisor told me this on the first night she dropped me off at my apartment in the mountains back in late November 2021. “Leave the water heater on if it gets too cold.” After checking the weather for temperatures, I switch it on at night before bed and I turn it off during the day while I’m away from home. However, if it’s well below freezing during the day and I’m at home, the heater stays on just in case. If I leave the house for a little bit, turning off the water heater is ok, but I turn it back on as soon as I get back in.

Number 3: Open the cabinets under the sink.

Opening the cabinets under the sink is simple and quite effective because the opened doors let warm air into the cabinet which can help keep the pipes behind the wall just a bit warmer. Every little bit helps, especially on the coldest of nights.

If you happen to have children and/or pets, you should remove any dangerous objects and substances and put them somewhere safe and away from curious hands and noses.

Why do this?

For any readers curious as to why I do this, it’s to keep myself and my home safe. When I was a boy, my father always asked an important question before bed time on a cold winter night; “Did you leave the faucet dripping?” In my 20s during grad school, I’d often ask him the same thing when he went to bed while I was still awake and doing my homework.

According to one of my kyoto-senseis who has lived and worked in my area of Japan for decades, it’s fairly typical to leave the faucets dripping in December through February due to the temperature dips. When in doubt, ask your co-workers about what to do.

This advice may seem odd from a certain perspective, but as someone who grew up leaving the faucet dripping overnight in winter, I have a hard time believing there are people who live in places where this is not an ordinary habit. However, if you are from a place where temperatures are mild all year round and find yourself living in a cold part of Japan, this advice is something that is better acted upon, silly as it may seem. I’ve seen the results of frozen pipes, and it ain’t pretty. Save yourself a headache and just ask if you left the faucet on.