Get Winter-Ready: Essential Cold Weather Preparation Tips for Your Property & Vehicles
When brisk winds and low temperatures sweep across your community, being prepared can make all the difference. Here are essential winter preparation tips—solutions tested by time and trusted by the community—that can save you headaches and costly repairs.
Tip: What makes Esh Hardware’s products special is the careful selection process behind each item. Every product on their shelves represents a balance of quality, fair price and dependable results. The store also stocks many items not widely available elsewhere, chosen by people who understand the real-world challenges of caring for home and property.
Protect Your Outdoor Faucets and Hydrants
Prevention is key when it comes to winter property maintenance. Ray Esh of Esh Hardware emphasizes disconnecting outdoor hoses by early November: “A lot of people tend to forget until it’s too late,” he says. “Then they have faucets and hydrants to replace, when all they would have needed to do is just disconnect their hoses.” Why? While frozen hoses might survive, the real concern is damage to faucets and hydrants. “If their metal components freeze,” he explains: “They crack.” The good news? Once disconnected, exterior faucets are designed to drain automatically, making this essential task surprisingly simple.
To read more about how to defrost a frozen pipes: https://eshhardware.com/first-aid-for-frozen-pipes/
MELT ICE WITH EASE
When it comes to ice-melting products, Esh carries the most popular, from rock salt and calcium chloride to specialty formulations. Ray’s experience points to the superior value of calcium chloride-based products over standard rock salt, however. “It may look cheaper,” he notes about rock salt, “but I usually don’t think it is cheaper.”
The finer calcium chloride mixtures, like their popular Ice Beeter product, go further and work better. “You don’t have to use near as much, plus it melts a lot better in wintertime,” Ray explains. These premium ice melters also protect your property: “Rock salt stains your concrete and kills grass,” while products like Ice Beeter and calcium chloride are safer for both concrete and vegetation. A nice plus with Ice Beeter is that it’s color coated a nice shade of purple, so you can see where it’s been applied.
Preparing Power Equipment
Don’t forget about winter equipment maintenance. Esh Hardware offers comprehensive snow blower tune-ups, including spark plug replacement, air and fuel filter checks, oil changes, and battery testing for electric-start models. “We can service them,” Ray offers, highlighting the store’s commitment to keeping customers’ equipment running reliably through the winter months.
Tip: Located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—or near Esh Hardware in Ronks, Pennsylvania? Consider bringing your snow blower in for a professional tune-up. By car, Esh Hardware is located about 20 minutes east of Downtown Lancaster.
“Don’t feel like driving? Esh Hardware also offers pickup and delivery for addresses within an 8- to 10-mile radius of our store, located at 64 Clearview Rd in Ronks, Pennsylvania. The free snow-blower pickup service is offered during December and January, and includes Lancaster County communities such as New Holland, Leola, Ronks, Intercourse, Bird in Hand, Lampeter and even areas near the shopping outlets along Route 30. Not sure if your address is part of their snow blower pick up and delivery service area? Call Esh Hardware at 1-717-768-8497.”
Never Be Stranded: EZ-Start Your Car Battery Solo
Have you ever had a dead battery and needed to jump-start your car? Rather than wait for the auto club or for a trusted friend to arrive, open your trunk and get your EZ-Start.
The EZ-Start is a compact and simple device that lets you jump-start your car using a cordless power tool battery (like those made by Milwaukee, Makita or DeWalt) instead of needing another vehicle.
It consists of a small unit with heavy-duty cables and clamps that connect to both your car battery and a power tool battery. To use it, you simply attach the clamps to your car battery and connect a tool battery to the unit, wait 15-30 seconds, and then try starting your car. “It’s very simple, and all you need is a tool battery,” says Ray Esh. “Just plug it in and you don’t have to worry about flagging somebody down.”
What makes this solution particularly appealing is its portability and reliability. Unlike traditional portable jump starters or power stations that require maintaining their own charge, this device is much simpler and more compact. It’s particularly popular among contractors, since many contractors already carry power tool batteries in their trucks.
This compact device, manufactured by the trusted KC Innovations company of Indiana—known for its products that serve the Amish and Plain Communities across America—transforms any standard tool battery into a car jump starter.
More Winter-Ready Vehicle Solutions
While it’s a good idea to have all-weather windshield washer fluid in your car’s system, if you are facing an extreme winter, Esh recommends Prestone’s De-Icer. “It’s made for a special extreme winter protection,” he says of the product. Superior to standard washer fluid for tackling frozen windshields, De-Icer is formulated to melt ice and frost quickly, down to -27°F.
Tip: Don’t forget your RV or boat in winter. Protect water from freezing in boat and recreational vehicle plumbing systems during cold weather with Prime Guard RV and Marine Premium Antifreeze.
“It’s convenient to buy with a reasonable price,” Esh says of the popular product, which safeguards water systems when vehicles or boats are not in use during winter months. The product has a distinctive pink color, and protects pipes, tanks, and water lines from cracking or bursting due to ice expansion. It provides protection down to -50°F, and unlike automotive antifreeze, marine and RV antifreeze is designed specifically for water systems and is safe for drinking water lines.
Winter can be tough, but a little preparation goes a long way. Taking simple steps now—like protecting your pipes, stocking up on ice melt, and checking your equipment—can save you hassle and money later. Stay ahead of the cold and keep your home and vehicle winter-ready!
