Maintenance · 5 min read
Winterization Guide: Protecting Your Misting System from Freeze Damage
A step-by-step walkthrough on how to safely shut down your misting system for the off season and prevent expensive freeze damage.
Texas winters are unpredictable. We can have 75°F days right up until a sudden Arctic front drops temperatures into the 20s overnight. For misting systems, those freeze events are the single biggest cause of expensive damage. This guide walks through how to properly winterize your system to prevent it.
Why winterization matters
Water expands when it freezes. Inside a high-pressure misting system, that expansion can crack pump heads, split copper or stainless lines, and rupture fittings. The repair bill from a single hard freeze on an un-winterized system frequently runs into the thousands.
When to winterize
In Central Texas, plan to winterize after your last reliable warm spell — usually mid-November to early December. If a hard freeze is forecast and you haven't winterized yet, do it that day. Don't gamble on an overnight dip.
The four critical steps
- Shut off water supply. Close the dedicated water valve feeding your misting system. This stops any new water from entering the lines.
- Bleed pressure. Run the system briefly with the supply valve closed to discharge any pressure in the lines. Pressurized water is what cracks fittings during a freeze.
- Drain the lines. Open the system's drain valve (or lowest-point fitting) and let gravity empty as much water as possible from the lines.
- Protect the pump. If your pump is outdoors and exposed, either bring it indoors for the season or wrap it with proper freeze protection. The pump head is the most freeze-vulnerable component.
Optional: a full blow-out
For belt-and-suspenders winterization, we recommend a compressed-air blow-out — pushing low-pressure air through the lines to displace any residual water. This is what we do on every service-plan winterization visit, and it eliminates the freeze risk almost entirely.
Spring startup
When you turn the system back on in spring, flush the lines for a few minutes (drain valve open, no nozzles installed) to clear any sediment, check pump oil, inspect every fitting for tight seals, and clear any scaled nozzles. If you'd rather not deal with it, our seasonal startup service handles all of it.
"I forgot." Now what?
If a hard freeze hit and you didn't winterize, don't power up the system until it's been inspected. Run a visual check of fittings, the pump head, and any exposed lines. Hairline cracks may not be obvious until the system is repressurized — and that's when leaks become floods. When in doubt, call us for a quick inspection before the next cooling season.