AUSTIN, Texas — An Arctic cold front has passed, leaving Texans dealing with freezing temperatures and the possibility of wintry precipitation for Central Texas this week.
When temperatures get near – or below – freezing, your plan should always be to protect people, pets, plants and pipes.
Some of those can be easy, but if you’re in a pinch, protecting pipes could be the most difficult and most costly of the four. However, one viral hack claims you can protect your pipes by using a Styrofoam cup, which has Texans turning to trusty Whataburger cups.
But does using a Whataburger cup to protect exposed pipes actually work? The answer is yes. Any styrofoam cup can protect your pipes during a freeze.
Experts at Texas A&M University-Central Texas say Styrofoam is a great insulator.
“All of us probably have a Whataburger cup or any kind of Styrofoam cup from a fast food place that we’ve tossed behind the seat,” Shawn Kelley, a facilities manager at A&M-Central Texas said. “Thousands of air bubbles inside this cup are what gives it that insulating property.”
According to Kelley, when you first pour a hot cup of coffee, the insulation keeps it from burning your hands. Those properties also work in reverse.
“You’re putting that faucet inside that cup to keep that cold weather from getting inside the cup,” Kelley said. “It’s not going to be as good as some of the actual products designed for use over your spigots … A Styrofoam cup of any sort … I would use that over nothing.”
How to use a Styrofoam cup to protect your pipes
First, be sure to poke a hole in the bottom of the cup.
Use some kind of cord, like a rubberband, through that hole. Then grab a pen, pencil or stick of some kind to keep it from going in the cup. Stretch the other end of the rubber band over the faucet and let it go.
You can also stack some cups together and then poke the hole since they’re not very thick.
And don’t forget, if the power goes out, Texans have also used the Whataburger app as a way to track power outages.