Frost Free Hose Bibs

The frost free hose bib recently burst from freezing, allowing water to flow into the wall, downstairs bedroom and bath room. There was no stop cock inside the house. The house is two levels, built on a quite steep incline running down from the front of the house to the back; both levels being on ground level. The hose bib is on a side wall toward the back of the house and is extremely inconvenient as there are only loose stones on the slope at the side of the house.

To overcome the difficulty in accessing the hose bib I ran a PVC pipe from the bib up the hill to the front of the house and installed a faucet and hose connection at the top of the incline. The PVC pipe ran down to a tee at ground level directly below the bib. From one side of the tee I ran the PVC up the hill, in the other side of the tee I installed a faucet for the purpose of draining the system. These changes were made about eight years ago and have worked, until this winter, without problem.

My normal practice for winter is to turn off the hose bib, open the hose outlet, open the upper hose faucet, open the faucet at the tee and drain the system. This year our winter temperature hit lower than in previous years and the frost free hose bib froze and burst. It is my belief that the angle at which the hose bib pipe was originally installed sloped up from inside the wall to outside and that some water did not drain from the bib. The bib was equipped with an pressure equalizer. A stop cock has now been installed, along with a new bib, and I will now be able to open the hose bib, along with the aforementioned faucets, when winterizing.

My question is; does the system I have described sound as though it will be safe from bursting in the future? Does the fact that I have a PVC pipe connected to the hose bib increase the chances of the bib freezing and bursting?

Toredo

Frosty free

PVC being a contributor to the problem? I would think not esp given that you are opening the points to permit water to move out.

When we winterize homes we make sure that a hose is not connected to the hose bib. This would be a place for water to sit and also a potential cross connection for backflow.

A frost free installed at wrong angle could allow an amount of water to sit in the pipe.

Have you considered the installation of a hose bib at an easier location? You could put a Y type valve on it allowing you to have one hose running down to the back and one in the front at all times during the warm seasons.

This stop cock (valve) is a good idea. Does it have a bleeder?

Where did the break occur? It could be that the installer put the supply line to close to the exterior wall...if that's the case then you will need to have the line moved further away from the wall. Draining the line only works up to the point from where it can still be drained.

How it's supposed to work:

You turn the valve to the hose bib off. Open the hose bib outside and then open the bleeder. Take a wet vac to those points to remove remaining water. When the bleeder and hose bib no longer pass water or drip you have drained the lines. Close the bleeder.

Note: we went out to a frozen line call to find that they did drain the lines. The problem was that the pipes had been run like this --__-- so there was no way for the water to drain out.

If that were my PVC jig I would:
1) Go with a hose bib at more convenient location.
2) Make my PVC jig detactable.

Good luck 2ya.

There are two reasons a frost free hose bib will freeze. First is leaving the hose attached which will prevent the bib from draining and the second is the hose bib being sloped inward toward the supply line.