Cold weather prevention

[Terry]

It's very cold in Seattle right now, not even raining.

It's a good time, to remove all hoses from outside faucets.

Locate outside faucet shutoffs in garages, some are located near the
water heater and marked for the outside faucet.

It would have been an even better time, before this cold snap.
Next Spring, you may have water leaking in walls when you try to use your hoses.

The repair, is to cut the wall and replace the entire frostfree faucet.
They do make really nice ones now, that shut off much nicer.
I replaced mine with ones made by Legend.

[Randyj]

A good idea is to use a vaccum breaker so the ff faucet can drain. Also, when installing FF faucets be sure to tilt them a bit so the water drains out when the faucet is turned off.

[ToolsRMe]

Terry, bless you.

I replaced one hose bib the north side of my house this summer and installed a new one on the south.

Grr! It got down to 0 last night and I had forgotten to disconnect the garden hoses and drain the lines to the hose bibs. It was the first night below freezing.

I'm kicking myself!

Maybe, with luck, I didn't screw things up. With my luck ... sigh.

Again, thanks for reminding me/us.

[Gary Swart]

Be very aware when you turn the faucet on. If it is broken, it will be inside and the leak may not be immediately apparent.

[Dunbar Plumbing]

I vote this thread to be a sticky so anyone who visits can be aware of what can happen.

[SteveW]

Does a vacuum breaker actually eliminate the need to remove the hose to prevent a burst pipe? My freeze-proof faucet with a vacuum breaker always drains water when I remove the hose, and even says "REMOVE HOSE TO PREVENT FREEZING" on it.

[Dunbar Plumbing]

Does a vacuum breaker actually eliminate the need to remove the hose to prevent a burst pipe? My freeze-proof faucet with a vacuum breaker always drains water when I remove the hose, and even says "REMOVE HOSE TO PREVENT FREEZING" on it.

Nope, all that vaccum breaker does is prevent the reversal of flow to protect the potable water source from contaminates or other foreign substance.

Now I've seen VB's break during freezing and not affect the line going through the wall but by all means, the hose whether it be on a regular faucet or frostproof must be disconnected.

Otherwise that water can hold or expand back into the faucet when it does freeze and with no place to go, it expands and ruptures the copper pipe.

If they made them in schedule 80 brass piping, they probably could withstand the accidental freezing caused by the hose. That wouldn't make sense though since job security is guaranteed with most products these days. :disgustedlook:

[Randyj]

Definitely a good idea to remove hose pipe ... if for no other reason than to protect the hose pipe... they should be drained too just to extend the life of the hose pipe if for no other reason.