It doesn’t freeze here too often, but when it’s going to we’ll go outside and set our faucets to drip to prevent freezing. I just have to remember to do this, and I worry that I’ll forget. Do those faucet covers work? Any other options?
It doesn’t freeze here too often, but when it’s going to we’ll go outside and set our faucets to drip to prevent freezing. I just have to remember to do this, and I worry that I’ll forget. Do those faucet covers work? Any other options?
I’m not a plumber. And always take internet advice with some skepticism.
However, I believe in most houses if you turn on a couple of indoor faucets (to a slow drip) you should be OK. This will relieve any pressure in the whole system, which is what you want. This is what I do.
They do make “frost free” outdoor faucets. You may or may not already have them. A plumber can install them for you. I have heard they are better than nothing but are not foolproof.
Also, the type of pipes you have (PEX, PVC, or god help you, PB) is a factor. It’s my understanding (again, I am not a plumber) that PEX usually holds up better than other options.
The last time we had a bitter cold snap, my neighbor’s pipes broke and flooded his house because he didn’t leave any faucets dripping. I’m right next door and ours pipes didn’t burst, because I let a couple of faucets dripping Meanwhile everyone I know tells me I’m being paranoid and don’t need to do this. Go figure. It’s super cheap insurance to let a couple of faucets slow drip overnight.
I’m a plumber and I can’t think of how this would solve the issue. If you leave the outside faucet dripping then yeah but opening a faucet indoors creates no flow on the outside faucet and in no way prevents it from freezing.
If you close the main shutoff and then open taps inside then that would lower the chances of pipes bursting due to excess pressure even if they freeze over. When the main shutoff is open the excess pressure can usually back-flow back to the grid unless you have a one-way valve there which usually is not the case especially where I live.
The most common reason pipes burst in winter is because it freezes over somewhere and traps water between interior taps and the ice plug. Now as the freezing progresses the pressure has nowhere to go so it ruptures the pipe. This is also why they usually start leaking only after it thaws because the ice is preventing water flow to the ruptured pipe.
We had all of our pipes replaced, and I believe in my house there’s two main ‘trunks’ (upstairs and downstairs) and as long as one faucet on each level is open enough to drip, this should (in theory) relieve any freezing pressure from the whole system.
I may have misunderstood, and the outdoor faucets are on a separate ‘trunk’. There’s the main shutoff valve in the yard owned by the county, and another one in the crawlspace owned by me.
I certainly could have this entirely wrong, but, after what happened to my neighbor, I feel better leaving a couple of taps dripping when it gets well below freezing. Which is not very often where I live.