With the winter season approaching and a must come frost on the way, it’s time to go back to your garden hoses. It is necessary to shut off your outdoor water supply lines correctly every year, because if not done correctly, any water that is leftover in the supply line will freeze and increase, making the pipes to break.
A burst pipe or broken pipe can ruin your day after a night of freezing temperatures. But if you winterize your outdoor bibs properly, the problem can be prevented.
Temperatures of about 20 degrees are dangerous to your outdoor hose bibs. Outdoor pipes will freeze immediately temperatures fall below 20 degrees. Once a pipe is frozen, it can get burst anytime, and a burst pipe means you have to repair it with money. This will cost you money, and I believe you wouldn’t want to spend money unnecessarily. The best way to avoid this unnecessary spending is to apply preventive measures.
Prevention is the only way to avoid burst pipes during winter. Hose bibs or faucets is the outdoor plumbing fixture mostly found in homes.
You need to winterize your home’s hose bibs every year to prevent freezing which can lead to crack.
Here are the steps to follow to winterize your hose bibs:
- You need to disconnect all hoses from the hose bibs and remove the water from the hoses. And carefully keep the hoses inside during the winter to avoid damage.
- Shut off all valves inside your home. Should you don’t have a devoted valve for the hose bibs, You can proceed to step four immediately.
- Open the hose bibs by turning the handles and all allow the water in the pipes to flow out. Make sure the faucets or hose bibs are opened all through the winter period. This will release the pressure that usually causes the freezing of any leftover water inside the pipes.
- Put insulating covers on all your faucets. You can check your model for guidelines about the method it uses.
Easy step by step tips to ensure your hose bibs are ready for winter:
- Find your faucet’s shutoff valve inside your home. You can find this valve in your basement, utility room or crawl space.
- Turn off the indoor valve and note that there might be more than one hose bib in your home. Ensure you shut off all the pipes.
- Take apart all hoses from outdoor faucets. Remove all the water from the hoses before storing.
- Store the hoses in warm garages or basement to prevent them from damages caused by freezing temperatures. As soon as you remove all the garden faucets, Turn on all the outdoor faucets. You may decide to leave outdoor faucets open for the winter.
Suppose you don’t want to worry yourself about wintering your hose bibs, you still have a choice to install a frost-proof hose bib. This hose bib prevents water from storing in the unheated, unprotected end of the outdoor water supply line.
You can reach out to us by clicking BOOK AN APPPOINTMENT if you need help winterizing your plumbing or installing a frost-proof hose bib. All our plumbers are certified and well experienced.