Raise your hand – really, it’s not necessary – if this has ever happened to you. Spring has sprung and it’s time to attach your garden hoses to your outdoor faucets. No big deal, you do it every year. Except for one thing – the previous winter you left the hose attached outside. Oops.
Why oops? Because the water stays in the hose all winter long, enabling it to freeze the spigot and connecting pipe. You probably won’t notice any indoor flooding during the winter but, come spring, a leak will manifest itself in your basement once you turn on the spigot for the first time. And then you have a real mess and a plumbing repair to take care of simultaneously.
Okay, so let’s say you DID detach the hose and store it for the winter. Are the spigot and attached pipe spared from freezing? Afraid not.
So, here’s what to do to better protect your home and avoid outdoor faucets from freezing. Replace each one with a frost-free (also known as freeze-proof) model. They’re designed so the pipe extends through the sidewall of the house and, combined with the flow valve, remains in the heated interior to prevent freezing.
But a note of caution – you still need to detach the hose. Otherwise, the faucet can still freeze from the pressure of frozen water inside the hose.
And then there’s the matter of routine maintenance. All that’s required to winterize a freeze-proof faucet is disconnect the hose! When you leave the hose connected, the 4 ½” chamber is unable to empty, thus negating the benefit of frost-free.
Contact Norhio Plumbing to schedule installation of a freeze-proof faucet. At the same time, we’re also the only plumber you need to call for any other plumbing need, including burst spigots and pipes.
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