![]() After you turn the water off and it looks like everything has drained out, the rubber seal in the vacuum breaker will still trap enough water to destroy it. The problem with external vacuum breakers (aka backflow preventers) is that they don’t allow all of the water to drain out. It’s certainly not a reliable method of preventing freeze damage, but it can work. On older houses with no insulation at the rim space, there can be so much heat loss occurring here that the outside faucets never get cold enough to freeze. Sometimes, two wrongs really do make a right Some older houses in Minneapolis and Saint Paul don’t have a shutoff valve for the outside faucet, and the faucets never get winterized… yet they never have a problem with freezing. I recommend leaving the outside faucet open in the unlikely event that your interior shutoff valve doesn’t shut off the water 100% or someone accidentally opens it, you’ll minimize the potential to accidentally fill your pipe with water again. And consider holding a rag over the opening to help minimize any potential mess.Īfter the water drains out, screw the bleeder cap back on. Keep a small bucket handy when you do this, just in case a lot of water needs to drain out of the bleeder. Depending on how the pipe is pitched, the water may drain through the bleeder cap or through the outside faucet. This will allow water to drain out of the pipes. Next, you’ll need to head back inside and unscrew the bleeder cap on your shutoff valve. If you shut off the water inside, you’ll get a very small amount of water that comes out of your faucet. Once you’ve turned the water off inside the house, go outside and open up the exterior faucet. ![]() In newer homes, the valves are typically located right next to the main water valve, and they’re also usually labeled. In older homes, these valves are typically located at the ceiling somewhere close to the outside faucet. Exterior faucets should have a separate shutoff valve inside the house, but not all of them do. To winterize your faucets, start by turning off the water supply to the faucets from inside the house. You should assume that your faucets are not frost-free, and even if they are, assume they’re improperly installed and winterize them anyway. Having said all that, it’s still a good idea to winterize all of your faucets. The fix for an improperly installed frost-free faucet is to have it re-installed with a slight downward pitch. This happened to Connecticut home inspector James Quarello while he was inspecting a home a couple of years ago. Once they turn their faucet on, water starts shooting out of the burst stem inside the house, making a big mess while nobody is inside the house to see it. Most homeowners don’t know this has happened until the first time they use their faucet in the spring. If this water freezes, it can burst the stem of the sillcock. The pitch is a little dramatic in the photo below, but you get the point. When frost-free sillcocks aren’t installed with this downward pitch, water will sit inside the stem of the sillcock even when it’s turned off. A properly installed frost-free faucet will have a slight downward pitch which allows water to drain out when the faucet is shut off. A frost-free faucet has a long stem and turns off the water well inside the wall, keeping the faucet from freezing. If you have a properly installed frost-free faucet, you shouldn’t need to winterize it. If you leave your garden hose attached to the faucet, you’re asking for trouble.Īnd while you’re at it, either bring your garden hoses inside or drain the water out of them. The problem is that many people don’t quite get it right winterizing the outside faucets in the fall seems like a simple thing to do, and it seems like it should be straightforward and easy, but there are a few tricks you need to know to really get it right.įirst and foremost, disconnect any garden hoses from the outside faucets. Freeze damage can destroy the faucet or lead to a burst pipe, or both. Most Minnesota homeowners know it’s important to winterize the outside faucets to prevent them from freezing.
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