It is cold now. I have shut off valves for the outside faucets. Should I shut them off when it is cold?

We always shut off our outside valves during the freezing temps. Its probably just a good rule of thumb. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Hi jpattie...

Not only do you want to shut them off, but you will also want to be sure that the hoses outside are disconnected completely from the outside faucets (heck, bring hoses in for now) AND you will want to open the DRAIN CAP (see pic.#1 and #2) on the sides of the shutoffs to drain these pipes all together.

Here, you open the outside faucets full open (hoses taken off the faucet) and then unscrew the drain caps and the rubber seals. These seals could come off inside the cap or may need to be pried off with a razor blade or similar flat tool. Once the seal is removed the pipe should start to drain from the hole in valve and/or from the outside faucet itself if the pipes were pitched properly. Then simply re-install the cap and shut the oputside faucet until you are ready to use in the future.

If you do not open the drain cap and release the water the pipe will still have water trapped inbetwen the outside faucet and the shutoff and could cause the pipe to freeze and burst!

Finally, if you have an ANTIFREEZE outside faucet (see last 2 pictures) and you have disconnected the hose and the pipe is pitched so it drains without assistance from you then you will not need to drain these at all... they are antifreeze.

Let me know if you need more information...

MARK