With winter approaching, this new homeowner has some questions about my outdoor hose bibs. What do I need to do to avoid having them freeze during the winter.

I know they make no-frost hose bibs, but how can I tell if that is what I have?

I have shut off valves inside the house for both, do I need to shut off the water?

Thanks!

If you have inside shut off valves, the simply turn them off inside the house, and open up the outside values to drain the small amount of water in the pipes and valve bodies.

Water is one of the few liquids that expands when it freezes. This expansion can cause burst pipes.

Remove water from anything subject to freezing - not just your exterior valves and pipes, but garden hoses, garden sprinklers, watering systems, boat motors, those high pressure water sprayers you might have in your garage etc. Have a look around before winter comes.

Hi all... :)

Hey, an antifreeze outside faucet looks pretty big compared to regular outside faucet... see picture below. They usually have a vacuum breaker on top of unit. The big trick with these units is that they must not have a hose attached during winter... otherwise as long as pitched so faucet drains properly can leave them on all winter.

Otherwise, if older style outside faucet then you will want to shut the shutoffs, BUT you will also want to open the petcock on the side of the shutoff as well as opening the outside faucet so that the faucet will drain properly. If you don't remove the petcock and drain the pipe back to the shutoff then the pipe may not drain properly and freezing could occur.

I'll see if I can find a picture of the petcock I'm talking about and post it in the nest post!

Good luck...

MARK

Here is an older version of an antifreeze faucet... Stop and waste with petcock to follow.

Here is a typical stop and waste shutoff... the petcock or cap is on the side... remove this to drain pipe correctly, open faucet (water will drain now) and then replace cap for next year.

MARK

Mark-

Not sure what I'd do without you! Thanks!

Quick follow-up. Both my hosebibs have that vacum breaker on top, does that pretty much guarantee they're antifreeze? If so, do I need to do anything beyond detaching the hoses?

Hey Stubits! Glad to help!

Yes... sounds like it is antifreeze for sure!

Just need to remove hose as you said. Then test all works right by opening the faucet and shutting it off. There should be a few seconds of water that drains off following shut off. This water is the water inside the extra length of pipe on antifreeze shutoff... vacuum breaker allows water to drain automatically as long as the faucet is pitched properly.

If no auto. Drain off water after you shutoff the faucet... then check the pitch of pipe inside building... if not pitched correctly then you need to shut the shutoff and drain as presented earlier.

Good questions here Stubits... :)

Mark