[Number11]

Looking for advice.

We have had below freezing temps for the past week and I just realized I forgot to disconnect my hoses and shut off the inside water supply to each spigot. I have turned both inside supply lines closed and disconnected the hose in the back of the house and actually cut the rubber hose close to the spigot in the front as I could not unscrew the hose. Both outside faucets show ice in the spigot. Should I open each outside spigot all the way so it drains when it warms up? Or would this create more issues? The spigot in the front of the house is not frost proof although I believe the one in the back is.


Thanks in advance-

[joypulv]

I leave my outside spigots open after shutting off the valves that supply them.

[massplumber2008]

Hi 11

Complicated answer here...

The rear antifreeze faucet should be tipped downward a few degrees to facilitate automatic draining of the faucet to the outside. In this way, the faucet drains itself after each use (as long as there is no hose attached) and that is what makes it an antifreeze faucet. The old style faucet, of course, should pitch back in toward the house so it drains toward the shutoff valve (which should have a drain cap). So, opening the faucets would only be beneficial to the rear antifreeze faucet... in the old one the water will just remain in the faucet and keep freezing and thawing as weather dictates, right?

If you wanted, you could purchase a cheap propane torch kit and unfreeze the pipes by gently heating them. Here, you would open the faucets AND turn the water back on to each one so that when the pipes thawed you would know by water rushing out the faucet.

After confirming the pipes are fine (I'm being hopeful here), you could then proceed to drain them properly. If the antifreeze faucet pitches downward properly you should only need to shut that off... it will drain itself automatically and you should be all set there. Older style gets drained back to the shutoff valve.

Good luck!

Mark