Arrowhead BK1390, Non Standard Vacuum Breaker

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georgegraz

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I just went through this a couple of weeks back. With the help of this forum, I found the manufacturer's name. I called them and within a few days replacement part - NO CHARGE -. I just unscrewd the old one and screwed in the new one. Much easier then trying to reach around the cold air return and fight with the piping to replace whole bib.
George
 

violet2christi

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I know it's been awhile since you've had this problem with a replacement for a leaking vacuum breaker, but what did you end up doing? I have exactly the same faucet (as the one shown in the pic you posted) and the vacuum breaker shown above. Thanks.
 

mdietz39

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Replace freezeless adapter on outdoor faucet

We have outdoor faucets which do not have a garden hose thread. They require an adapter to attach a hose. The only adapter we have locally are a freezeless type which starts to leak after a year or two. Is there an adapter which is just solid, without all the stuff to drain the line etc., to adapt the faucet to take a garden hose?

Thank you for your time and attention to this.
Mike
 

Jadnashua

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Buy better quality hose bibs! Those are frost-free hose bibs, and they require the vacuum breaker to work, unless I'm all wet. Maybe a picture of what you have would help clarify the situation, but no, don't think there's another way. A frost-free hose bib does three things: has a built-in vacuum breaker to prevent accidentially sucking in contaminated water and polluting your water supply, automatically drains to prevent the pipe from bursting (only works on most if you remember to remove the hose when it freezes - this may be why it fails so often), and last, turns the water on and off. Some are built better than others, but if over the winter, you leave the hose on, unless you buy a whole new faucet that won't be damaged, you HAVE to remove the hose when it freezes, or things will break.
 

JohnjH2o1

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Buy better quality hose bibs! Those are frost-free hose bibs, and they require the vacuum breaker to work, unless I'm all wet. Maybe a picture of what you have would help clarify the situation, but no, don't think there's another way. A frost-free hose bib does three things: has a built-in vacuum breaker to prevent accidentially sucking in contaminated water and polluting your water supply, automatically drains to prevent the pipe from bursting (only works on most if you remember to remove the hose when it freezes - this may be why it fails so often), and last, turns the water on and off. Some are built better than others, but if over the winter, you leave the hose on, unless you buy a whole new faucet that won't be damaged, you HAVE to remove the hose when it freezes, or things will break.

I think what you are referring to is you have standard hose bibs with a vacuum breaker attached. The vacuum breaker is there for all the reasons jadnashua gave.

John

arrowhead_breaker2.jpg


arrowhead_breaker.jpg
 
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Jadnashua

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ABQ does freeze on occasion...the vacuum breaker is the weak point, and is the first thing to go if there's a hose on the bib and it does freeze.
 

mdietz39

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ABQ does freeze on occasion...the vacuum breaker is the weak point, and is the first thing to go if there's a hose on the bib and it does freeze.

Yes it does freeze here, we actually live in the mountains outside of Albuquerque. -28 degrees this winter but that set all kinds of records. Normally it will get down to about 10 degrees above zero, maybe. However another of these pieces of junk just started leaking today. It has been above 65 degrees every day for months, hitting up to 101 during the day. So it did not freeze. They just fail. I turn the water on and there is a leak above the hose in the recess of the adapter. I think the internal working eventually fails.

As far as replacing the bib, that will cost around $250 each and we have five of them. Plus it means cutting into the interior wall with all the patching needed for four of them, one of which requires removing the kitchen sink and cabinet to get to the pipe. BUMMER.
 

hj

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WE would need a picture of your faucets. ALL outdoor faucets should have hose threads on them. There is no such thing as a "freezeless adapter". There are vacuum breaker attachments, and sometimes a faucet needs a "special" one from the manufacturer for that specific faucet, in which case the faucet itself would not have the hose threads on it, but that would be by the intent of the manufacturer.
 

hj

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quote; The kind your talking about should be available at hardware stores and any good plumber should have one or two on hand.

I am a good plumber and I have ZERO proprietary vacuum breakers on the truck. The only plumbers who would have them are those who are in area with a multitude of that particular brand, so that they encounter the situation frequently. That is NOT the case in this area.
 

Terry

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Arrowhead has new outdoor faucets with built-in vacuum breakers.

[video=youtube_share;g7Z2cd4AbKw]http://youtu.be/g7Z2cd4AbKw[/video]
 
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