There's a hose bib before the RPZ and PRV with no backflow prevention...

[Flapper]

I realized that if I use a garden hose on this bib, I am connecting the hose to the city water supply with no backflow protection because this bib is before the PRV and RPZ. Shouldn't there have been a backflow preventer on that hose bib? Or no hose bib at all? I would think this would have been inspected. They require us to have a licensed professional check the RPZ, why don't they inspect other stuff like this?

 

[Reach4]

They are easy and cheap to add.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Flapper]

I know but how could this have happened; shouldn't they be inspecting it and stuff? It's the municipal water supply! I assume it is required, right? Or better yet there should probably not be a hose bib there. Why is there a hose bib there? It's so close to the ground, making it hard to use! I can't fit a gauge on it without using a flexible hose thing.

 

[Flapper]

BTW, is it a requirement to have backflow preventers on all hose bibs? None of our hose bibs have these.

 

[Terry]

I'm thinking it's been there a long, long time. Backflow and antisyphon is somewhat recent. When I started plumbing, no hosebibs had antisyphon.

 

[Flapper]

But that assembly has an RPZ on it which the district requires to be inspected annually. Shouldn't the other parts be inspected too? Seems like a goof on their part...

 

[Flapper]

Why isn't a check valve allowed for backflow prevention? I would rather have a check valve than a vacuum breaker for a hose bib because those cheap vacuum breakers always spew water out repeatedly!

 

[hj]

Check valves are UNRELIABLE, and when they go bad, there is NO INDICATION that it has happened. That is why. When a backflow preventer "spews water out" it is because it is doing EXACTLY what is is supposed to, namely, preventing the water from entering the house system.