Sillcock/Hose Bib Cover Question

[dankoos]

I have an older house (actually a 2nd home) that has three outdoor spigots. One appears to be a frost free, the other two definitely are not. In previous years, I believe the former owner just winterized the entire house, drained all the pipes. We installed a furnace and plan on using it occasionally in the winter, so I need to figure out what to do with these. I would really rather not have to replace them, at least not this year, with frost free versions. Does anyone have any experience with the bag or foam covers? Not sure if I can trust them. This is Northern Ohio near Lake Erie. It gets pretty cold, at least for a portion of the winter.

 

[Reach4]

We installed a furnace and plan on using it occasionally in the winter, so I need to figure out what to do with these.

If you don't drain the plumbing, you will need to use the furnace during cold weather whether you are there or not. Set the thermostat to maybe 50 or 55 depending on things.

The old not-frost-free spigots often had a stop valve in the feed. That stop valve often had a drain to help drain the water. In that case, close the stop valve, open the valve drain if present, and leave the faucet open.

The foam covers can be effective if you have heat. Do leave the doors that hide plumbing open to help heat to reach the pipes.

At least turn off your pump or turn off the city water when you leave, in case the heat fails or the weather gets so cold as to freeze the outlying pipes. A broken pipe is a lot less of a problem when found when you come back and turn on the the water, than if you leave the water on and the pipe break happens 3 weeks before you come back

 

[Sponsor]

 

[dankoos]

If you don't drain the plumbing, you will need to use the furnace during cold weather whether you are there or not. Set the thermostat to maybe 50 or 55 depending on things.

The old not-frost-free spigots often had a stop valve in the feed. That stop valve often had a drain to help drain the water. In that case, close the stop valve, open the valve drain if present, and leave the faucet open.

The foam covers can be effective if you have heat. Do leave the doors that hide plumbing open to help heat to reach the pipes.

At least turn off your pump or turn off the city water when you leave, in case the heat fails or the weather gets so cold as to freeze the outlying pipes. A broken pipe is a lot less of a problem when found when you come back and turn on the the water, than if you leave the water on and the pipe break happens 3 weeks before you come back

Thanks...yes, we are leaving furnace on at 50 degrees when not there. In fact, the installer even put a vent in the crawl as well, so it is getting direct heat. Not sure if I am getting to it this season, but plan on installing rigid insulation on the interior walls of the crawl and sealing the (concrete) floor. Currently there is insulation between the joists. I will check for the valves, I did not check that out yet. Would be kind of a pain to turn off water each time...trying to avoid that. The main shutoff (and meter) is located outside in a box (under ground). I have not pulled the cover on that to see what kind of shutoff it is. Inside the crawl, there are two "main" shutoffs, both are just your normal "screw type" valves, which makes me fear turning them off and on a bunch for fear they will start leaking (dumb of me?). My main house has the typical quarter turn shutoff in the basement near the meter...if I had that I probably would just turn off the water each time.

 

[HudsonDIY]

Seems like throwing caution to the wind hoping the furnace doesn't fail as some time during the winter to me. We had a place in NC which was often left empty for extended periods and I always shut off the water and drained when we left with the furnace on. Even then we had a pipe in the basement burst when we came back in spring and turned the water on. Not sure what happened, I'm guessing the furnace failed at some point and the pipe wasn't drained well enough. Utilities are very iffy in the NC mountains when they get a good ice storm. Had I left the water on I would have had a nice indoor pool when we got back.

Doing plumbing when you are expecting a nice relaxing time is undesirable trust me.