Outside Faucets
 

With a cold week coming up, does anyone cover their outside faucets to prevent freezing?

Yes if there is a hard freeze warning forecast. You can buy insulated covers at Home Depot or Lowes for a low price.

I would think that since we do not get a hard freeze not necessary.

A hard freeze warning is issued when temperatures drop below 28° for 2 hours or longer. Forecast low temp. Sat. night is for 28*..... don't know for how long. In 18 years we have covered ours several times and even let them trickle a few times. Consider doing what makes YOU comfortable ..... ;)

It's highly unlikely that they will freeze. But, if you are concerned, wrap a rag around them and tie it with string. The biggest risk is if they are subjected to a strong wind.

To be safe I would put a cover on each. I keep the covers on year round for the ones I do not use.
Another question is are all the pipes in the walls insulated enough to go through a hard freeze or do you need to let a little water drip out of the facet? For hot water when I want it I use a circulation pump on a timer. I have it run about 4am and 6am for 15 minutes in the winter so I do not have to worry about the pipes.

What about irrigation?


I guess it wont be below freezing for long enough to freeze, since they are below ground.

Great idea, save a trip to Lowe's and Home Depot

Yes I cover mine. I wrap a towel around them, just in case!

Last year when we had sustained temps below freezing for some 8 hours we did not cover our faucets and we had no problems.

this is not like up North. A frost/ freeze for 2 days is not a problem here, the day time temps will rise once the sun comes out. Maybe frost on the plants will kill them, but just move them into your garage if possible or if not, cover the ones in the ground with sheets all the way to the ground.

The first time it got that cold after we moved here I wanted a refund. We thought it was warm year round. I drip the water in the house and cover the two outdoor faucets. All good so far.

An additional step that I take is to set my dishwasher to run starting about 2:00 am. That moves water through the pipes and fires up the tankless water heater on the outside of the house. I figure that and towel wrapping the outside spigots is adequate.

Also read that you should shut off your lawn sprinklers so as to not ice them and your plants up.

Irrigation
 

[QUOTE=Papa_lecki;2167934]What about irrigation?


I guess it wont be below freezing for long enough to freeze, since they are below ground.

I turned my irrigation off yesterday and won't turn it back on for a week after freeze. Old wives tail to water grass during a freeze.

How about tankless water heaters outside? Should they be covered against cold nights? Signed, Newbie….

Not an expert by any stretch, but if it does fire up and it's still covered, wouldn't that potentially interfere with the exhaust? Not sure you would want to do that.

I would think the tankless would be fine and I'd be concerned about covering a gas appliance with anything.... Assuming yours is gas....

I lived in The Villages for 18 years. I never covered the outside faucets and did not have a problem. Had several winters with a hard freeze daily forecast.

Will the strong wind blow the spigot off? 🌪️

No, but every time I have experienced a pipe freezing, which has been a few, there was a cold wind blowing against the pipe or the building wall where the pipe penetration was not properly sealed to prevent air from seeping into the wall.

Also, convective heat transfer works faster than inductive heat transfer. It is the concept behind convection ovens.

Outside house faucets, no. Cover pool piping, yes.

Faucets, no. I cover my plants and run my pool solar.

I always cover my spigots with the styrofoam covers. The more important thing to do is to remove a hose from the spigot, this is the 1st part that will freeze. In the north, they put in freeze proof spigots that stops the water well within the wall so they won’t freeze, they don’t do that here.

Foucet
 

Another reason we moved from New England, worrying about frozen pipes. Not concerned in the least, Santa!!

We do, can get covers that hook on to the facet, you might want to make sure that you have the sprinkler pipe and valve on the top covered, the valve is about $90 if it freezes aqnd breaks.

we didn't cover them either, but am now considering doing so after seeing how low the temps will get. better safe than sorry, i suppose

Yes. I use the styrofoam covers available at Lowes and Home Depot.

Rags are cheaper

Nucky....totally unnecessary. This is not like up North. I remember dripping the faucet also and leaving the cabinets open so warm air can circulate in them. NO MORE!

[QUOTE=eeroger;2168076]Orange grove growers will water their trees trying to protect their fruit on the trees during some freezes (the icicles are spectacular). I don’t believe this tactic is helpful for lawn grass.

The MOST important thing is to disconnect your hose. I never used them in New York as we have frost free hose bibs. I doubt if these are frost free but the hose disconnect is most important!

It is not going to be cold enough long enough to be a problem. As long as it is above freezing during the day it will be fine. If it ever gets to the point the during the day it remains below freezing, then there could be an issue.

Finally someone with some common sense.

As someone that grew up living somewhere with 5 months of solid winter, some of the comments in this thread make me almost laugh about the overkill and worry over a few chilly nights. It seems like basic physics or common sense gets thrown out the window when people start to overworry about things.

No their pipes aren't going to freeze and burst from a few or even several hours of -3 weather. It's physically impossible considering most of your pipes are inside your home and the warm parts of the pipe will always distribute heat towards the cold parts of the pipe including your outdoor tap. Unless your home is freezing cold inside like close to freezing inside, there will be plenty of heat for the warm side of your pipe to heat the cold side.

Up north I never bothered to shut off the feed to my outdoor taps for the winter until several days or even a few weeks of below freezing overnight temps. Never had an issue.

Cold Weather and Your Tankless Water Heater: How to Prevent Freezing

During cold weather tankless water heaters need extra care. Even water heaters installed indoors could be prone to cold weather complications. Most manufacturer warranty's do not cover damage caused by freezing.

However, many manufacturers, such as Rinnai and Rheem have built-in some type of freeze protection which allows the unit to protect itself when temperatures fall below freezing.

Rinnai tankless water heaters have two lines of defense to protect them from cold weather and prevent freezing. The primary protection for a Rinnai heater, is the addition of ceramic heaters which are placed on the heat exchanger and other internal parts, as well as water lines. These ceramic heaters fire-up when the temperature drops into the low 30's and prevent the internal parts from freezing.

If the ceramic heaters fail for any reason, or the temperature drops too fast, a secondary freeze protection method is also built-in. This system utilizes a sensor inside the unit which determines if the tankless is below freezing. If the sensor is triggered it'll automatically turn the unit on for a few seconds and continue to cycle the heater on-and-off until the threat of freezing has past.

Both of these methods provide freeze protection to the Rinnai unit as long as both electrical power and gas is available to the unit. Be sure to check your owners manual for details on your specific tankless.

Yes! We do disconnect the hoses. Thanks

A hairdryer worked, if we did get a frozen spigot, back in the day

A hair dryer can unstick a hose bibb handle, but, if the pipe freezes, the water will expand and cause the pipe to break and leak.

I covered mine with an oven mitt last year. It worked perfectly

BTW....For those looking at Lowe's for faucet covers their inventor online shows 15 left.
Drove to Lowe's just now and their all sold out. WTF

Guy in the store said don't believe Lowe's inventor online
That store sucks.

freezing
 

wrap with a small towel tied or taped, then tape a plastic bag over it to keep out the wind and rain

Probably had inventory on Labor Day.:shrug: