The Best Way To Protect Your Outside Faucet From Freezing In Winter
You may believe it is too early to be thinking of winter prevention to protect your home from the icy cold conditions, but it isn't. Actually, you should be using the warm, summer months to your advantage as you can properly do your research while out in the sun, instead of in a panic as the snow quickly comes in. Every homeowner should work to prevent their pipes from freezing this winter, as the U.S. has seen at least 250,000 homes suffer from their pipes freezing over, and even bursting, per The Bosworth Company.
Luckily, there are some steps you can take to prevent this from happening, according to Neighborly. You can start with your outside faucets, and work on preventing those from freezing. It's important to do so because if your faucets freeze over and burst, your homeowner's insurance claim could be in the region of $10,000. So let's take a look at a few preventative options that will protect your home and save you a major headache.
Cover them up
This may be a no-brainer, but in order to protect your exterior faucet from freezing, you'll have to cover it up with an insulated cover, explains Neighborly. This is due to the exposure to freezing conditions, which leads to the water freezing and the pipe bursting. This can even happen to homes in areas of warmer temperatures, as their pipes have most likely not been properly prepped to withstand the cold. However, there are a few steps you can follow to prevent this from happening.
Before you begin covering your outside faucet, you'll need to detach any hoses and drain the water out. For those who live in areas where the temperatures get really low, your home probably has a shutoff valve that allows you to remove any remaining water from the faucet. You'll have to shut off the internal valve, and then remove any water in the drain cap that may be inside or outside the faucet. Once you're done, you can cover your outside faucet and any exposed pipes with regular foam pipe insulation, which you can pick up from any big box store.
DIY faucet cover
Alternatively, there is always the DIY route, suggests The Cover Store. You'll need a few household items, such as plastic bags, t-shirts or rags, and either packing or duct tape. First, start off by removing any hoses, as stated earlier, then use the t-shirts or rags to wrap around the faucet and pipework several times and as tight as possible. Once that is done, use the plastic bags to cover the fabric. Finally, rip off a few pieces of tape to wrap around the bags a few times until they are tightly closed.
As a method of extra precaution, you can drip water from your faucets inside, as running water will not allow the pipes to completely freeze. You can also open your cabinet doors in the kitchen and bathroom as a way to allow warm air to travel to the pipes and keep them at a safe temperature to prevent freezing.