Day 12 – Protecting Spigots from Frozen Burst Pipes
Winter is coming and this year I want to help you protect your home from a burst pipe because it froze. Much like your water pipes (which should have foam insulation sleeves on them,) it’s important to protect your spigot on the outside of your house from freezing.
Luckily, Frost King makes this handy dandy Insulated Outdoor Faucet Cover
Day 12: Protecting Spigots from Frozen Burst Pipes
To install the insulated cover, you simply slip the interior cord loop over the spigot handle.
Cinch the cord lock tight onto the styrofoam cover.
And your spigot is protected from freezing leading to a costly burst pipe.
The nice thing about these covers is they can be installed and removed in seconds. If you need to use your spigot, it’s simple to remove and then replace the cover.
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I agree with David’s comment. There is simply too much air space inside these “insulators” too really do any good. Most of us should have a water shut off for the out door spigot that is somewhere inside the house. The best thing to do is to find out where it is–usually in the basement–and close it off (put a bucket underneath to catch the out flow). Then go out side and disconnect the hose, drain out all the water from the spigot, and shut it off out side. With no water in the pipe, there is no reason to fear bursting.
If you REALLY want to insulate your spigot, then you need to wrap something close around your spigot, like that pipe insulation stuff, to fill up all that empty air inside the “insulator” before you pop it over your entire outlet.
These will not keep a faucet warm. Since there is no heat inside, the temperature will soon reach the ambient temperature. Faucets made within the last several decades are frost proof. That means the shut is far inside the house. All you need to do is disconnect the hose.
Thanks Brittany! I didn’t know there even WAS such a thing as outdoor faucet insulators and would have walked right by them in ignorance as I traipsed through Home Depot today. But no, five insulators came home with me and are already set in place on their spigots. Thank you for your informative tips and tutorials — you’re “must read” material for me!
Do we still need to turn the water off for the winter?
MaryBeth, it’s a good idea to disconnect hoses and turn off the spigots. We don’t have a separate shut off for our spigots so the water stays on. But, we also live in North Carolina and winters aren’t usually harsh. I still drain our sprinkler system and shut off the spigot that feeds the sprinklers.
This is definitely a good product to consider for your home before the cold weather hits – thank you for sharing! We saw some snow here in Colorado this weekend (yep, in October!) so we are getting ready to winterize our homes already.