The Importance of Winterizing Your Outside Faucet

With the recent stretch of extreme cold weather that has made a home over most of the Area it is extremely important to know how to PROPERLY winterize your outside faucets.

If your faucets are not properly winterized they could freeze and cause pipes inside your home to leak or burst. It seems like a fairly easy thing to do but there are a few tricks that you will need to know to really insure you get it right.

Step 1. Be sure to disconnect all garden hoses from the outside faucets. Leaving your hoses connected is just asking for trouble.

Step 2. Each outdoor faucet should have its own shut off valve located in your homes basement or crawl space. Locate these valves and turn them to the closed position.

Step 3. Open all the outdoor faucets and ensure that all the water between the shut off valve and the faucet is drained.

Step. 4 Be sure to open all bleeder valves if they are present, and make sure all water is drained from the line. Carry a bucket when doing this step as you may get some water flowing out of the bleeder depending on how your water lines are pitched.

There are also faucets that are Frost Free. To determine if your faucet, is frost-free or not, look up inside the spout.  On a frost-free faucet, all you’ll be able to see is a metal stem.  On a faucet that isn’t frost free, you’ll be able to see the valve components open and close when the handle is turned. 

Be sure to winterize your faucet today so you dont have to clean up tomorrow...