Exterior Faucets- Did you wrap or drip? Damage or no damage?

[gsoda3 3262]

Interested to see the results.  For our north and western facing faucets we wrapped a string of christmas lights around the hose bib, then wrapped it with hand towels, then covered with an insulated waterproof cover.  For our south faucet we just wrapped with towels and then covered it with the insulated cover.  The south cover froze when we had freezing rain on Thursday but the faucet itself never froze.  The christmas lights actually melted the freezing rain off the cover and those were dry and toasty friday morning when i checked.  We were fortunate, never lost power.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[XYZ 2154]

I shall hopefully answer that question tomorrow if water pressure returns.

[Austinvines 318]

Team Drip moved to Team Stream during the 5 degree nights. Moved a space heater between the garage firing at one bib and then to the breakfast room hit the other. Lost water Wednesday, used our property owner cutoff and open my faucets to let the water drain back down to below the ground level. Left my water heaters on and full that are in the attic. Temp gun said it was in the high 40’s in the attic, but I have the roof foiled and a ton of blown insulation.

Pool equipment ran for 8 days straight which could be a hit on the electric bill, but pools are definitely worth it since I have plenty of flushes to ride out the next several days before water gets restored.

[Damor 1236]

I switched teams midstream (no pun intended).

Started as #teamnodrip with a mix of foam insulated covers and thinsulate pouches.  I checked them after the first night in single digits and all had frozen.   After eventually thawing them all (see longcat saga here), I switched to #teamstream.  Didn't have any further freezing despite even colder temperatures afterward.

I'm hesitant to say no damage at this early point, but so far so good.

I think that unless I can find something more substantial than what I used for covers, I'll stream my hose bibs any time it's going to drop below the mid-teens.

Anyone have the frost-free bibs and want to report their experience?  I'm also going to look into having these installed if possible (I wish my builder had let me know about these).

Edited February 21, 2021 by Damor
big fat fingers

[Jerry Callo 8704]

Wrapped mine with old t-shirts and the foam covers.  No issues.

[atomheartbevo 89675]

#TeamNoDrip, wrapping the hell out of the outside faucets - foam covers, thick towels wrapped around the cover, then thick cardboard boxes shoved firmly up against the wall around all of that.  No pipes running along the exterior though - faucet coming an interior wall straight out the side.  If I had pipes running along the exterior, I would have been #TeamFlow.

Was sweating some major fucking bullets when Nextdoor and Facebook blew up this afternoon with word that our water being turned back on, and I was away getting the kids out of the house and doing stuff.

Edit: Dripping faucets inside the place at a regular pace, and had the cabinets open that helped get warm air to the outside faucet I was most concerned about.

Edited February 21, 2021 by atomheartbevo

[gsoda3 3262]

7 minutes ago, Damor said:

 

Anyone have the frost-free bibs and want to report their experience?  I'm also going to look into having these installed if possible (I wish my builder had let me know about these).

my neighbor used the water miser things on all of his hose bibs (north, west, south facing walls) and didn't have any damage.  they didn't lose electricity either though.

[gsoda3 3262]

Just now, atomheartbevo said:

#TeamNoDrip, wrapping the hell out of the outside faucets - foam covers, thick towels wrapped around the cover, then thick cardboard boxes shoved firmly up against the wall around all of that.  No pipes running along the exterior though - faucet coming an interior wall straight out the side.  If I had pipes running along the exterior, I would have been #TeamFlow.

Was sweating some major fucking bullets when Nextdoor and Facebook blew up this afternoon with word that our water being turned back on, and I was away getting the kids out of the house and doing stuff.

did you turn off the water to your house?

[atomheartbevo 89675]

1 minute ago, gsoda3 said:

did you turn off the water to your house?

Nope, but am considering it should we get below 20 in the future.

In hindsight, I wish I had turned off the water to the house.

As I said in another thread, this freakish winter storm has helped me recalibrate just what is needed for winterizing things.

[bigcigar 1164]

No drip, no cover, ~ 3 ft of above ground exposed pipe = shark bite and 6 inches left.

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

Damage unknown at this point as water is still off since Wednesday.

We did the foam cover/towel/bag wrap and dripped inside.

Our bibs are close enough to the ground that we were able to surround them with 5 gal buckets of mulch and top off with about 6" of mulch cover that goes all the way to the ground.

Wall pipe gets protected this way as well.

However, completely forgot about protecting the hose bib on the roof garden.  It was flowing right before the water went off with no signs of leaks, so fingers crossed.

[immamac 42856]

What kind of monsters live in Texas and don't have outdoor bibs in a different supply line. Just turn that off when not in use. You aren't going to water the fucking plants in an ice storm. 

There is no water in texas good enough to drink and almost all of it needs to be further filtered treated - you treat the water you use for your yards? 

[TwiceHorn 31487]

This is exemplary of my three outdoor spigots.

It is frost free, I'm not sure how deep.  That stone veneer is about 3", then an insulation sheet, then framing with foamed insulation. I'd guess 4" or 8".

There's not a lot of protrusion, which is nice, and the hole around it is well-filled.  But there's not a lot of room to wrap stuff around it.

I have always been a little skeptical of the styrofoam things for reasons I can't quite articulate.  It seems like they wouldn't/can't seal very well against the rough stone exterior.  I had never seen those pouch things before, probably worth a try.

I went from various wrappings that you would think would insulate about as well as the pouches, with both "tight" cloth (t-shirt, towel) wrapping and loose baffling with a wind-resistant (plastic bag then cardboard box) cover.  Two of the three, with wind exposure, froze when wrapped.  The one with the most wind exposure froze twice, once pretty hard.  The one that is mostly sheltered was just wrapped and bagged and always flowed.

Anyway, after unwrapping and testing the two that froze, I gave up with re-wrapping and went #teamstream.  They didn't freeze thereafter, but I'm not sure it was necessary.  I guess since I know drip/stream works, I shouldn't screw with anything else in the future.

In perhaps a blinding glimpse of the obvious, the empirical data indicates that convection by wind is the spigot-freezer.  On the one hand, you wouldn't think it that hard to "knock down" the wind via wrapping and covers of any type that isn't just porous as hell.  But the empirical data seems to show otherwise.

Edited February 21, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[Guest]

Didn't drip.  Did wrap with hand towels to capture some air.  Then I wrapped the the whole deal with plastic grocery bag relatively tightly- at that point we didn't know how/ what the precip would be.  Yesterday, I took off their  'sleeping bags ' and ran them for about 30 seconds.  The interesting thing for me is that one of them was not flowing when I put the improvised covers on.

We had multiple days of subzero temps, however, we never lost power or water pressure. My house is only 4 years old. Those have to be factors too, right?

Going down south to LBK and check my mom's. Did the same process on hers, one of which I was able to get flowing pre-storm.  2 were not. Her house is about 20yr old.

[StruggleBus 3922]

I wrapped mine in hand towels and the covered the towels with painters tape. No issues. 

[BradInATX 9208]

Wrapped with bibs. One busted on an exterior wall. Three others ok, two were in the garage which I was keeping warm with a heater, and one on master bedroom wall which we kept warm because the baby sleeps in there.

[HenryJames 66077]

Wrapped. No damage.

[phdhorn 6224]

I'm always going to be #teamwrap.  But I'm not on a water system so I'm not draining the community supply.

I think with temps that low, though, it all comes down to how your piping extends through the house.  The water froze on all 4 right at the spigot but not much farther in, and I think the pipes could handle that little expansion.  When it comes down to it, I don't think it matters a whole lot what you do with your outside spigots.  And again, what we experienced is so far off of the conventional wisdom radar that it probably doesn't matter much anyway.

That said, if we ever get cold like that again, I'll do what I did this time - go out every day and unfreeze (blow dry) whatever spigots I can.  I don't want the freeze to build/extend.  Even getting one and letting the water out if there's an ice blockage elsewhere on the line relieves the pressure, and I honestly think that's a big reason why my pipes didn't blow.

[burntorangebongos 10714]

I had one leaky faucet before this ordeal so now that I know where my main line turn off is for sure, I am going to fix it.

 

[utee94 15824]

I wrapped all of mine, no issues.

However I did have power and therefore heat, the entire time.

If I'd lost power I would have cut water at the main, opened faucets for the potential to relieve pressure, and left it that way until well after thaw/water return.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

I did the Christmas light and insulated pouch.  The bib in the back that is on siding and gets sunshine never froze.  The one in the front hidden by bushes and shaded and on rock froze but didn't burst.  

Lost power, then lost water, so I just closed the valve at the meter.  In the future I think I'll just close it at the meter I'd I know we'll be freezing for more than a day.  I'm going to pick up a couple short strands of lights next Christmas season.  I was using only 3 ft out of a 25 ft strand.  

[Hpara759 1778]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

 

There is no water in texas good enough to drink 

Come on man......

[TwiceHorn 31487]

54 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

I'm always going to be #teamwrap.  But I'm not on a water system so I'm not draining the community supply.

I think with temps that low, though, it all comes down to how your piping extends through the house.  The water froze on all 4 right at the spigot but not much farther in, and I think the pipes could handle that little expansion.  When it comes down to it, I don't think it matters a whole lot what you do with your outside spigots.  And again, what we experienced is so far off of the conventional wisdom radar that it probably doesn't matter much anyway.

That said, if we ever get cold like that again, I'll do what I did this time - go out every day and unfreeze (blow dry) whatever spigots I can.  I don't want the freeze to build/extend.  Even getting one and letting the water out if there's an ice blockage elsewhere on the line relieves the pressure, and I honestly think that's a big reason why my pipes didn't blow.

This is probably accurate, for those spigots with piping extending into the house as a heat source and also a source of "hydraulic space."  I assume that the interior plumbing of the house has a lot of cubic feet of expansion room, and if you are dripping inside, that will accommodate a lot of freezing from 2-3-4 exterior spigots.

For those that have spigots on a pipe sticking out from the yard, or from an unheated garage without a whole lot of extra pipe volume and no heat source, the calculus may be a little different.

[Gourmand 7774]

I wrapped our exterior bibs with cheap 1/2" rubber foam insulation and then duct taped the shit out of it to try and get a tight enough seal and left them dripping as well. I routinely checked them during the nights of the lowest temps and they held up well without freezing. 

 

[phdhorn 6224]

We are actually going to re-plumb the entire house within the next year (1990's copper is partially in the slab and we've had 4 leaks the past 5 years, thankfully nothing too terrible).  Of course that means everything thru the attic, but that's more or less the standard nowadays for pressured pipes (not so much for drainage non-pressured).

One thing I'm going to add, period, inside (the garage) is a shutoff valve for outside spigots.  Right now the water goes directly from the wellhead to the spigots before it reaches the inside house shutoff valve.  I can (and did) cut the spigot water by simply cutting the wellhead valve (which of course cuts off all water to the house), but that's outside and I'd prefer to be able to do the spigots without traipsing outside or having them freeze.  I tented the wellhead and blasted heat to circulate around it and I now know that that thing was well above freezing even in the midst of the coldest days, but I'd prefer to just take like 5 minutes to close 3 valves if I wanted that option.

[immamac 42856]

13 minutes ago, Hpara759 said:

Come on man......

Safe to drink != Good to drink Texas has safe water (most of the time) it's definitely shit quality though. Have you ever had fully treated water? There's an enormous difference. 

[1978horn 892]

We were team no drip and wrapped the shit out of the faucets. I also had space heaters near the walls where the outside bibs were. Went out side around 10 on Sunday and both were frozen. Thawed them out and wrapped them again. Went out around 11:30 and they were frozen again. I didn’t feel like dealing with it and constantly waking up and checking so I filled the tub for flushing and every container we had for drinking water. Then turned off the water at the main and drained the pipes.

Tried to turn it back on Wednesday and I have some exterior PVC that was wrapped but must have cracked before I turned off the water. So I spent the next 2 days finding supplies and fixing it. Finally had flowing water by Friday noon.

[FartingMonk 3608]

Pool noodle.  Covered with garbage bag and drip.  No damage

[Hpara759 1778]

14 minutes ago, immamac said:

Safe to drink != Good to drink Texas has safe water (most of the time) it's definitely shit quality though. Have you ever had fully treated water? There's an enormous difference. 

I grew up drinking untreated well water out of the Ogallala aquifer...still drinking it often. My 89 year old dad fills up gallon milk jugs of water for drinking and making his ice tea out of the natural spring (Roaring Springs) that feeds  this pool. There is good water out there (untreated)...the experts will tell you it's not safe...but I and 1,000's others disagree....Isn't any thing better than getting a drink out of a windmill pipe on a hot August day!!

[gyroprotagonist 2594]

team drip for 3/4 faucets outside.  1 i got to it too late and it was already frozen.  Just covered it after that.  It finally thawed out last night about midnight and started running.  I kept checking the water meter and no sign of a leak, so i think i am ok with that one.  It would have likely required a jackhammer to get to the pipe as it's coming from a concrete slab that makes up part of the front porch before going back under the house into the crawl space.

Even dripping, one of the faucets froze up, but was able to use a heat gun and some hot water to get it going again the next day.  This one is on the outside wall of an unheated mudroom in the backyard, so not much help even with power/heat going.  I am getting some of those Freeze Miser inserts to put in there for next time we get frosty as wrapping might not work for that one.  It also never gets sun and is shaded 24/7.

 

 

[Nueces River Rat 5539]

No issues.   Wrapped the pipes with foam and duct tape .  Then got some old bath towels and wrapped around the faucet a few layers and duct tape.  Bought an insulated hood for more sprinkler system back flow

[CleverNickname 1311]

No damage. Four outside spigots. No drip outside, dripped outside. Three I did foam covers, then a towel, then a bucket up against the wall. The fourth comes up from ground. I had it burst years ago and built a plywood box, caulked seems, wrap pipe, and hang a 75w light bulb. Worked. Was scared when didn't have power for 22 hours, but got lucky. Shut off all water, drained inside as best I could, when power was out.

Edited February 21, 2021 by CleverNickname

[SizzleChest 8284]

Multi-layers of bubble wrap with a styro cover, duct taped gaps, including against the wall.  Solid, no damage.

[dcbc 14487]

Styrofoam covers from the hardware store.  Stuffed a towel into one of them that wasn't mating with the brick well.  Temps bottomed out at 0 F one night and were below freezing at night for nearly a week before snow flew.  We dripped the faucets in the house and left the hose bibs alone.  No problems, but we had power the whole time.

Edited February 21, 2021 by dcbc

[atomheartbevo 89675]

55 minutes ago, CleverNickname said:

I had it burst years ago and built a plywood box,

Granted, my readings weren't the best, because it was a multi-meter that I was shoving through a small hole, but I put cardboard Amazon boxes around my outdoor faucets after wrapping the hell out of them, and temp within the box alone (couldn't really check the wrapped faucet) kept the temp a few degrees higher than the surrounding air, thanks to trapping some of the heat from the house and/or blocking the shitty cold wind.  

Every little bit helps, but I really think making a big barrier/box to go around the faucets, keeping the wind off of the faucet's wrappings/foam cover/etc. was a big difference.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

I used these:

p

then covered that with one of these:

Used rags to cover where the styrofoam didn’t seal to the house.  No issues, and that was without power for 56 hours of the coldest temps.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Judge Roybeanbag

[HiggyBaby 2529]

3 frost-proof 6-inch spigots. No issues, just had them covered with a styrofoam cover. Didn’t drip them or do anything special. North Dallas area.

[cactusflinthead 27598]

Team no drip outside. Denton. Had freeze proof spigot wrapped with towel and Styrofoam Dolly Parton.

Team drip inside. Did not lose water and no damage discovered.

[Knoxtnhorn 5976]

Tight wrap around the stem (between the faucet and the wall), plastic covers on all 3.  Over the weekend, I rotated hand warmers; however, it turns out I was doing it wrong because the wraps were so tight, they weren't getting oxygen and began to freeze up.  (Thanks Surlsters for pointing this out to me.)  By the time the electricity went off and I began to have to deal with bigger issues (keeping my family from freezing), I just stopped checking on them.  Happy to say all 3 survived.

Oddly, I did have a shower drain on the upstairs, north wall freeze up.  Then, the actual shower pipes froze.  As soon as I figured out that these particular pipes ran through my attic, I put a bunch of hand warmers along the pipe lines.  They unfroze pretty quickly.

[Knoxtnhorn 5976]

On a related note, my school principal (Richardson, TX) had a pipe burst upstairs overnight.  They didn't realize it until the next morning.  They now have to move out for 4-6 months (or maybe it was weeks) while the entire house is basically redone.

[Godzillatron 292]

Team wrap. Both froze. Both thawed without damage. Might do something different next time, thinking Freeze-Miser.

[GhostOfTomJoad 9325]

2 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I used these:

p

then covered that with one of these:

Used rags to cover where the styrofoam didn’t seal to the house.  No issues, and that was without power for 56 hours of the coldest temps.

@Judge Roybeanbag this looks like a really smart setup, but how did you get the exterior hard foam bibs to attach to the spigot? Does the soft sock thing compress enough that you could get the rubber loop over the on/off valve?

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

5 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

@Judge Roybeanbag this looks like a really smart setup, but how did you get the exterior hard foam bibs to attach to the spigot? Does the soft sock thing compress enough that you could get the rubber loop over the on/off valve?

Yeah, the rubber loop line was long enough when pulled all the way out that I could loop it around the knob, slip the soft cover on, and still tighten the styrofoam.  

Edited February 21, 2021 by Judge Roybeanbag

[Anastasis 23473]

2 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I used these:

p

then covered that with one of these:

Used rags to cover where the styrofoam didn’t seal to the house.  No issues, and that was without power for 56 hours of the coldest temps.

Sames.  Except I also turned off my water. Team #noleaks.  Team #knockonwood. 

[jeevsie 3734]

Wrapped loosely with crumpled newspaper, then towel, Then trash bag on top. No issues. 

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

25 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Sames.  Except I also turned off my water. Team #noleaks.  Team #knockonwood. 

Well, mine got turned off for me.  😂. But not until after the hardest freezes.  Also I’ll add if the rubber line on the styrofoam isn’t long enough, just loop a rubber band through the other loop and attach the rubber band to your faucet handle, to extend the length.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Judge Roybeanbag

[Brew 3049]

Bought a bunch of stick on heat pads Sunday and just rotated them under the styrofoam covers every 12-16 hours all week with a piece of towel wrapped around the heat pad. Had no issues other than spending 5-10 minutes changing them out. I would think just using regular foam covers only really needs daytime sunlight for the brick and foam to heat up then the cover retains that heat overnight. I have one spigot that sticks up out of the ground 3 feet. It froze quickly, but when it thawed yesterday it was fine.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Brew

[horn4life 3760]

I was "team drip", indoors only.  Then wife or myself accidentally turned ourselves into "team no drip "on kitchen faucet, probably via conditioned response.  That cold water froze up as it was the most exposed and farthest end of the run.  Went into drip mode with hair dryer helping a little, and only the sun hitting that wall was enough.  My damn propane torches were so cold they kept going out. Thankfully that window of power allowed for me to regain flow.

The ONLY reason I stuck with team stream is I was sort of too late to quit, and I foolishly was retaining hope that maybe tomorrow I will again get power.  My concern was that I KNEW I had a line over the kitchen frozen already, and I worried that no flow nibbling (hopefully) at the end of that blockage would maybe end up splitting that line.  Since I low enough in the neighborhood I had that choice as I maintained a true drip, drip on the kitchen and just hoped for the best with my frozen water heater line.  I am going to tear that area out and put in some real insulation there.  It was a spot I did not think about at all until too late.  I am just i have not already replaced the siding in that spot so I can put bunch of 

Looking back I wonder if I could have just partially filled the water tank on my RV and just drained all the lines for a lot less worry.  Of course ALL of us, started off the decision making process thinking we would be out of power for a while, and with the return of power and a little heat the pipe worries would be manageable.  I am going to do some change out of old faucets, or rebuild the seals as the faucet by my kitchen has a tiny leak that I had a tough time shutting off.  In fact I think I had to put a torch to the area and open and close it a few times and I think the heat and my max pressure may have made the seal more flexible and fit better.  The gradual freezing of that drip was what I think also helped the pipe freeze.

Anyhow feel lucky

 

[Guest]

Mom's house 3/3 spigots made it unscathed.  No drip/ wrap with hand towel/ grocery sack.

 

Oh and both of our houses were Team Drip in the indoors, and opening cabinets on outward facing walls.  We did not drip anything outside.

Edited February 21, 2021 by slorch

[Apep 645]

Since the store ran out of Styrofoam covers, I wrapped one faucet in a junk (bath-sized) towel and then covered it with an old insulated lunch bag. No drip, no freeze. I should concede that the faucet was on my west wall and immediately outside my constantly dripping kitchen faucet (with open cabinets). Never lost power (except for thirty minutes). The faucet on my east wall already had a Styrofoam cover and I didn't mess with it at all.