Turning Off Outside Spigot for Winter? - Help Needed

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scottspray

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Hello,

I live in MD. It does get very cold here sometimes, below freezing. Do you need to turn off the outside spigot for Winter to keep the pipes from bursting? We've never done this before in the 20 years we've owned this house and my wife recently brought it up.

I don't really mess with the main valves if I don't have to. There are two. One I know is used for the inside because I've turned it off before and guessing the other one is for the outside. Is that right? Haven't really tested it.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!
 
Usually there is a valve inside the house to isolate the spigot . find the spigot inside and follow the pipe to the main and see if there a valve close the inside valve ,open and drain the outside spigot
 
Geofd said:
Usually there is a valve inside the house to isolate the spikot . find the spikot inside and follow the pipe to the main and see if there a valve close the inside valve ,open and drain the outside spikot
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Do you have to turn off the outside water during the Winter? How important is it? Never done it before and never had any problems.
 
It depends on how cold it gets in the winter. Many in Texas had a severe cold front come through a few years back, and damaged thousands of homes due to burst pipes. This cost $Billions of $ in damage. If you have it, use it.
 
I live in Colorado. I have a sprinkler system. The temperature in winter for the most part is below freezing with temperatures droping to one degreeF at times. I shut off the main valve that supplies the water to the sprinkler system and open the individual valves on the manifolds for the winter. This must be done to prevent freezing and draining of the sprinkler system. My outside faucet is a frost free faucet which you can see on Amazon. Perhaps I have been lucky so far but I have not had any freezing issues on my sprinkler system or the outside faucet....for what it is worth.
 
Thank you for all the input! :thumbsup:

The faucet is on the other side of the wall of our built in basement which gets daily use. Does that keep the pipes warm?

I'm thinking that if it's not going to hurt anything maybe we should just do it. I'll need to test the shut off valves to see if there is one for outside.

I'll keep you posted! :D
 
havasu said:
It depends on how cold it gets in the winter. Many in Texas had a severe cold front come through a few years back, and damaged thousands of homes due to burst pipes. This cost $Billions of $ in damage. If you have it, use it.
Click to expand...

Terrible...sorry to hear that.
 
In MN most everyone uses a frost-free sillcock, and they don't have to be shut off and drained inside. It may be hard to tell what you have from the outside, but if you can look at the inside, a frost-free will be at least 6 or more inches long. If it doesn't extend into a heated area then it needs to be shut off and drained, and there should be a stop and waste valve in the line. this allows you to shut off the water and drain it back.
 
>>Do you have to turn off the outside water during the Winter? How important is it? Never done it before and never had any problems.<<

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" (how many times have I heard that now...)
 
I learned that it's all well & good to have a frost proof faucet, but, if you have one you need to remove any attached hose for the winter. If you don't, left-over water inside the faucet can freeze, expand, and crack the faucet. So far, in 20 years, have managed to ruin two frost proof, and two normal faucets.
 
Although it's a waste of water, some have been known to leave the sillcock open at a trickle rate to get through the cold snap. Of course, you may have a puddle of ice of varying size to deal with afterwards.

I've lived in your neck of the woods for going on 25 years now and it's gotten down into the teens overnight without an issue. I do, however turn off the water to the outside and do my best to drain the system to winterize it.

(PS. This site's spell checker doesn't like the word "sillcock". I wonder how things like that get added to the dictionary or is it an individual's personal PC that determines that?)
 
silcock is also not liked on my computer, but when you right click it and add it to the dictionary, it removes the red underline.
 
Let me see...... Sillcock. Worked like a charm so it's a Windows thing. Thanks so much but I did learn that there is a Wilcock whatever that is.

(My apologies for hijacking the thread)
 
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Wilcock is not a word that I know of, so if you right click this particular word, scroll to the top, then click on the box that says "Undo from dictionary"

This ends our Windows class for today. I apologize to scottspray for using his thread for "Windows 101", but we are all friends in here in need of something, right?
 
BlueSkyHigh said:
Although it's a waste of water, some have been known to leave the sillcock open at a trickle rate to get through the cold snap. Of course, you may have a puddle of ice of varying size to deal with afterwards.

I've lived in your neck of the woods for going on 25 years now and it's gotten down into the teens overnight without an issue. I do, however turn off the water to the outside and do my best to drain the system to winterize it.

(PS. This site's spell checker doesn't like the word "sillcock." I wonder how things like that get added to the dictionary or is it an individual's personal PC that determines that?)
Click to expand...
BSH, here in MN, when using this approach during severe cold, say below -10F, some open an inside faucet to a slow dripping. Tha is all that is needed, to open the water line to provide an escape of increasing pressurized air, created by the ice forming in the pipe. It is that air pressure which bursts the pipes, not the ice.
 
Although I live in sunny So Cal, I have a friend who has a beautiful mansion in the mountains. During a very cold snap, he shut off the internal valves, but forgot to open the outside spigot. He ended up having to replace several sheets of drywall and fix 50 feet of copper line in the springtime, when he opened up the internal valves.
 
The valve to an outside frostless hydrant does not have to be shut off. In Ohio we can get -10 or less. I have 3 hydrants
and never shut them off. Like said above make sure the hose is not attached to the faucet.
 
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