Proplumber red frost pooff yard hydrant5/29/2023 ![]() ![]() This is the anatomy of a frost-proof spigot.Okay so here's the deal. It works by shutting off the water inside your home and allowing the water to run out of the actual faucet so that there is nothing to freeze. Years ago before these things were invented, we would just shut the water off inside the home which supplied that faucet under the house, and drain the line. Now that these things exist all of the old-style are being replaced when they fail. The big problems occur when a hose is left on the spigot and prevents the thing from draining, or the frost-proof unit is installed with a slope backward, into the house.ĭesign flaw. Because there is never supposed to be water in the barrel, some are made of flimsy material so the moment water freezes it fractures the pipe. When the sucker thaws is when the basement or crawl space gets flooded. Removing them for replacement after a freezing episode can be troublesome too. This is because the loss of barrel integrity causes it to twist apart, often leaving chunks of faucet hidden or buried in the wall. ![]() The trick is to get to the connection from domestic water to the spigot and by holding each part firmly, unscrew them from each other. They come in all lengths from 4″ up to 24″ at 1″ increments and need to be replaced with the same length replacement obviously. There are different brands and some come with inner threads and outer threads, some have both. The best bet is to replace what you have with an identical replacement. I recently replaced one in Nampa Idaho, where the hose was left attached through the winter. They had shut the faucet off but had not removed the hose. Water left in the faucet froze and burst the inner pipe. When they turned the hose on in spring, they heard water spraying inside the crawl space through a foundation vent.įortunately, they had the brains to turn everything off and call for help. I brought one of each size the vendor carried because I wanted to be prepared. I discovered that the exact brand replacement was needed so I still had to run to a big box store and thankfully found the exact one. ![]() I got called for a ceiling leak in the basement bedroom. Multiple leak sites at joints in sub-floor. I was able to track it back to a hose left on a leaky frost-proof faucet over the winter. Mold loves these conditions! What else can go wrong? Some of the leaks were 6 feet away from the split faucet. Like any faucet, there are several places they can fail. They get loose and Symptom: water comes out around the stem when the thing is on. The solution, tighten the packing nut in rare cases, you may need to add some packing. The built-in air gap prevents water from being siphoned into your home. When the pressure in the line drops, the flapper valve opens and the siphon is broken. This flapper valve occasionally needs to be replaced. (Not all faucets have this cool feature.) Again you will need to get the manufacturer’s parts. Symptom: constant leak despite the thing being off Solution: in this case you need TURN THE WATER OFF TO THE HOUSE first. Then unscrew the packing nut as you open and unscrew the faucet. Extract the long stem and you will see the washer. Replace it with an exact size replacement. This is often found at the hardware store. ![]()
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