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

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4956]

Just something to keep in mind, cotton loses it's ability to insulate when it gets wet. So wrapping with a towel might not be doing much. Foam, some sort of polyester insulation, or bits from an old wool felt moving blanket would be a better solution in the future.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Just something to keep in mind, cotton loses it's ability to insulate when it gets wet. So wrapping with a towel might not be doing much. Foam, some sort of polyester insulation, or bits from an old wool felt moving blanket would be a better solution in the future.

that may or may not have influenced the use of a plastic grocery bag "wrapper" in my process.   It's not I just tied the rag in a know around the spigot and called it good.

 

My process, still may suck and it might have been pure luck; but damn...  multiple people mentioned using plastic bags to protect the rags.  Apep directly stated they used the insulated lunch bag to protect the towel on the inside.

Edited February 21, 2021 by slorch

[hayden_horn 11311]

5 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I used these:

p

 

 

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.

i used those. wrapped an old sock around the pipe, and used the faucet covers. no drip. previous homeowner must have insulated everything with foam, as the attic pipes are all zip-tied sealed.

did definitely drip inside, kitchen sink, and the two vanity sinks in the master bath, and the shower, which must have an external wall pipe from the sinks that also feeds the backyard spigot. everything was shipshape, until we lost most pressure yesterday. but it's back today, i briefly turned on the spigots, looked for leaks around the hot water heater. everything seems okay. fingers still crossed, though.

[NorthLoop 13906]

Had washrags zip-tied over the faucets. Then a styrofoam bib. Then a towel wrapped with duct tape. All covered snugly with a plastic flower pot. Dripped inside. No issues. 

[Updawg 2239]

Had washrags zip-tied over the faucets. Then a styrofoam bib. Then a towel wrapped with duct tape. All covered snugly with a plastic flower pot. Dripped inside. No issues. 

Did pretty similar

[Orange&White 5497]

I used the insulated bag shown up thread and then topped that with the Styro cone. Then stacked mulch bags against the wall in front of where the pipe comes up to keep the wind off of it.

No drip/flow.

On my normal spigot that comes from inside the wall on the front/North side of the house, I had no issue at all.

On the back of the house, the old owner relocated the the spigot a few feet using exposed copper. The spigot itself was perfectly fine. I wrapped the exposed copper with tube insulation and stacked mulch bags in front of it. I had a break on a  45* angle on the second to last day of the event. Sweated out the angle and capped it once I found a buddy that had some acetylene. 
 

I have no backyard spigot and I can’t use the sink on the back porch until I get someone to come out and do the real repairs, but I don’t need either of those right now anyway. I’ll give it a few weeks and let the plumbers help the people that really need it now.

[gsoda3 3187]

I'm assuming everyone dripped or streamed inside with cabinets open.

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).

Do they cap off the lines going into the slab and reroute to the attic? Do you have to cut out drywall to put in new pipes to existing faucets? I'm curious, we have copper (1998 build).

[CHEF DIESEL 126]

No problems. Never lost power. -4 degrees F at my house in Dallas. Dripped inside faucets. No dripped two exterior faucets that are 2 feet from pier and beam foundation. One on north side of house, second on southern exposure. The faucets use copper pipe and are vertical, go underground a couple feet before contacting main.

1-Used swimming pool noodle cut at length to fit each exposed pipe that protrude about 8 inches out of ground.

2-Put triangular shaped piece of fiberglass wall insulation over the faucets.

3-Filled up a 5 gallon home depot homer bucket half way with packing peanuts and then dumped the whole mess upside down on top of faucet with bucket on top.

4-Raked a bunch of leaves around the buckets and walked away.

Might have been overkill but it cost me zero dollars and only ten minutes of my time.

[Hairy Biped 579]

I wrapped my outside faucets with large towels and duct tape.  Didn't drip them, but one has a slight drip anyway and I did drip my all of my bathroom cold water faucets inside.  I only lost power one time for an hour though.  I was mostly worried bout the pipes to my hot water heater so I made sure to run a decent amount of hot water before I went to bed each night and would shower first thing in the morning.  Had no problems at all. 

[BillyGoatHill 4267]

Dripped....all pipes wrapped with a pool noodle, koozies, then towels and a bucket over that. Power out multiple times with 7 hr stretch the longest at 6 degrees. No power, so no water due to I am on well and rainwater collection. Also opened cabinets inside and dripped those also. Main concern was pool pump and that piping. Covered all that with wool blanket, poncho liner, canvas tarp, waterproof tarp and a space heater underneath by pump when the power was working. Had to break ice in my pool multiple nights after power was shut off on like 2 hr intervals.

Had a few leaks once the thaw started, but it was just from some ice buildup around some inside pex fittings. Had two outside faucets freeze hard due to power being off, but a hair dryer fixed those and no busted pipes. Pool pump and features all good (though I will be putting up a small building around it this week). Only thing needing fixing is I had my solenoid valve on my well crack and that was the one thing wrapped with all commercial stuff. Just too damn cold for it. $25 for the new valve and back in business. (Answered yes for damage due to this, but probably should have put none, as faucets froze, but no damage to my faucets)

Edited February 22, 2021 by BillyGoatHill

[Scheiss Meister 8300]

Ran thin streams from two of my exterior faucets (third automatically drains when shut off) and two of my interior faucets to keep my well warm.  Only lost power once for a couple of hours before it got extremely cold, so I could keep my well pumping and everything clear.  It turns out that the well house, with no heat source beyond the well, never got below freezing, even when it was 4°.  I had to change filters on the line at the well Wednesday morning and found a couple of bottles of water that I had left there completely unfrozen.  That's cool to know.

[fattyflattie 4631]

Dripped inside, while running full bore for 5 mins every 4 hours.  All well

Hose bibs - wrapped in rags/coozies and then covered with the plastic/styrofoam covers.  NE bib froze, and pipe busted in garage.  I happen to be in garage twice in about 5 mins and it burst between those 2 trips, so I got the water cut off, Sheetrock cut out, and leak identified within 10 mins or so.  Didn’t have cpvc cap so rigged a water hose with hose clamps to it and put on mist.  It worked fine until I could borrow a cap from a fellow surly.   NW corner froze, but I thawed it out with a heating pad in about an hour. Ran it, then rewrapped it. I did that daily afterward (never froze again). The SE bib never froze. I let it run daily.   The very last night I lost my back flow preventer, somehow. I was going to thaw it for good measure when I did the heating blanket deal, but we lost power that night, and only that night for 22 hours.  Over all I feel very blessed for the minor issues we had.  I know some people that are in a real bind.  Wife did green light a nice diesel welder/generator  so not all bad. 

[The University 828]

cut off slices from a pool noodle and placed those on the supply pipe before the faucet. covered that with your standard cheap lowes/homedepot faucet cover. no problems.

that said, we lost power for only ~15 hours on mon/tues.

[Jkwellborn 6536]

Covered mine. No issues.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21765]

I wrapped and didn’t drip, but it wouldn’t have made any difference because I lost water from the city after the first day.  I put down damage, but it was only a cracked hose bib on the west side which I replaced in about five minutes (after buying the last one at Home Depot).

[Wanker Bob 379]

Wrapped in rubber pipe insulation then the styrofoam cover from the store and covered with towels and duct tape. During the 26-hour power outage the lines along the north wall to my upstairs bathroom froze so I opened the faucet valves to relieve pressure. That allowed to thaw without damaging the pipes so all good

[Pimphand 5502]

Exterior: Wrap

Interior: Drip

No Damage

[Murfdogg21 4394]

Exterior: I did a double wrap of towel, encased in duck tape, another towel, encased in duck tape to try to keep at least one layer dry. The spigot also had some foam installed around it. No leaks. 
 

Interior: slow drips for all faucets on exterior walls, helped that we never lost power for more than 2 hours and the house stayed above 60F. Sink cabinet doors left open. No leaks. 

[Gene Parmesan 3951]

No drip covered the outside bibs with styrofoam covers and left cabinets open.  Kitchen sink froze but we put a space heater on it when we had power and it came back no damage.  No other issues.  In the Denton area and only had rolling blackouts so never lost power for long.  Lost water Tuesday and Wednesday.  Melting snow for toilet water was a beating, but overall feel very lucky.

[Lou 264]

Only problem I had was outside hose bibs freezing, but I haven't found any leaks.  I ordered these for the future.  I did some research and they seem to work.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Freeze-Miser-Outdoor-Faucet-Protection-Durable-Replacement-Covers-Winter-Proof-Protector-Low-Maintenance-Easy-Install-Saves-Water/812550150?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222222309994331&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=s&wl2=c&wl3=74560747064879&wl4=pla-4578160298711625&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=& wl10=Walmart&wl12=812550150_0&wl14=freezemiser&veh=sem

 

[Updawg 2239]

Only problem I had was outside hose bibs freezing, but I haven't found any leaks.  I ordered these for the future.  I did some research and they seem to work.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Freeze-Miser-Outdoor-Faucet-Protection-Durable-Replacement-Covers-Winter-Proof-Protector-Low-Maintenance-Easy-Install-Saves-Water/812550150?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&adid=22222222222309994331&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=s&wl2=c&wl3=74560747064879&wl4=pla-4578160298711625&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=& wl10=Walmart&wl12=812550150_0&wl14=freezemiser&veh=sem
 

I was tempted to buy some from Amazon but there were a few bad reviews that scared me away

[TexasEd 8011]

Started as wrapped and no drip.  They froze up so I thawed them with a heat gun and then dripped through the coldest nights with no freeze.  Neighbors who dripped from the start never froze.  One who did not drip froze up one in garage wall but not the other.  Thawed out fine but we have PEX in our section of the neighborhood if that makes a difference.

[drt 631]

I used heat tape + old towels + plastic bags + duct tape to seal it all up.  Worked well.

[MAUFRAIS 6539]

fucked around (no wrap, no drip) and found out (nothing happened).  never lost power so maybe things would've gone different if we hadn't been lucky.

[Apep 644]

Kinda curious if there was a pattern to freezing exterior faucets based on location. I have two exterior faucets. Both are exposed to the sun during the day. One is on the east wall, the other on the west.

[Armybrat 40464]

Just unwrapped both my outside hose bibs, no leaks and function just fine.

Unfortunately the new fire ant mound that I didn’t notice under my right shoe was functioning full force. It had  been a few years since I did the fire ant dance. Little mofos are going to get some complimentary Amdro delivery to their front door in just a few minutes.

Edited February 22, 2021 by Armybrat

[Paper_jam 819]

One of mine dripped (not intentionally--slow leak) and was wrapped and covered anyway. Made a strange looking ice stalagmite underneath it. There was also ice inside the foam cover. Pretty sure it froze, but nothing broke.

My other faucet was just wrapped with several layers of stuff, and it also did not break, thank ganesh.

 

 

[Wiler77 1539]

I used the black insulated sleeve like there have been a few picture of.  Then wrapped in towel and duct tape.  Then plastic kitchen bag secured with duct tape.  No issues.

I just discovered one issue this morning.  Leak in a pipe in the attic.  Was a pipe that was leftover from when I converted my 2 x hot water heaters to one tankless a few years ago.  The hose was capped with a metal pipe with a valve.  Leak is at the joint where the valve is.  But fairly slow.  Seems like only about 1 gallon every ~4 hours.  And i don't have to turn the water off.  Good ting since I can't get a plumber to call me back.

[BillyBadAss 187]

Exterior cheap Styrofoam bibs. Never checked them til it warmed up. Dripped the 2 indoor faucets closest to the spigots at night.  Ran those faucets for a couple of minutes before bed and in the morning hot and cold.  Never lost power. No problems. 

[jimmyjazz 45055]

Trickled both outdoor bibs, although once Austin started having water problems I reduced to a dozen drips a minute or so.

Probably cost me $150-$200.  Beats the cost of busted pipes.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Armybrat said:

Just unwrapped both my outside hose bibs, no leaks and function just fine.

Unfortunately the new fire ant mound that I didn’t notice under my right shoe was functioning full force. It had  been a few years since I did the fire ant dance. Little mofos are going to get some complimentary Amdro delivery to their front door in just a few minutes.

I don't miss those motherfuckers.  I damned sure would not have thought about them coming out of a week of freezing weather. They probably jack each other off to stay warm...

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by slorch

[Updawg 2239]

So should this switch to hot water heater vs tankless. Seems like tankless have had the most issues. I need to get a new water heater and was thinking about tankless. But maybe not now. In a attic with gas.

[South Austin 51410]

Exterior styrofoam cover, dripped inside faucets. No discernible damage. House built in 2016. Water heater in attic with some pretty fantastic insulation.

[Redneck Mutha 7832]

Exterior - Wrapped with strips of insulation and added plastic/styrofoam cover on top (no drip).  North facing I added a small cooler as a 2nd cover.

Interior - Dripped all faucets with warm water, flushed each toilet at least a couple times a day.

Pool - Plan was to run 24/7, but that plan went south when power went out for about 40 hours.

Finally got the nerve to check all the outside faucets and pool (not the sprinkler system yet)Sunday afternoon, no issues that I've been able to see.  Got damn lucky.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Redneck Mutha

[F250 28380]

I have an insulated well house and kept a 75w bulb going all week to keep temp above freezing. Pipes had styrofoam sleeves. No issues but never lost power either. Had a small propane heater as backup.

Exterior faucets were wrapped in pool noodles with duct tape. Then used gardening planters filled with cloth to cover the faucets. Used heavy metal pipes to press them tightly against the wall. No drip, no damage.

Was team stream with inside faucets.

 

[surlyfanatic 0]

On 2/21/2021 at 11:23 AM, 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.

Ditto, but never lost power. And one is a north facing spigot backing up to an uninsulated garage.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11728]

Just now, surlyfanatic said:

Ditto, but never lost power. And one is a north facing spigot backing up to an uninsulated garage.

Same, all the spigots on both mine and my kids house next door survived.  I think it was mostly luck though, not just preparation.  

[Wally Pryor 5198]

Light stream.   No damage / issue. 

Neighbor 4 houses down didn't do a damn thing to his outdoor faucets.   Had the same amount of damage / issue.

[Born to Run 6186]

Pipe insulation, then cover, then towel and a small plastic box with extra insulation. No drip, no issues. Copper pipes from 2005.

Seeing zero issues with Pex so far anywhere. Client had uninsulated Pex in a crawl space that was fine. Meanwhile a PVC line and an RPZ that was insulated and wrapped failed.
CPVC appears to be the worst.

[gsoda3 3187]

So should this switch to hot water heater vs tankless. Seems like tankless have had the most issues. I need to get a new water heater and was thinking about tankless. But maybe not now. In a attic with gas.

I'm going through the same thought process.

[dcbc 14179]

No loss of power.  Water pressure down to about 50% for two days.  Dripped inside but not outside.  No pipe damage.

Edited February 26, 2021 by dcbc