Some Unheard of Ways To Stop Pipes & Faucets From Freezing In The Winter!
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- čas přidán 13. 10. 2023
- In this video, I will go over some ways to stop pipes, outdoor faucets, and hoses from freezing in the winter! They are all incredibly easy and only take about 30 seconds to implement. These can all keep them from freezing and possibly bursting.
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1/2" Pipe Insulation: homedepot.sjv.io/Kj2kvy
3/4" Pipe Insulation: homedepot.sjv.io/9gxvjj
Outdoor Faucet Protector With Hard Shell: amzn.to/3tAqwHN
Regular Outdoor Faucet Protector Multi Pack: amzn.to/45uICIr
Outdoor Faucet Cover Socks: amzn.to/45uICIr
Freeze Mizer Single Pack: amzn.to/3M2SQsO
Freeze Mizer 2 Pack: amzn.to/45Eu49q
Freeze Mizer 4 Pack: amzn.to/3tDdl8O
Frost Blanket: amzn.to/45r0x2M
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12 Things Homeowners Need To Do To Get Their Home Ready For Winter: • 12 Things Most Homeown...
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Have you ever had your pipes or hose bibb freeze? Which one of these methods do you think you will use this winter?
Too many times to recount. The Freeze Mizer is pretty fascinating and very clever.
You skipped the easiest and free-est option: turn off the supply and open the bib.
No because I shut mine off in the winter like you’re supposed to.
All of my houses have the frost free spigots. As long as there is no hose attached to them full of water, they work very well.
I'm not so sure about the mizer. I had done drywall with hot mud and was cleaning up. The temperature outside was around 24F. Maybe 20F. I'm using the water out of a FF spigot to clean with and I noticed that the water coming out of the faucet was starting to freeze inside. So I quickly finished up, turned it on harder to clear it and turned it off. It was fine. That was no fun.
BTW, at -40F if you were to spit, it'll freeze before it hits the ground they tell me. I've never done it.
None. I have the deepest facet in the house . I can drip it myself. You can tell he's from the south, not being mean, he's just not experienced with the cold. None of these will work in a cold spell of a week or two. Your talking one or two nights here.
Canada here, so we have below freezing temps pretty much from December to March. I have a dedicated inside tap that shuts off the water for the outside tap. Turn that off, open the outside tap to drain the faucet and that's it until spring.
Yup, I live in MN and that’s what I do too. Turn the water off inside run the water out of the taps and I am good all winter and have never had issues
Well I live in TN and have non of that and it's going down to -3 degrees in a couple of days, and is supposed to last three days with high temps in the teens. Which I'm sure has ya'll laughing, but that is not typical for down here. We see some snow and below freezing weather but usually not this low for this long. So I just don't want a busted pipe.
Hope all is well in Canada and MN.
@@perception-reception Absolutely not laughing, cold is cold everywhere and if it's not something you see often, it's even more of a challenge. I'm sure I wouldn't make it through a TN summer.
And yes, nobody wants a burst pipe, so do what feels right. I was just sharing what I do, but a lot depends on the layout of the house. My inside shutoff is in a heated room, not a garage, so the pipes aren't exposed to bitter cold.
@MichaelW1959 I appreciate it. Yea, I have a crawlspace style home with all plumbing in that area. The two outside faucets I have just got wrapped with insulation, and then the Styrofoam covers over that. All my crawlspace vents shut tight. Like I said, we always have freezing weather. So I always cover the faucets with the Styrofoam insulators, but the next 7 days are going to be high temps in the teens and lows in the single digits or below 0 (Fahrenheit).
Yes, summers here can be brutal. 100 degrees with 80% humidity feels like a damn rainforest. It's home, though.
@@perception-reception I get it. We just had about 5 inches of snow, the wind is blowing at around 40mph, and the high today will be 19F. O Canada indeed.
My wife actually went to university in TN, lived in Gatlinburg, absolutely loved it.
Good video. One major mistake home owners make when they have a frostless hose bib is they leave the garden hose connected to the faucet. This cause them to freeze. I always keep my bibs covered even though they are all frostless bibs. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and in this case a thousand pound of cure if you have ever had to make the repair when it is zero degrees outside!!!
Heck yes! Terrific idea. I just purchased 4.
Thank you for all of these great tips.
Thank you for this information!😊
Valuable information. A neighbor once went off for two weeks in December and neglected to shut off the water. An extremely hard freeze occurred and a washing machine hose burst flooding the house about 16” deep in every room.
Know of a ranch house on a crawl space. Downflow furnace. Burst washing machine hose water flowed down the utility room register and came up in every register in the house through the ductwork.
We have 5 freeze misers and they work like a dream. Have a spliter on each one and just leave them on all the time.
Great video, I learned something new! Thanks
Very informative!
I live in Massachusetts and have a hose bib like yours, but I also have a shutoff inside the house. In late fall we shut off the water in the basement and then open the hose bib outside to drain water. I normally close the hose bib after I know it is well drained. Just habit I guess. Mike
Excellent info.
That freeze miser is a good idea in some situations but in really cold climates (I live in Canada) the constant drip of water would cause a HUGE buildup of ice below the faucet, which depending on location could also be hazardous(or harmful to exterior foundations/siding). I would recommend frost-free valves and only use that freeze miser in the south where the ground really doesn’t freeze. Great videos, keep them coming.
i use a short hose and keep drip about 10' from house. I live in Connecticut
Agree. It’s also a huge waste of water if it starts the drip from 37 degrees…by the time temps are way below freezing, how much water is running. It was 11 F degrees here in Maryland, i don’t need water running for days.
I'm trying to figure a way to get the water away from the house, as well.
We had a winter maybe 7 years ago here in WI that had 16 days where the temp stayed below 0. That was.....fun.
Those Freeze Misers are definitely something to put on my to-get-list. Both of my outdoor spigots also supply my irrigation systems and all that piping is hard to properly insulate. I've tried the drip method that simply is not reliable. So I am worrying as the temperatures drip overnight. Those will make life so much easier than considering turning off all the water to the house
When I lived in Texas and we would get our occasional freeze, I’d wrap the faucet and then put the cover on. Works better than just the cover
Thanks!
I use the long freeze proof hose bibs that close inside. Pipes are pex that expands. Added insulation. I close the lead to the hose bib before it gets cold
For outbuildings and homes that will not be used in the winter, cut off the water supply and open all the faucets to drain the pipes. Of course, turn the faucets off when they've drained. No water in the pipes = not bursting.
Cool video 👍🏾👍🏾
When I lived in Montana as a kid we just used to turn the faucet on until it dripped. It seemed to work fine!
That’s a good device my thoughts is with a well and that dripping to a flow and going all night that may herm my well. How helpful is it with your well
I am a little learly of this... Looking around their website, it is hard to get a flow rate for the various tempratures and the failsafe is full open. This might be fine if you actually see your spigot on a regular basis.
But I suppose another application would be a backflow preventer if they are above ground for a sprinkler system, that way you dont have to worry about water stuck in the ball vavles when they are in the off position (if not blown out).
This would also stop working if you turn your water off when on vacation.
Another application idea could be for the whole house piping if you need to keep a faucet dripping during a freeze (just plumb the drip outside the house like a AC). (think Texas freeze a few years ago).
That FreezMizer is an interesting concept, just use where the drip is not going to freeze up a surface you walk over or drive over.
Good info as usual ... Thx
Great Video. Thank you for sharing. for use Freeze Miser - Outdoor Faucet Freeze Protection in winter, Can I still use outside water hose faucet in the winter, I do my car wash ?
Yes they say it can be installed onto the hose itself with some added instructions that come with it.
i simply close the valves supplying water to the faucet from freezing. then open the faucet to let any residual water to drain.
It would be interesting to learn what the total damage to homes are due to water pipes freezing in each state per year. I'd guess it is in the millions when there is a cold snap like this year. For an extra $10 each, you'd think builders would start using frost-proof hose bibs like we use up north.
What's a good way to get the running water from the outdoor spigot away from the house when you have it running due to freezing temps? ty
I live in Western NY and I've never had an issue with this. However, we have basements and the temp is fairly stable. Perhaps its more of an issue for cold areas with a home built on a slab foundation?
Last year one of our frost-free hose bibs froze, despite not having any hose connected to it AND having an insulating sleeve over the faucet. Thankfully it only leaked inside the wall when it was turned on, so it didn't create a flood, but still a huge bummer. This year we're upgrading from fabric insulating sleeves to the hard plastic type, so hopefully that will help.
Question regarding the Freeze Miser: the documentation for our hose bibs says that they aren't rated for being constantly under pressure (e.g. by leaving a hose or timer connected and on). It seems like these would be the same thing. Is that something I need to worry about, or is that warning overly-conservative?
That’s because the frost free wasn’t installed correctly. It needs to be sloped so it drains when shut off. I see “plumbers” screw this up all of the time.
It's coming on us quickly, so get prepared for the cold.
answer this one. my hose comes out of the ground and last year it , well both froze and burst. this is alabama and it never gets that cold -18 deg last christmas well tommorrow it should be there again, had 150w lights and 5 gal bucket over them last year and still froze and cost a fortune to fix. any suggestions on preventing this?
On that 'freeze miser' - I've watched four videos and they all showed a tiny drip coming out. But you say that as the temp begins dropping lower than 37 degrees - then the gizmo will let much more water out. That right?
For years i've just turned the faucet on and let a "strong' trickle run through my hose. Now i'm wondering just how much of a stream the miser will create when it gets into the teens outside. I'm wondering if this device will save me money and be a better solution than my old school method. Thoughts? Thank you!
We just went through an unusually cold stretch of days for us with low temps in the low-teens. Our homes are not built for that. Even wrapped with insulation and covered with a foam cover, our hose bibs still froze. Somehow even my one frost-free bib froze. The Mizer thing is interesting, but seems like a waste of water, and could create a big frozen mess on the ground?
With all of our modern technology..... When will there finally be affordable pipe that flexes when water is expanding!?!
Well Pex pipe will do that but if it happens regularly it tends to weaken it over time. So you are right, it would be nice if an actual solution would come out that is made for it.
Pex A will weep but I’ve never heard of it cracking.
The problem is the pipe won’t just expand outwards it’ll also expand length wise and you really don’t want that.
I had some of that white PEX that looks like PVC and it exploded with a freeze. I was unaware that my plumber had put PEX on the outside of my house until I went to buy a replacement piece of PVC and the sizes didn't match. That's when my head exploded.
On those frost proof spigots, how tight is the cap on top supposed to be? I had one that was really snug and another that was really loose, but the instructions make no mention of how tight it needs to be.
That is a vented cap, so it doesn’t matter how loose.
SO when usiong the freeze miser and below 37 degrees the hose bib will continue to drip until the temperature is above 37 degrees. if so then some areas the hose bib could drip for months on end.
Thennnnn, just turn off the water until it's 32*
My pipes from the outdoor spigots are not accessible. Go right in the wall. I would rather the default position of the Freeze Miser be open somehow, because what happens if it fails to open in its current configuration when the temp gets to 358 and below? Well, it'll fail to run water and the pipes will freeze, and you'll never know it. Just found this product this morning, and this was my immediate concern.
I found living where 30 degrees counts as deadly cold works wonders.
Where???
FL?
@@filoIII nah, there, they get frostbite at 50.
I'm considering going outside and shutting the entire water off to the house and then opening all the faucets and draining everything out. I will open the outside faucets and the inside faucets and keep the water shut off for the usual 8 or so hours needed in San Antonio. I will go-to the street and turn the water on as needed.
that would probably work as long as your pipes are slopped properly and drain appropriately.
Can you wrap or cover exposed pipes or faucet with Mylar foil blankets if you don’t have anything else? House is on pier and beams can’t reach pipes under house but some pipes are on the outside or ground sticking out. I have plenty of the Mylar foil blankets though.
Mylar foil looks like a radiant barrier. It prolly wouldn't do much for cold. It might actually assist cold in conducting to the pipe. Try pool noodles or pipe insulation when they're not sold out during the freeze and use duct tape or a more expensive insulating weatherproof tape to hold the insulation in place. Then just leave it alone. You never have to unwrap the pipe.
Your hard shell insulator has a foam. Seal around the base. Your demonstration shows you installing it with an airgap at the bottom. Better than no insulation but not optimal.
I just had to slide it up. Didn’t see it was out of position while I was filming.
One way to turn your yard into ice rink
I just bought mine. My plumber told me to place some insulation inside of the cover.
Never heard of the Freeze Miser, but holy cow! What a great invention! Wish I had that on my outdoor faucets back in 2006…. I’d be about $4,000 richer now! Or more like $20,000 today given the recent inflation…..
The faucet cover you show at 5:05 would be useless because of the block behind the faucet. It prevents the cover from sealing at the bottom, allowing cold air in.
I noticed that too. And there is no way I'd trust Freeze Miser in here in Maryland !!!
No it doesn’t make it useless I just needed to pull it up a little. And it would still be helping. Honestly Tom, why do you even watch my videos? Every comment is trying to find something wrong and the majority of the time your comment is either wrong itself or lacking context.
@pfitz4881 why? Maryland gets cold but isn’t the Arctic. The freeze mizer is made for your climate. I mean it’s fine if you don’t feel comfortable with it and don’t end up getting any, just curious the reasoning.
Most of what he's talking about applies to the south. If you have a long bib with a shut off inside the house, then just shut off the water and let the bib drain. We don't have those. We can't shut off the bibs water without shutting off the entire house and there's no block behind the faucet. Our bibs seal right at the bib. So we either have to insulate it or let it drip. Luckily we rarely see hard freezes and when we have them, they only last 1-2 days.
The plastic shell on the Styrofoam covers also keeps chickens from eating the Styrofoam. Not even kidding, Styrofoam is one of their favorite things to eat for some reason.
Let the faucet drip!
Make outdoor faucets frost-proof:
Turn off the water pipe in the house and then open the outside tap. Then the line runs empty and is frost-proof.
Maybe you have that option. I don’t. The only shut off shuts off all water to the house.
@@HowToHomeDIY That seems to be the only shut off option that most of us have.
We're not in the north. We don't have those. Our spigots may not even slope down to drain them even if we did. We either have to turn off the entire home's water at the meter or do what this video is saying. Insulate it or get a Freezemiser or both.
You think EVERYONE has that? If EVERYONE had that, then there'd be NO need for these types of maintenance vids.
Dogs are more likely to chew the Styrofoam ones than the ones with plastic covers.
I would like to add a couple more tips here.
If you can't find the foam pipe wrap, look in the toy or pool section for kids pool noodles. If it's hollow, it's basically the same thing... You would just need to use a blade to open it up.
For homes with the lawn sprinkler system, you may have noticed 2 pipes with what looks almost like a bell on top. You need to wrap that even better than your hose bib.
Here in Houston...every time we get a freeze, everyone is sold out of the replacement parts faster than Biden can screw up a persons name.
It would be good solid move to buy the replacement parts in advance to repair that. On that note, you can buy some copper pipe, couplings, pipe caps (to block off a pipe) and the proper kit to soldier in a repair. Plenty of videos out there on YT to show you step by step how to DIY copper pipe repair. (Don't forget to practice and to buy a proper pipe cutter tool)
If you don't know... you should always know where and how to shut off the water supply to your home.
If you see a little rectangle cover near the street, don't be afraid to open it up and have a look at where your water meter is and how to shut it off. (Again, YT videos are out there)
a couple years back, Texas had the great icepocalypse. I had the only home on my street without burst pipes. (Also power, but that's a different topic)
I had recently finished a bathroom remodel at my place and had a lot of leftover material, so thankfully I was able to save my neighbors a long wait and a lot of damage. City water was back in a week and I was the go to source for water for my neighbors. Theirs was still shut off until they could get a plumber. Some waited 3 weeks.
One home had several burst pipes in the attic, but they ran to Florida to avoid living through the winter storm. Sadly, they never shut the water off and they didn't return for a month.
The damage to their home was over 200K.
It's so simple to be ready for a freeze and it can save you years of income.
Keep learning and be ready people.
Have you seen Beau of the Fifth Column? He's great at disaster relief vids and does some political stuff too. He's a conservative down in Florida.
Long shaft and flow rate
heat trace tape for attics
I’m surprised he didn’t mention heat tape at all. Absolutely necessary in garages and crawl spaces.
@TomCee53 heat tape is just another option, not “absolutely necessary.” It can be used in combination with the pipe insulation if desired but they do make pipe insulation for other parts like elbows and T connectors as well.
@@HowToHomeDIY except on unheated areas like detached garages and crawl spaces.
@@TomCee53 We don't even have crawl spaces on most houses in Austin, TX. We don't have basements either. We have concrete slabs. We need to either insulate the exposed piping outside (which is where our water shut offs are btw, at the house and by the street about 6 inches below the surface) or let it drip since moving water can't freeze and its not usually cold enough to freeze a good enough drip. There's no local shut offs for us to use or ways to drain the bibs. Again stop hating on his video. If you live in the north you probably don't need help anyway. Us in the south do need help like this, and we can't do 99% of what you're talking about.
My pipes are closing inside the crawl space
Adam, I like your videos, but why don't you just shut off the water inside your house ..... if you have a ball valve ?
I personally have no shutoff to just the hose bibbs, it would turn off all of the water to the home. Most homes don't. If there is one then that would be a good way to go about doing it once they were drained out.
You think roofs up north are built the same as in the south, and all over the rest of the nation? ????????????????????? "Just turn off the valve inside. Don't ALLLLLLL houses in the world do it like we do up north??? Derp" Come on, Man!
@filoIII ,don't all house / water lines have shut off valves or is your house 200 years old and doesnt ? It doesn't matter if you're in the North or Sourh. A friend of .one of Florida has a valve for her house. So there you go. C' mon man !
@whocares0692 my house is 8 years old so no. Nobody I know down here has a shutoff inside their home. We have shut offs but they are in the ground or down by our wells.
we've had mixed results with freeze miser they seem to start leaking at any temperature or leak if water is turned all the way on. Doesn't seem to have a really good seal. Sometimes they just don't work. There is no go way to test it when purchasing. We used these in Dallas, TX area.
3:08 learn something new everyday. Thanks
Why am I here?????? 35 is as cold as it gets here lol
Cool
First and foremost, in the cold climates we have the ability to shut off the outside spigot from inside the house. Do that, open your spigot, and you'll be fine.
Insulating your pipe will insulate it from the heat in the house. I'm sure there are circumstances where you want to insulate, but generally a bad idea.
I question the Feeezemiser. If the temp drops enough, the drops will freeze, resulting in the inability for water to drip.
I appreciate this channel, but this particular topic is out of your wheelhouse.
Not all homes up North have a shutoff inside like you say. Also, this video goes to everyone and people South of the Mason Dixon line, MOST don't have that and it freezes there too. Putting insulation on the pipe only helps it stay warm. I said in the video if the pipes already have insulation from the home then its not needed. But to leave pipes completely uninsulated in the places I stated, is not wise. Your thoughts on the Freeze Miser are just your opinion and based on speculation. So it's not that the video is out of my wheelhouse, it just doesn't fit you personally. So maybe, not be so quick to be rude, especially if you have found value in the channel before.
@@HowToHomeDIY I generally look for positive intent in others. I know it's hard to do in youtube comments, but I would encourage you to do the same. If so, you may have seen that my intent was to be constructive, not rude. I apologize if you saw it otherwise.
You see insulation on hot water pipes to keep the water temp from dropping too much. It's not to prevent freeze. It's to save on your water heating bill. For cold water pipes, in the winter, it is the heat from the room that helps keep them from freezing. Insulating those pipes from that heat increases the odds of them from freezing. Again, there are some circumstances where you would want to do it, but it's generally a bad idea.
You're absolutely correct that my concerns about the Freeze Miser being speculation. That's why I phrased it the way I did, simply saying I question it. I'd love to hear from others that have used in in a very cold climate.
@Bill_v1 Oh as do I. I get many comments a day on multiple videos with plenty of folks like yourself sharing their opinions, experiences, and what they at least think to be factual and helpful. I totally respect that. Which is what I saw in the beginning of your comment. But the opinions and possibly “constructive” comments ended at “this is out of your wheelhouse.” That is you saying that what I am saying is false and I have no idea what I’m talking about. Not every application is the same in every region of the US. I was not talking about hot water pipes or cold ones specifically. I stated that pipes in uninsulated areas need insulation. There is no heat coming from the house on lines that are in a crawl space or an unfinished garage, or in my case, a well house. So there are many reasons and places that insulation should be added. Flowing water is not 32 degrees or less or it would not be flowing. The insulation can help keep the water temperature in the pipes at a higher temperature than freezing, especially if water is able to keep moving through a dripping faucet.
@Bill_v1 Pretty much everything you said doesn't apply to the deep south. We don't have water shut offs inside. Many of us don't even have basements or crawl spaces to easily access the pipes, we have concrete slabs. Our water shut offs are outside where the water enters the house or at the street about 6 inches from the surface instead of 3-4 ft like the north. We also don't have long bibs that can drain out. Many of our bibs are sloped INTO the home. The only thing we can do is either insulate the exposed pipes or use the Freezemiser which when frozen freezes open leaving the water running. Luckily we don't see hard freezes longer than a few days and the coldest it gets is maybe 15 or 10 degrees for a 12 hour period. I went to college in Hanover, NH. It's completely different up there compared to Austin, TX where I live (born and raised). His video is much more appropriate than anything you said.
FYI, prolly 99% of our homes have exposed water pipes outside. All the pipe insulators sell out just before freezes so people can only do preventative maintenance rather than active maintenance.
Nice gap at the bottom of the spigot cover. Basically you did nothing.
Just needed shifted up a little to completely seal it. Just didn’t notice while I was filming. But even if it was left like that, to say it did nothing is still false. Appreciate the comment that helped nobody though.
How can one think about the future if they're stuck in the past?
It’s free and safer to just disconnect any hose, turn off from an inside valve and then open the hose bib outside. 100% safe and free. Usually live these videos. This one seems unnecessary. That said I still very much appreciate all the tips and tricks from this channel.
Not everyone has a valve like that. I don’t.
Odd. Maybe we all have them up north for this reason.
Also didn’t mean to be negative. Love the channel!
@@SteveSmith-xw7xi You find it "odd" northern houses are built different than southern? You think roofs up north are built the same as in the south, and all over the rest of the nation? ????????????????????? "Just turn off the valve inside. Derp" Come on, Man!
Simple. Shut off the water to the outside faucet…….
Awesome if you have that. Many like myself don’t. Only water shut off turns off all water to the house. So not so simple.
We live in the south. We can't do that. We don't even have long bibs to drain out. Nor do we have isolated water shut offs. We only have whole house shut offs.
You think roofs up north are built the same as in the south, and all over the rest of the nation? ????????????????????? "Just turn off the valve inside. Don't ALLLLLLL houses in the world do it like we do up north??? Derp" Come on, Man!
Don’t waste your money
I haven’t. They all have protected my spigots and pipes as advertised.
Thanks!
You are very welcome! Really glad you liked it. Thanks a lot for the feedback and the Super Thanks!