How To Keep Outdoor Hose From Freezing

When the last of our garden harvests are beginning to disappear from our kitchens, and the once dark-green and luscious garden is at present droopy and pitiful, it's probably fourth dimension to beginning winterizing our outdoor tools. This doesn't just mean putting the rake and shovel into the shed. It means winterizing out water sources as well. Yous might terminate upwards with a rusty hand rake if you leave that out all winter long, but if you forget to winterize the hose bib to your house, you lot could accept a much bigger and more expensive mess to clean up.

Why you need to protect your hose during winter

Possibly you lot employ the hose to get h2o to your lawn chickens, and the idea of taking off the hose and having to carry your watering systems further in the freezing cold sounds like a horrible idea. Unfortunately, information technology's the all-time idea to keep your hose, water lines, and habitation rubber during those frigid months. You lot might exist wondering what happens if y'all leave a hose connected to the business firm. Information technology can't be that bad, right? Wrong. A hose that'south still attached to the hose bib tin outburst at the seams. Not simply could information technology ruin your favorite hose, but the freezing water can go all the way into your dwelling house and flare-up a pipe inside the house. This creates a huge mess that could price you lot thousands of dollars in repairs and amercement. So no, it'due south not worth it, don't risk information technology; winterize your hose and take the extra steps to bring water to your animals.

When should you winterize hose bibs?

This will depend on where you live and when the boilerplate date for freezing temperatures is. You tin can find this data through Google or use this link to detect your area and effigy out when those dates are. One time you lot've found your dates, you'll want to go back ii weeks, and that's when you should winterize your hoses. This volition protect your water sources from a cold snap that might be a bit early.

How to winterize your outdoor water sources

Okay, and then hopefully, we've scared you enough to convince you that yous need to protect your hose and habitation from water-related disasters. And then how practise you get about correctly winterizing your hose? Luckily for you, it's one of the easiest and least fourth dimension-consuming home maintenance projects you'll come up across.

Remove the hose from the bib

No matter how many you accept, yous'll want to remove all the hoses from any hose bib around your home. To make life a little easier, we recommend turning off the water and letting the balance of the water flow out of the sprayer before removing the hose. This volition allow the hose to be handled more than easily later in the process and avoid getting your pants all wet when the hose inevitably leaks all the water out of itself.

Disconnect the sprayer nozzle

Now that the hose has been drained and removed from the bib, you'll also want to remove the sprayer nozzle. Even though we're protecting the hose by removing the pressure of the spicket, the sprayer nozzle could notwithstanding be damaged by keeping information technology on the hose. So to ensure you lot don't have to buy a new one every year, remove the sprayer and store it adjacent to the hose.

Store the hose in the shed

You've at present protected your domicile from disastrous water leaks, merely hoses can still be damaged and broken past sitting exterior all wintertime long. It'southward best to coil upward the hose, let the water to run out of it equally much as possible, and shop it in a shed, garage, or basement until next season. This will brand your hoses last longer and perform meliorate side by side year. You could make life even easier and invest in a retractable hose!

Drain any sprinkler systems

Some of you might be lucky enough to have a sprinkler organisation for your lawn, garden, and landscaping. If you do, it'south vital to winterize them equally well. Yous might take a professional set upwards to do this, simply if not, y'all'll besides desire to disconnect the sprinkler system from the water source and bleed them. The last thing y'all want to deal with next leap is a broken piping in your organisation that you have to observe. This likely will result in you lot needing to dig up a portion of the organization, ruining your perfectly manicured backyard.

Consider an insulated cover

Now that everything is safe, winterized, and set up for even the harshest wintertime, you lot might want to consider one final matter. This step is optional, merely if you'd like to be extra condom or live in an area with extra harsh winters, it might exist a good thought to invest in an insulated encompass for your hose bib. These are but an extra layer of protection around the bib to reduce the risk of a burst pipe.

You can now cozy upwardly with a mesomorphic sweater, a cup of tea, and a proficient volume, knowing your home is safe from a frozen burst pipe. Notwithstanding not convinced you need to winterize your hoses? Check out this gallery of what burst frozen pipes tin can do.

Editors' Recommendations

• Exercise yous live in climate zone vi? How to tell if your plants will final
• Cordyline care: how to make your cordyline plants thrive and bring the tropics indoors
• How late can you plant sunflowers and still run into blooms? What yous demand to know virtually these beautiful giants
• Used tire planters: Genius upcycling or harmful to your wellness?
• Climate change gardening: Trees yous can found to fight climate change

Source: https://www.happysprout.com/inspiration/how-to-prepare-an-outside-hose-for-freezing-temperatues/

Share this post