Is is enough to turn off water and open outside taps in freezing conditions?

wookie6

Hi,

Now its getting towards freezing temperatures, is it enough to close the stopcock leading to the outside tap (yes, this does assume you have one) and then fully open the outside tap or should any other precautions be taken?

I would assume that's enough as having the tap open will allow any freezing water to expand and come out of the tap.

Does it make any difference if the tap is directly on the outside wall with no external piping or whether there is around half a foot of external piping leading up to the garden tap.

Any advice appreciated!

Apodemus

Simple answer is Yes, that should be sufficient.

Having said that, I seldom bother nowadays! Winters ain’t what they used to be!

Ectophile

So far, I haven't had a problem with the outside tap turned off, and the inside stopcock left on.


The tap is covered with insulation, but that's all. It has only a very short pipe outside.

Davesnave

I have many metres of outside 20mm poly pipe, 12 taps + some horse troughs. I don't bother to shut off and drain down if there's just a few degrees of frost forecast, as the pipe seems to cope with expansion/contraction via normal, short term freezing.

However, if we have a longer spell of very cold weather in the forecast ahead, I do drain down, just in case.

nofoollikeold

If your outside tap is the lowest point in the system after the internal stop top, closing the stop tap and opening the outside tap will be fine. However, if the tap is not the lowest point, you would need to fit a drain off at the lowest point and use that to drain the water.

wookie6

nofoollikeold wrote: »

If your outside tap is the lowest point in the system after the internal stop top, closing the stop tap and opening the outside tap will be fine. However, if the tap is not the lowest point, you would need to fit a drain off at the lowest point and use that to drain the water.

One of the taps is level with the internal stopcock so I guess should be fine.

For the other one, the pipe actually goes down from the stopcock, appears to go under the floor and then appears to come back up through the back wall before coming out of the back of the house, so there is no chance of fitting a drain off at the lowest point as I can't access any of the pipework between the stopcock and outside tap. It sounds like that one may need to be insulated outside.

wookie6

Ectophile wrote: »

So far, I haven't had a problem with the outside tap turned off, and the inside stopcock left on.


The tap is covered with insulation, but that's all. It has only a very short pipe outside.

@Ectophile - What insulation do you use to cover your tap?

Ectophile

wookie6 wrote: »

@Ectophile - What insulation do you use to cover your tap?

One of these things: https://www.homebase.co.uk/outdoor-tap-cover_p241134


Though I can't remember where I bought it. It's just a few pre-cut bits of foam pipe lagging, some clips and some caps that look like they came off aerosol cans.