Once a year, before first freeze
Once a year, before the first hard freeze, typically late October into mid-November depending on your climate. Disconnect and drain every hose and drain the outdoor lines. Frost-free spigots still need the hoses off and the lines drained; they are not maintenance-free.
This is a once-a-year, half-hour job that prevents one of the most expensive and demoralizing home failures there is: a pipe that bursts inside a wall over the winter. The cause is almost always simple, a hose left attached or a line left full, and the fix is just as simple if you do it before the first hard freeze.
The part worth repeating: take the hoses off. It is the most common mistake, and it undoes the freeze protection even on the fancy frost-free faucets that are supposed to handle this for you.
How to do it
- Disconnect and drain every garden hose, then store them in a garage or shed. A connected hose traps water and will freeze even a frost-free faucet.
- Find the indoor shutoff valve that feeds each outdoor faucet, usually in the basement, crawl space, or utility room, and close it fully.
- Go back outside and open the outdoor faucet all the way to let the water in the line drain out. Leave it open for now.
- Back at the indoor valve, if it has a small bleeder cap, put a bucket under it and open it to release the trapped water, then close it when dripping stops.
- Leave the outdoor faucet handle open so any residual moisture can expand without building pressure.
- Slip an inexpensive foam faucet cover over the outdoor spigot as a second line of defense in a hard cold snap.
- Insulate any exposed pipe running through unheated space with foam sleeves, and seal gaps in the exterior wall around the pipe.
Common mistakes
- Leaving a hose connected. This is the single most common cause of freeze damage, and it defeats even a frost-free faucet.
- Relying on a foam cover alone. A cover is secondary protection; it cannot save a pipe that is still full of water.
- Assuming a frost-free spigot needs nothing. It only self-drains when it is pitched correctly and no hose is attached.
This is exactly the kind of thing that is easy to know and easy to forget. Adulting can put it on a cadence so it surfaces when it is next due, instead of when something goes wrong. Free to start.
Sources
Questions people ask
- Why does a little trapped water matter so much?
- Water expands about nine percent when it freezes, and the pressure is easily enough to split a pipe. A burst can then flood inside the wall, sometimes not discovered until spring.
- I have frost-free faucets. Am I covered?
- Only partly. Frost-free spigots still fail if a hose is left attached or the line is not drained, so run the same steps. The hose is the part people forget.