A friend called me yesterday and stated her basement flooded ( maybe an inch of water) and that her washing machine was leaking water. What I found was that her freeze proof valve for her outside hose was leaking. I think it was shut off properly and the hose was disconnected but I believe it just leaks. I found the dryer vent above the washing machine oozing water. I cut the pipe going to the valve and capped it off. I’ll fix it when it’s warm outside. I’ve seen this before. Please keep an eye on your outside hose valves. That’s the dryer vent under the valve. Not a good place for that.
Oh my! That stinks. Those frost free hydrants are useless if you don't disconnect the hose. I had one many years ago the lady went out in the spring and cleaned all her porch furniture. Meanwhile the FF hydrant was split, leaking inside the kitchen sink cabinet, running down the basement steps and flooding her basement. She was out there a couple hours i guess. What a mess. And she had no idea till she came back in. They don't leak till you turn them on.
Imagining water backfeeding into an electric dryer. That'll be exciting. Speaking of water backfeeding into something electrical, we had that happen at work. Water leaked into an underground vault here, with 2oo amp service. The sound the electricity made in the water.....was awesome. The cause....our plow guy salted the area, salt water runoff headed for the vault rather than soaking into the ground. Oopsie. Sca
I do that too. Helps that the faucet is directly beside and above the P61a, so it should stay warm enough from the heat rising to the unfinished ceiling.
Funny. I was thinking about the dryer vent allowing me to wash my truck with hot water…. Different perspective..
I just had a "full of water" incident last week...operator says this equipment wont run (its outside) I ended up finding a rusted out reversing switch half full of water (ice)...oh, and that's 480V 3 phase running through there...melted 2 sets of overloads (heaters) into lil piles of molten metal 'til I figured it out!
When we rebuilt the entire house I switched to PEX and put a Mani-block in (it's like a circuit breaker box for the water lines), I'll shut all the outside spigots off at the panel to prevent this issue because, yes, I've had those "frost-free" valves fail more than once.
I have 2 outside faucets. Both, frost-free sillcocks. When installed a number of years ago, they need to be slanted down, towards outside. That's so they can drain when closed. Hoses detached. Haven't had a problem with them, so far.
