Hello Last fall, I waited too long to bring the hose reel inside and when I did it was just about winter! It was cold and when I tried to unscrew the hose from the faucet it was stuck tight! I also broke the handle when I tried to free it! #$%%$# So I took out the knife and cut the hose off just before the faucet and brought it in! What is the best way to help prevent this from happening? Here is what I did. The new nozzle is a luxury but wanted to try it out! I purchased these parts from the local hardware stores. 16 oz Gaps & cracks great Stuff 3.98 Brass Quick Connect kit 5.68 5/8” female End hose repair 3.58 Flex Connect hose shutoff 7.28 ½ x 6” long frost free shutoff 27.95 Union Dielectric ½ S ½ FTP 4.99 Copper 90 Deg Elbow FTGxC 1.79 Copper 90 Deg Elbow FTGxC 1.79 Copper Stop Coupling ½” CxC 0.79 ½” copper pipe x 2 foot 6.78 ½” Brass Apollo HQ sweat ball valve 20.63 Little Big Shot Super Nozzle 8.97 Total 94.21 I cut out the broken faucet & inside shutoff and sweat in the new pipes to install the new up to code frost free faucet with new shutoff. Replaced all pipes from the Copper T just under the blue handle shutoff ball valve. Then sealed the outside with clear RTV silicone and filled in the inside around the new faucet with Great Stuff expanding foam. Now with the new union fitting if the faucet breaks, just the water to the faucet can be turned off, then it can just unscrew and a new one screwed back in! The outside quick disconnect makes it a snap to bring it inside for the winter! Pic 1 - Original Outside Faucet - broken handle and hose connector frozen to it! The inside shutoff was too close to the outside wall so it all had to be cut out! Pic 2 - Inside plumbing all done! Used TFE paste on Union to new faucet, and Had to sweat 9 joints plus apollo good quality brass shut off ball valve. Pic 3 - New Frost Free Outside faucet all done with Flex connector and hose shut off plus metal quick disconnect Pic 4 - New nozzle Click on pic to Enlarge
Looking good Don! I noticed you have a pressure reducer on your line, incoming pressure is that high?
Thanks Yes the water tower that feeds the street(town water) is very high up on a hill right near us!!! When I 1st moved in we were blowing out sink sprayers every month! I finally put a meter on the line and measured 95 PSI !!! Yikes! Now only the water in the front hose is that high. Good for washing the cars! LOL
I've had a brand new (12") anti-siphon, frost-free sillcock freeze and split so I shut off inside at Halloween. Fall checklist item.
Do any of you guys use copper lock?? It is approved for use in MA and other states! I just found out about this stuff yesterday! No more sweating! See pics Click to enlarge:
I wouldn't choose any other method over soft solder for copper tube unless it was physically impossible or there was lots of time and $$ to be saved. (I.e. ProPress system) I would imagine any kind of glue or sealant would be very finicky as to the fit of the joint. It's the capillary action and the interference fit that make a soft solder joint so durable and reliable.
I now have the Metal (Not Plastic) quick disconnect from Home Depot so It should be a snap to undo the hose and then turn the new inside shutoff off and then open the silcock and drain it. There is also a drain cap on the new ball valve inside if I need it also! Is the inside drain cap helpful??? See Red Arrow in Pic Below:
I have those on one of my outside hose bibs. It's in a wall, too shallow for frost-free valve so twice a year I have to jam myself into the crawl space and turn it on,off and drain it. If yours is easily accessible it's the best way to stop it from freezing, assuming you don't need water outside in the wintertime.
Hi I was thinking if the outside was already frozen then could it be drained from the inside with that drain cap?
Hope you removed the drain cap when you did the sweating.....I don't know what would happen to that little gasket/O ring if the cap were left on during sweating..... And I'll thank you for not asking.
Hello No worries, I left the drain cap on during the sweating but used the old wonder bread trick and put the bread in the pipe attached to the water line. It stops the water from being drawn into the ball valve and cooling the joint that I am sweating!!! It works super and then the bread dissolves and flushes right out when I turned the water back on!
Sure looks like that bleeder cap is on the source side of that water line......should've turned the valve around to have the bleeder port on the outside faucet side.
Thread resurrection! Bought my house 2 years ago this weekend actually. The sillcock out front never worked properly due to some azzhat putting some weird quick disconnect on the end and it welded itself into place being different metals. Add to that that the shut off was a gate valve and that started to leak when you shut it off. So luckily the last 2 years that quick disconnect didn't blow out when it froze. I've seen a small icisicle during winter form so I know water is definitely in that thing! Anyway this thread caught my eye a few weeks ago and reminded me to fix it. Plus the woman bought a brand new 2016 challenger and she didn't want to connect 2 hoses out back in order to reach out front. First world problems! I also finally got my shed (another diy thread coming soon) and brought my motorcycle here (was in dad's barn for 2 years) so it will make washing it more convenient. The bone head that installed it originally put it on the edge of the aluminum siding. He also never screwed it in because where you would screw it was perfectly on the edge. Explains the bend copper pipe. So I went and got some pressure treated plywood and cut a 6 by 6 inch piece and a 6 by 3 inch piece to slap together and get rid of the vertical step in the siding. Drilled a hole and then dremeled it out a bit for the sillcock. It was a 10 inch frost free that I picked up. I screwed that in and then went into the basement. I cut out the old copper and gate valve and installed a new ball valve and copper. I put the drain on the hose side and not the source side because I learn from others mistakes. I may have done the same thing if I didn't read this. Hey brain farts do happen. I had an issue with my main not shutting off 100% so I was having an issue sweating the last piece. I almost gave up and capped it with a shark bite with cap because I was so pizzed. After picking that cap up and a short cool down period I remembered someone talking about stuffing bread in the pipe. Side note I did take the bleeder piece off to sweat the ball valve. The rubber gasket might have gotten messed up. So I stuffed about a third of a piece of bread in the source side where it was slowly leaking and started heating the elbow like my life depended on it. Thank God it worked because previously the slow water leak kept cooling the elbow down to the point my solder wouldn't melt. I had a slight melt down myself and may have thrown something. Allegedly anyway... I'll buy the person who posted about the bread trick a pint or 6 because it saved my azz today. I don't have a before picture of outside just some pics of after I was done. I'll also suggest to anyone who builds a house or makes a plumbing repair to skip gate valves because they suck. Drop the few extra dollars and get a proper on/off ball valve. This is the outside hose bib with that POS quick disconnect and the pipe with gate valve that was in the basement. Here are 2 pics of the basement side of the new copper and the ball valve This is the outside. One of the views shows the doubled up piece that I used to pad it out to make it even. Took me way too long, way too many trips to Home Depot, and I wigged out once pretty badly. However it is done and done pretty well in my opinion. My joints could be a bit cleaner but I've only ever built an outside shower so not much practice with sweating joints. Especially in tight spaces. There aren't any leaks and my water pressure is about 60psi. (Tested it a few weeks ago). The total project cost about 80 bucks. Oh and does anyone know if I can paint the pressure treated wood or its ok to leave it? Gonna caulk around it so was wondering because I'll hold off on the caulk until I paint it if that's the case. Having a beer and just ordered some delivery. Sometimes DIY stuff makes you want to punch a wall but there's definitely a big sense of accomplishment doing these projects. I gotta thank my dad because he is the person who instilled the DIY mentality into me. Anyway, time for another beer and happy 4th to everyone!
Good work! I did mention the "wonder bread" Trick on this thread above. I think you can paint the PT after it dries out. I probably do not need the drain plug but always good to see it done right and $80 bucks is good! If you had someone else do it, I bet it would not come out the same way. Another way to do the plywood is to cut a square in the siding and mount the plywood in flush. Looks better and seals up nicer with the caulking.
