Learned my outside faucet froze yesterday when my son tried to wash his car. Water started pouring inside. So today I drilled some holes n stuck my sope inside to see what I'm up against. Well I'm hopeful it's easier that I'm anticipating. Looks like this just screws on to a fitting, but I would like to see if you all could provide some confirmation on this particular unit. What made me realize is that it's not actually screwed into the wall to support it so it must be screwed into a fitting for support. Well here are the pictures, I am guessing when the house was built it was never angled down for draining and held water in the pipe.
Outdoor sillcock
- Thread starter v1ru5879
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TurnipTruck
Well-known member
This is a ”frost-free” sillcock, 12” in this case (it gets cold here!). They sell these in several lengths.
If this is what you have, it is old enough that it doesn’t have the vacuum breaker plastic cap that is supposed to prevent damage if you leave the hose on all winter.
The common freeze failure mode is a split in the copper tube outboard of the plug seat.
Otherwise you just have a spigot that could be sweated on, or male or female pipe threads, or a PEX barb.
I took this pic last year when diagnosing a stuck valve.
PolishX
Active member
If the barrel is split you will have to pull the whole unit and cut a panel for it on the inside to make the connection and patch the drywall
I poked a hole inside where the water line connects and its pex through a stud towards the outside. Even if I did cut an access it's through the stud to the outside. So I am wondering if the builder used a screw on or a barbed end type. I have to think a screw on because there is nothing anchoring it down anywhere. I think if it was barbed it would at least be screwed into the wall as to not wiggle around.
TurnipTruck
Well-known member
All of mine are screwed into drop ear fittings like that.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
My last house just had an elbow in the wall, sillcock wasn't attached to the exterior wall either, but mine was all copper . When I had to replace it, I cut open the wall and just covered the hole with an adjustable access panel. Patching drywall also isn't a big deal.
For pex, I'd think you probably have a drop ear
For pex, I'd think you probably have a drop ear
It doesn't make any difference which style it is, you will need to cut a hole to get it apart. It could be PEX with a barb, or a threaded fitting, either way, cut open the wall.
Depending on where the hole ends up you can buy a plastic access panel and paint it to match the wall. That is if you don't mind the panel.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085612GNJ/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Or,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FK9SJY/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Depending on where the hole ends up you can buy a plastic access panel and paint it to match the wall. That is if you don't mind the panel.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085612GNJ/?tag=atomicindus08-20
Or,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FK9SJY/?tag=atomicindus08-20
That will work about 1% of the time, The rest of the time you will just twist up the plumbing inside and have to make a larger hole to fix the mess.
save yourself the grief of further damage . cut an access hole .
Solpainter
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2011
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- 156
Was the hose attached in freezing weather? It must be disconnected or will freeze and crack.
WisJim
Well-known member
I have a frost free sillcock and still have a shutoff and drain inside because of previous bad experience with freeze ups.
Finally got around to making an access hole and it is threaded into a drop ear. Any special precautions to take when unscrewing this one? Was gonna go buy all the sizes of sillcocks so I can remove and replace with as little water downtime as possible.
I pry should but my drywall skill aren't very good. As it stands now I am able to have my access panel in the closet. If I wanted to add a shutoff I'd have to an access that's in a very visible spot.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
The shutoff can't go behind that access panel?
Innovate1
Well-known member
How long is the frost free faucet or is it even a frost free faucet? If it is level there won't be enough water left in the faucet to cause any damage when it freezes. They make different lengths for different climates. It also seems like it should make a big difference what type of pipe it is fastened to and how close to the inside that pipe is. If it's hooked to pex there isn't much to transfer heat into the faucet to keep it from freezing. And a typical wall isn't thick enough to have much length. I would think these should go into the rim joist or into a location with a perpendicular interior wall so they can be long. When I put one on each side of my detached garage I put one in where a wall was for the half bath. The other one I ran clear through the wall because there wasn't another good option that I could see.
Innovate1
Well-known member
A friend recently had basement pipes freeze because they finished the basement and the pipes were on the cold side of the insulation but still inside. Then we had an unusually cold spell. There's a bit more to it than just using a frost free faucet to keep things from bursting.
I would say it's at least 8" and pry a 12". It comes from outside into a wall of a closet. It passes though a stud and then to the drop elbow which is connected to pex. The frost free actually had a foam wrap around it and I could feel it burst at end. Only thing I could think is it was used by my son when it was too cold out at some point during the evening. I'll get a picture of the floor plan to show you how it comes into the house.
I know that it wouldn't hurt to possibly get creative and get some warm air into that closet one way or another. Most closet's dont have a heat source as in many cases it's not needed. Here at Christmas time we had a Wind chill of -27 degrees as temps were below zero during the night and day! Northern Ohio gets it's share of Cold weather. My friend cut decorative vents in his outside closet door. When it's cold out my in laws leave one of their Outside wall Closet doors open to allow warm air flow in.
LtF
LtF
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Jeepster04
Well-known member
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- Jun 25, 2013
- Messages
- 3,097
Wonder if that little check valve would keep some of the water from draining out?
CraigStu
Well-known member
Both of ours have the long 10-12? frostfree bibs. They both also have a valve inside. They both come through the 2x10 that caps the floor joists into the basement. I still drain them every fall. I figure the frostfree bib is there in case I get surprised by an early freeze or just plain forget. I had one frozen pipe decades ago and I do not want another. In our last house I had the problem like Innovate1 mentioned. They ran the pipes for the water in the laundry room form the basement up and into the wall. It was an outside wall. I peeled off the drywall behind the sink and the washing machine and cut a hole in the finished basement ceiling. That helped, but any time we got below 25f I stacked up a bunch of stuff and put a space heater right under the grill I covered the ceiling hole with.
You know now that you mention that I have had to replace the one in the back yard twice because it failed and wasn't letting water out when I would turn on the water. Pain in the **** because that's the part that has hose thread so I wasn't able to just eliminate it completely. I did feel better about in in the back because it's hooked to a drip system tho. You got me thinking about it now that it was or is starting to fail because it was still able to let water flow but it may have been just messed up enough to not let it all drain out.
I should mention, if you are happy with around 10 GPM out of a faucet the Woodford is fine. I wanted more flow. I forget how much I had with the Woodford, but it was twice as much with two separate fuacets. I took the times to time it with a five gallon pail.
PolishX
Active member
As I guy who has installed probably 3 or 4 of these a year for my 24 year career as a plumber before I went into PM I would say yes you can put a access panel. Decorate it or hide is anyway you want and put the shut off panel there. Nothing in code says you can't put a valve in a panel. Code says you have to leave the valve "easily accessible" and a panel does that, same with unions just for a piece of useless plumbing knowledge
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Oh, I know it is allowed there and he already stated he is putting in an access panel, I just didn't understand why it couldn't go there. I think the issue is layout and space
PolishX
Active member
Ah ok that makes more sense now, sorry jumped back in after a hectic few weeks. Bosses thought it would be cool to droop 16 million in projects in my lap, been on the job 60 days so lets see how chaotic this summer is LOL