topic Re: Do you let water faucet drip in Community Chat

Do you let water faucet drip

CherryHugs — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:16:37 GMT

Do you let water faucets drip in your house when the temps get arctic cold?

My Uncle said we should, and they do that in very cold weather.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

Lali1 — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:19:01 GMT

I'm in Texas where we obviously don't get much of this weather and yes we will be leaving some faucets dripping.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

shaggygirl — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:22:55 GMT

Yes, If it's going to 20 F or less I do a slow drip in one of the bathroom faucets and also leave a cabinet door under my kitchen sink open because it's on an outside wall and an older home w/little insulation. During a frigid winter a few years back the cabinet thing was recommended on my local tv station.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

deepwaterdotter — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:23:49 GMT

Yes, and we run a space heater in the basement bathroom to try to prevent pipes from freezing.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

SilleeMee — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:26:28 GMT

I did let them drip when I lived in a house which had pipes inside exterior-facing walls. Now I live in a house with all pipes located in the interior walls. The only thing I'm concerned about is the outdoor garden faucets. Even though those are designed to drain away and towards the inside space, they are still vulnerable to freezing if it gets really cold...like it will get later tonight. I have placed insulation covers on those garden faucets and I'm praying they will help.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

CelticCrafter — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:24:56 GMT

No, our pipes are in inside walls.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

Fressa — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:29:58 GMT

Yes I do when it gets in the single digits and below zero.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

dancingwoman — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:32:26 GMT

Our pipes are inside walls too but also in the crawl space.. once it gets single digits we do...just in case...DH says it can't hurt and he'd rather waste a little water than have frozen pipes...our freeze proof outside faucets have never had a problem...yet...DW

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

SurferWife — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:36:42 GMT

Back when I lived in the Big D...yes.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

fthunt — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:42:47 GMT

No - pipes in inside walls and basement is heated.

3 outside faucets - cut water to those areas in the Fall

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

LuvmyLab — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:44:59 GMT

Yes, we definitely do when it gets below freezing. We don't want to wake up and find our pipes frozen.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

akaburtonfan — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:44:13 GMT

We let the water drip when the nighttime temps go below 0. We've done it ever since we had the pipes freeze one winter long ago.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

riley1 — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:45:29 GMT

Yes, I'm in SC and when it gets really cold, I let the faucets drip and open the cabinet doors.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

Carmie — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:46:58 GMT

No, it is usually not necessary in Pennsylvania. Most of our homes have full basements. The basements even if unheated are really not that cold.

We have left the water to drip when we were staying in our RV in the wintertime. We also wrapped pipes with heat tapes, but now the underbelly of our RV is heated and we just need to flip a switch to turn it on.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

LilLadyNJ — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:51:47 GMT

I do not in my current home, however, in my previous home I had a half bath in the basement that even though it was heated, I had my pipes frozen during the first winter I lived there. Every winter thereafter, I allowed the bathroom faucet drip from January through early March and I left the cabinet doors open. My neighbors always had issues with pipes being frozen and it cost them a lot of money to deal with it.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

SilleeMee — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:53:45 GMT

@dancingwoman wrote:
Our pipes are inside walls too but also in the crawl space.. once it gets single digits we do...just in case...DH says it can't hurt and he'd rather waste a little water than have frozen pipes...our freeze proof outside faucets have never had a problem...yet...DW

@dancingwoman

My original garden faucets were not the self-draining type. I had two replaced with the 'freeze-proof self-draining' kind and not by choice. The old ones froze, my house flooded in the spring and the cost to repair/fix the damages was jaw-dropping. I pray that will never happen again.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

dancingwoman — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 17:58:37 GMT

Geez @SilleeMee that must have been traumatic...🤞everything goes well this winter...DH is plowing now...it's finally letting up some out there...DW

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

Mary Bailey — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 18:03:44 GMT

If it's sub-zero we will. We are on a crawlspace.

My sister has had pipes freeze in her powder room.

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

SeaMaiden — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 18:03:47 GMT

Fortunately our pipes are not against an outside wall....so we never had to worry about freezing....

Re: Do you let water faucet drip

SilleeMee — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 18:04:03 GMT

@dancingwoman wrote:
Geez @SilleeMee that must have been traumatic...🤞everything goes well this winter...DH is plowing now...it's finally letting up some out there...DW

@dancingwoman

I'll be shoveling later, much later when the temps aren't so bitterly cold....which could be a couple of days from now. Good thing I don't need to go anywhere...LOL!