Anyone ever use freeze protection valves?

[gsganzer]

I was at the new place today and started looking at freeze protection, with some cold weather in the forecast.

Has anyone used freeze protection valves? The house has 4 outdoor sillcocks (all the freeze proof variety) and I just put the standard foam covers on them. But there're two other spots that give me concern:

1. There's a hot/cold freeze proof sillcock (I didn't even know they made a hot/cold option), mounted near the hot tub, on a stand-alone patio wall (unheated wall). I don't know how that line wouldn't be at risk of freezing. It's routed on the backside of a wall that has the outdoor fireplace, with no connection to heated space. I'm thinking I should put one of these on both the hot and cold. Freeze Mizer Valve
2. In the shop, they have some lines that come up from the slab and then run about 12' to a bathroom. I can put a milkhouse heater in the bathroom, but the other parts of this line run through the unheated shop. I'm thinking of cutting in a tee on the lines and put this style of freeze protection valve on them. The discharge could be routed outdoors or into a bucket.Freeze Protection Valve

Anyone have any experience with freeze protection valves?

 

[bmaverick]

For the livestock, the outside spigot is an frost-free draining type. And if it gets too cold in the negatives, I have 14-inches of copper for this spigot on the inside with an electric heating mesh device to thaw it out. End to end, its about 22 inches.

 

[repete]

I am struck by how cold it can get down by Dallas as compared to Western Washington. Your low temps can be colder than ours even tough we are at the same latitude as North Dakota. The Pacific Ocean has a considerable effect on temps.

 

[grsthegreat]

After a frozen, supposedly frost free outdoor spigot froze and broke in my basement about 8 years ago, and flooded 2 rooms, i removed all my wall mount faucets outdoors and installed ground mount frost frees instead. These are buried 4 foot at makeup.

 

[subhunter]

I use the Freeze Miser things.

 

[gsganzer]

I use these - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=freeze+miser+faucet+protector

Those Freezemiser valves are one of the products I linked too. I just purchased 5 to put on all the outdoor faucets. Sounds like folks really have good things to say about them.

Having a new house, right at the start of cold weather, combined with us only periodically occupying it in the next few weeks, has me concerned.

 

[lman]

I've never had any of these freeze up. Mine are installed so that the interior part is going into the basement. I did replace the packing in one after about 25 years of use. I also have a couple of yard hydrants but I try to avoid using them in icy conditions because the handle tends to freeze fast and the cheap hydrants I have tend to have problems.

Woodford 1/2 in. MIP in. Sweat Anti-Siphon Brass Freezeless Wall Faucet​

 

[bcjmmac]

I've never had any of these freeze up. Mine are installed so that the interior part is going into the basement. I did replace the packing in one after about 25 years of use. I also have a couple of yard hydrants but I try to avoid using them in icy conditions because the handle tends to freeze fast and the cheap hydrants I have tend to have problems.

Woodford 1/2 in. MIP in. Sweat Anti-Siphon Brass Freezeless Wall Faucet​

View attachment 4454124

I’ve never had one of these types of outdoor taps freeze either. That said, I make sure to remove hoses, etc, in the fall when it gets colder so that water isn’t trapped near the spigot which can cause them to fail.

 

[workinonit]

All of my 8 faucets are frost free. Never had an issue with them freezing.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

This has got me to thinking... it's rough to start nowadays, but I eventually get up to speed.

I'm almost in our new house. It has fully foamed interior insulation - attic & all exterior walls. The wiring and plumbing came after, and all of the pumping except for the fixtures are PEX.

All of my previous houses have had black iron piping and were not all that well insulated, so the heat would conduct along the black iron enough that I never had to worry about spigots freezing.

PEX probably doesn't conduct heat at all, or very little, leaving the spigots to be roughly the same as the outside temperature.

This begs the question as to whether those foam caps would be effective or not. I may have to look into those Freeze Mizers or some such solution.

It doesn't freeze often or for very long down here down here, but like Hurricanes when it does happen it creates a mess you'd rather not deal with, and it's best to plan ahead.

 

[Torvy]

I am struck by how cold it can get down by Dallas as compared to Western Washington. Your low temps can be colder than ours even tough we are at the same latitude as North Dakota. The Pacific Ocean has a considerable effect on temps.

We used to live 20 miles inland from Milwaukee. The difference was often 10 degrees different from us and the lakeshore. Always more mild by big bodies of water. Oceans have a bigger effect being both larger and salted.

It will get to freezing down here and sometimes will dip below 20.

Growing up in NE SD...we experienced temps that run 40 to 60 degrees colder than down here in the winter.

 

[gsganzer]

My deal is that over the next month, the house won't be continuously occupied, which is what scares the bejeebers out of me. I'm heading over there today to work on the chicken coop and make sure I haven't missed anything in the freeze-proof department.

The one thing I need to add is a 120vac plug in the well house. This is one of those things that I can't believe wasn't there in the first place. The previous owner has been running a 100' extension cord to the well house to run a heat lamp. I'm doing the same thing, until I add this plug. It's easy enough to take a hot and neutral from the 220V and set up a fused 15A plug to run a heater.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

Always more mild by big bodies of water.

I concur. I lived in Bayou Vista just across from Galveston for a bit and noticed it was always warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, by around 10'F +/- than if you when up into Houston.

Although, when Houston is 104'F being at 94'F with high humidity isn't that much, if any, of a relief.

 

[ponytug]

This has got me to thinking... it's rough to start nowadays, but I eventually get up to speed.

I'm almost in our new house. It has fully foamed interior insulation - attic & all exterior walls. The wiring and plumbing came after, and all of the pumping except for the fixtures are PEX.

All of my previous houses have had black iron piping and were not all that well insulated, so the heat would conduct along the black iron enough that I never had to worry about spigots freezing.

PEX probably doesn't conduct heat at all, or very little, leaving the spigots to be roughly the same as the outside temperature.

This begs the question as to whether those foam caps would be effective or not. I may have to look into those Freeze Mizers or some such solution.

It doesn't freeze often or for very long down here down here, but like Hurricanes when it does happen it creates a mess you'd rather not deal with, and it's best to plan ahead.

My folks had that, with the Woodford type freezeless spigots. I would comment that they, like any valve, eventually leak, and a valve just inside of the fixture can make servicing easier.

FWIW: I've used the faucet covers, and frankly, I found them to be fiddly at best. The ones I bought, with a nice plastic exterior to shed rain/snow/ice, and styrofoam interior, only had about 1/2" of foam inside, so I have my doubts about how well they would function in places where it gets colder than 27F. I now use pool noodles to cover the pipe and spigot, covered by plastic sacking (feed bags), which seem to work much better here.

All the best,

Peter

 

[grsthegreat]

My deal is that over the next month, the house won't be continuously occupied, which is what scares the bejeebers out of me. I'm heading over there today to work on the chicken coop and make sure I haven't missed anything in the freeze-proof department.

The one thing I need to add is a 120vac plug in the well house. This is one of those things that I can't believe wasn't there in the first place. The previous owner has been running a 100' extension cord to the well house to run a heat lamp. I'm doing the same thing, until I add this plug. It's easy enough to take a hot and neutral from the 220V and set up a fused 15A plug to run a heater.

Depends on the load of the well pump. Most heaters can pull 1500 watts. If the well circuit is just designed to handle the starting load on the pump, this im alance may tirp the circuit.

But some well houses have oversized power runs. Also, is it a true 4 wire run or is it just 2 hots and a grounded run. Big difference.

 

[gsganzer]

Depends on the load of the well pump. Most heaters can pull 1500 watts. If the well circuit is just designed to handle the starting load on the pump, this im alance may tirp the circuit.

But some well houses have oversized power runs. Also, is it a true 4 wire run or is it just 2 hots and a grounded run. Big difference.

This won't require any more than a 250 watt bulb, but yes, I'll need to confirm. Understood on the 3 vs 4 wire. I'll check again, but I believe it was 4 wires, 2 hots, neutral and ground. I need to check the conduit size, might be possible to pull a dedicated 120 from the panel for freeze protection.

I'm so busy right now with work and moving, it's likely I'll turn this project over to an electrician anyway. I'm making a list for any other electrical assistance I need, so I can do it all in one shot.

 

[subhunter]

Freeze Miser - I need to update my experience with them. Last winter ordered 2. One worked great the other didn't open on a 27-30 degree night. Recently bought one to replace the bad one. Just walked around the house and it was dripping really fast. It's over 70 degrees out.