Tips to keep water faucet from freezing, if possible

[SandeeAR]

We have a Pirit Heated Water hose hooked up. Towels wrapped around faucet and water inlet connection at RV. When temperature drops below about 24, the water freezes coming out of the spigot on our kids house. Is there anything we can do to prevent this? Or do we just shut it off when it dips that low and use the tank. Sort of defeats the purpose of having a hose that works to 40 below lol. Thanks!

[AFchap]

I aways disconnect in freezing weather, but we don't spend much time in areas where it gets that cold. I would say you need to get some heat tape and insulation on the spigot & connecting pipe if possible.

[Rif]

I built my own heated hose when we were forced to spend time in cold weather. I left about a foot of heat tape sticking out each end of the insulation so I could wrap it around the hose bib and connection on the RV. If you don't have that option you will need to find some way to fully insulate the connection on the house. Perhaps build a good sized Styrofoam box around it and fill it with insulation. It won't look pretty but it should keep things from freezing.

[dartmouth01]

Try dripping the water faucet. if you are not hooked up to sewer, put a bucket under the faucet and dump it outside on occasion. If the temps only fall below freezing at night, it may get you through the night.

[JRP]

depends on whether the outdoor spigot comes up out of the ground or out the side of the house. at my winter ranch where they come up out of the ground, I wrap insulation around the above ground pipe portion and then build an insulated enclosure around it. In extreme cold spells (infrequent) I either turn it off overnight or turn on the electric heat tape or put a 60 watt light bulb inside the enclosure.

If its just a spigot sticking out the side of the house, you need to get at the pipe inside, assuming its not a heated area and add some insulation and/or heat source, like electric heat tape or a 60 watt bulb. or just turn it off overnight when those low temps are expected. most of us rely on our internal water tank & pump during cold spells, except for refilling the tank.

[bigjim]

Are you saying that it freezes at the connection on the side of the house but not in the hose coming to the trailer? If so how can you tell where it is freezing? Not meaning to sound picky but clear information makes it easier to give correct information. I am on about the same plane as you but near Memphis. I have used a hose with heat tape overwrapped with the foam insulation and something like what you described where it hooks to the trailer. My park owner uses about plastic barrel cut down to about 1/3 over the hook-ups with a incandesant bulb under the bucket. So far the only freeze up I have had is to the kitchen faucet in the trailer a couple of times but with no damage when thawed. I believe my issue is inside the trailer when extremely cold for extended periods of time. We had a fellow here that used the heated hose that had a major issue early in the season but I don't know what caused it and have no experience with those hoses. The heat tape does essentially the same but I suppose it could fail too. If you are correct about the location you need to somehow get some heat to the faucet hook up. If it comes out through a wall if getting some heat like a heat tape or bulb then there is potential for breaking the water line in the wall of house. I lean toward you using the heat tape but of course you will also need a place to plug in the tape. It may depend on the hook up and the rv but I have not had issues at 24degrees unless it is an extended time. Every situation is different of course.

[SWharton]

Whenever we hear the temp will be at freezing or below we disconnect our hose and live off the tanks. We camp in a CG in Houston that when the overnight will be freezing they turn off the water at 9-10 so there is no problem. This is clearly announced at the entrance to the CG.

[Kirk W]

About the only suggestion that I might add would be heat tape from one of the mobile home supply stores applied to the metal faucet.

[SWharton]

Home Depot, Lowes and Ace carry the heat tape.

[SandeeAR]

Thanks for your input. We have tried dripping the faucets. Considered heat tape on the faucet, but we have to move each two weeks to dump. Seems we just wasted our money on the Pirit Heated Hose. We are just going to disconnect from the spigot when it dips to 20 or lower.

[scouserl41]

Can't you wrap 3 or 4 feet of heat tape around the faucet only and run it off a separate electrical connection from the house so you don't have to disconnect it when you dump?

BnB

[lappir]

If you are just a little handy you can build an enclosure around your connections using coated insulation board and some of the silver tape. It worked for me during a very cold spell at a mobile home park one winter. Granted the source had a heated rod inside the pipe. that extended below the frost line for the location, but my box from the ground to the inlet for the trailer worked fine. I did use a heat tape on my water supply. Didn't use a hose but put together 3/4 inch pvc pipe and had just a 12 inch short hose to connect to the trailer. I had one of the Pirit hoses and it developed pin hole leaks in less than a month and only two uses. Got my money back thankfully.

 

Rod

[bigjim]

No doubt your last decision is the safest.

[SCClockDr]

When cold weather camping we disconnect both hoses and only connect to use then re-stow. Frozen water hose is a bear to coil and quite heavy. A frozen waste hose is worse than a bad weekend and to be avoided at all cost.

[LFDR3116]

We saw a park that had a light bulb plugged in and light on with a very large plastic 10(?) gallon bucket turned upside down over the outdoor water faucet. That was enough heat to keep the faucet from freezing. It would also depend on how high the faucet is off the ground if it would work or not. Might not work if it stays below freezing during the day, or gets extremely cold. We sit for several months at a time, so have heat tape on the faucet during winter.

[bigjim]

pat and pete the guy here has been doing that for years through extended periods of cold. He goes to the trouble of coming through the park about the time it gets to freezing to turn the bulbs on and will leave them on for days at a time if needed or turn it off during the day if conditons warrent. He usuually does a walk around a couple of times to check up when it is extended time. I am always slightly that the bulb may quit then we could have an issue but I have been here several winters with no issues. It is a little work for the owner but it works for him.

[rdickinson]

You have the makings for a disaster here. Can't speak to building codes in the USA but to the best of my knowledge in areas of Canada where I have worked, freeze proof faucets are used outside. They have a longer stem reaching inside the house. The actual shutoff rubber washer is over 12" inside where it is warmer. This particular faucet stem or pipe has a slight pitch up inside the wall so as to allow water to drain out of that section of pipe when fixture is shut off. By leaving the hose attached and the tap on you are allowing the freeze to creep back into the house. Blown pipes will happen when things start to thaw out. There should also be another shutoff inside the house controlling that particular run of pipe.

Best to disconnect hose and drain it when weather gets cold enough to freeze. I fill my onboard tank like a previous poster and live off it for a couple of days.

[roadfitter]

HI Sandee

We have wintered over in nearly every northern state there is including ND, MN, WI, IL, down to a max of -25 below zero. We have never sustained any freeze ups. In inside your coach when really cold at least leave the cabinet doors open. For the fresh water hose I tape self limiting commercial heat tapes to the hoses insulate to the max and run the insulated heat taped hose through 3" pvc pipe. You can run it that way all the way from the house to the RV with a disconnect at the RV. Light bulbs are very unreliable! Ace Hdw. sells a foam cover for the spigot. If the water supply comes out of the ground I cover it with a round 12"sauna tube, heat tape and pack with insulation then come out of it with the aforementioned 3" pvc set up.

Absolutely keep your holding tank valves closed. If there not in a protected compartment and there outside box them in with 1" closed cell insulation board from home depot, heat tape them and insulate. With this setup I use a macerator to dump my tanks when I stay on some ones property. I bought 2 75' 1" commercial rubber garden hoses just for that purpose @ HD for $45. each.

You can buy the heat tapes by the foot, as long as you like. I use 8 wts. per ft. and its cheaper than Home Depot. You can also get it on line. I also double insolate my hoses. Depending on where I am I some times hard pipe my waist pipe to the sewer pipe and heat trace and insulate the dump line. This is easy to do and shouldn't take more than 2 days to do.

RV'ing can be done in winter climes but there are things that need to be done. You might think of covering the entry door at night with a blanket or lined curtain it stops cold convection.

well Good Luck with a little work you can be comfy.

roadfitter