How often should you winterize outdoor faucets?

Short answer

Winterize the outdoor faucets once a year, before the first freeze. Disconnect every hose, drain it, and shut off and drain the faucets if they have an inside shut-off valve. Then cover each faucet. It's a 15 to 30 minute job that costs $0 to $15, which is the price of a few insulated covers. It's also the single highest-return chore on the fall list, because the damage it prevents happens inside your walls.

Why it matters

Water expands when it freezes, and a pipe full of water has nowhere to put the extra volume. The pipe splits. Most outdoor faucets are built to drain themselves: the valve sits well inside the warm wall, and the spout slopes down so water runs out when the faucet is shut. That design only works if the spout is open. A hose left connected, or a brass splitter or timer screwed to the spout, traps water in the faucet body, and that water freezes right at the point where the pipe passes through the wall.

The split pipe doesn't leak in winter, because the ice plugs it. It leaks in spring, the first time someone turns the faucet on, and it leaks inside the wall where nobody sees it until the drywall stains or the floor goes soft. A burst that would have taken a few minutes to prevent turns into a plumber, a drywall patch, and sometimes a mold cleanup.

When to do it more often

Winterizing is a once-a-year job, and the schedule is set by the weather rather than the calendar. The thing that changes is when. Do it before the first hard freeze where you live, not on a fixed date, and if a cold snap is forecast early, get the hoses off that afternoon. A faucet can split in a single night below freezing.

In a mild climate that sees only an occasional freeze, the job is the same but smaller: hoses off and covers on when frost is forecast, and back to normal afterward.

What you need

Insulated faucet covers, the foam domes that strap over the spout

Steps at a glance

Unscrew every hose, splitter, timer and sprayer from every outdoor faucet.
Stretch each hose out downhill, let it drain fully, and coil it to store inside or in the garage.
If a faucet has a shut-off valve inside the house, close it, then open the outdoor faucet to drain the pipe between them.
Leave an inside-shut-off faucet slightly open for the winter so any water that gets in can expand without pressure.
Strap an insulated cover over each spout.
Walk the outside of the house once more to be sure no hose was missed around the back.

You're done when every faucet is bare, covered, and either drained or self-draining with nothing screwed to it.

Signs it's overdue

A hose still connected when frost arrives.
Frost or ice on the faucet itself, which means water is sitting in it.
Low flow from a faucet in spring, often the first hint of a split pipe.
A wet patch on the wall or floor inside, near where the faucet comes through.

DIY or pro

This is about the easiest job in the house. Unscrewing a hose and strapping on a foam cover takes no skill and no tools. The only part people get wrong is forgetting the faucet behind the garage or the one the hose reel hides.

A plumber will drain and winterize the outdoor lines for $50 to $150, which makes sense for a house with many faucets and inside shut-offs you can't find, or for a vacation property you won't visit again until spring. For most homes, do it yourself the afternoon the forecast turns.

FAQ

Do I need to cover outdoor faucets in winter?

A cover helps, but disconnecting the hose matters more. A self-draining faucet with nothing attached rarely freezes. A covered faucet with a hose still on it still can.

What happens if you leave a hose connected in winter?

Water trapped in the faucet freezes and splits the pipe inside the wall. The leak shows up in spring when the faucet is used again.

Should outdoor faucets be left open in winter?

Only a faucet with an inside shut-off valve, after that valve is closed and the line is drained. A faucet with no inside valve should be closed, with nothing attached.

What is a frost-free faucet?

One whose valve sits inside the warm wall, with a long stem to the handle outside, so the exposed part holds no water. It still needs the hose off to drain.