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As dark and cold winter months quickly approach, you may be checking off your to-do list forwinterizing your home. Whether it’scleaning your gutters, insulating your windows, or trimming up your landscape, you’ve got to do some extra work around the home before the temperature drops.
这是一个至关重要的物品，应该始终在您的冬季前列表中：排干室外水龙头和软管。在较冷的月份，剩余的水会冻结和扩张，这可能导致爆管或阀门—or, in other words, an extensive repair.
To save yourself the headache, here are three easy steps you can follow when you go to drain your outdoor faucets and garden hoses.
1. Shut off the outdoor water valve
虽然这并不常见，但有些较旧的房屋可能没有房主很容易使用的关闭阀。如果是这种情况，您将需要致电管道专家。
First things first: Be sure to shut off the valve that controls any outside faucets. Even if your outdoor faucets are turned “off” during the winter months, water will still accumulate and flow in the pipes if the shutoff valve is neglected.
Not only can this damage the outdoor faucets, but it can mean serious damage to the pipes that run inside of your home—and trust us when we sayno onewants a pipe to burst indoors.
您需要关闭的关闭阀应在控制您的电器和内部水龙头的其他手动关闭阀附近。它可能在地下室或车库空间中，但是如果不确定，请有一个local plumbing expert查看。
2. Remove any attachments, like hoses, from the faucets
Don't let your garden hose become damaged during winter. Remove any nozzle attachments and let dry before storing it in a circular pattern to retain its shape.
After you’ve shut off the valve, remove any attached garden hoses from the faucet.
Think of these as another place for water to settle, freeze over, and expand. Don’t let cold weather rip yourgarden hoseor make adapters next to impossible to screw off.
Once you’ve taken off your attachments, allow any residual water to drain, especially if you’re storing the hoses and attachments outside or in a shed that isn’t heated.
3. Drain the faucets completely
Be patient in letting all of the water drain out—any residual water, even a small amount, can freeze over and cause issues in your pipes.
Now, for the most important part. Open up all of your outdoor faucets and allow all of the water to drain out of the pipes. You can use abucketfor water collection, if necessary.
Note that even a small amount of residual standing water can cause an issue in your pipes, so it’s crucial to be patient in letting the remaining water drip out. Once you’ve allowed all the stagnant water out of the pipes, make sure to shut off the outdoor faucets once more.
You may also want to use anoutdoor faucet coverto add an extra layer of protection to your faucets. These will also protect from any freezing rain or snow during the winter that can cause a frozen, unusable faucet or rusty exterior.
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