Tucson’s hard water tends to destroy exterior hose bibs. When they start to leak, we’re the ones to call.

Leaky hose bibs are rarely any kind of an emergency per se. However, if you leave them unchecked they can cause your water bills to absolutely skyrocket. Why pay for water that’s simply going into the ground?

Winterize Your Hose Bibs!

Sometimes we end up having to replace hose bibs—and a whole lot more—because people forget to winterize them when the colder months roll around. Watch the weather! Here in Tucson temperatures typically dip below freezing during November through January. When they do, they freeze the water trapped in your hose bibs.

This can damage your faucets or even cause pipes to burst in the wall, and at that point you’ve got a bad day ahead of you. While we do offer emergency repair services that’s not how anybody really wants to kick off their holiday season. Avoid this problem by turning off the water supply to your outside faucets. You also need to remove all hoses completely and put them away for the season.

You can also place a hose bib insulation cover over your spigots. You can get one of these covers for about $3 at your local big box store. This is one of the few times when a big box store purchase can provide you with a great deal of help. These covers keep the spigot just warm enough to prevent freezing in our climate, where temperatures tend to rise during the day only to plunge again at night. They aren’t 100% effective, but they do help.

Get a Better Spigot

Older spigots are particularly susceptible to freezing. If you’d like to worry about freezing temperatures just a little bit less, consider inviting us to install newer frost-proof bibs on your home. These bibs place the “valve seat” inside of the home, where it’s warm. The valve seat is the place where the water remains after you’ve closed the faucet. If it’s warm, it doesn’t freeze, and you don’t get pipe explosions.

This is an especially great solution for people who are extremely busy or who don’t tend to pay attention to the weather, or for those who are just rather forgetful and prone to becoming sidetracked. While you wouldn’t want to rely on these if you lived in a really cold climate, they work just fine for our local weather.

How much does it cost? We can generally get the job done for under $250, but your mileage may vary.

A Word About DIY Hose Bib Repair

We know there are some intrepid DIY types out there who believe replacing an outdoor spigot to be an easy job just about anyone can do. There are certainly dozens of You Tube videos which will lead you to believe anyone with a couple of hours and a few big box store components can get the job done.

If you’re lucky, those videos are right. A gasket replacement (see below) generally doesn’t create too many problems. However, that’s your best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is something else again.

Please be cautious about attempting this repair on your own. Again, the spigot is attached to your entire indoor plumbing system. There’s a lot more going on there than you think. There are components to your spigot system which run through your walls and even under the house. You could easily destroy your pipes and, in turn, flood your home, destroy your drywall, and create a fire hazard when the water gets close to your electrical system.

Again, spigot repair and replacement is not a very expensive job. Call us for a free estimate before you do anything else. This job tends to pay for itself when you start seeing the savings on your water bill. If the spigot doesn’t need to be replaced the job might cost less than $100. Sometimes we can just pop a new rubber gasket into the spigot and call it a day. Doesn’t it make sense to find out what we can do for you safely before you start putting your home at risk by trying to save a couple of dollars?

How to Extend the Lifespan of Your Outdoor Faucet

Once you’ve gotten a new spigot we want to make sure you don’t have to think about it again for awhile. That’s why we want to take a moment to warn you about over-tightening.

Many homeowners put a lot of excessive wear and tear on their spigots because they tighten them up too much.

Most normal spigots will drip and drain for a minute or so after you turn them off. This is perfectly fine and does not mean you have a leak. Just turn the dial normally and walk away, letting gravity and nature do the rest.

A normal hose bib will last for 20 or 30 years. If you do choose a replacement, you can choose one knowing you shouldn’t have to call us out for another replacement for decades, as long as you continue to care for your hose bibs correctly. That makes it a pretty good investment…it’s something like $0.83 per month for the entire lifespan of the part!

Derail Those Drips and Put the Kibosh on Leaks

Call OTW Plumbing Now!