Garage faucet freezing

10 years ago

Over the summer I installed a wash tub in my garage, it's located on a interior wall. Very little supply lines are in the garage, most the plumbing including the p-trap are on the warm side, in my heated basement. What is exposed in the garage is all very well insulated. My pipes, including drain have never frozen but the faucet itself has. The faucet is cheap and the only one lowes had in stock at the time. It is made up of plastic and metal, not real high quality.

My garage is a work in progress, walls are insulated and drywall is now hung. The ceiling has drywall but I have not insulated it yet. Here in Ohio the weather has been dropping well below zero and this is the only time ive been having an issue. The garage stays about 25-30 degrees warmer that the outside temp, but with going in and out, the temp out there drops.

So I'm looking for the best solution to keep the faucet from freezing. Would upgrading to a better faucet help from freezing?

Any advice would be great.

Comments (4)

User
10 years ago
Upgrading the faucet is unlikely to make any difference if your garage temperature drops below the freezing point.

An easy, cheap, "rough and dirty" solution would be to hand a heat lamp over the faucet, plugged into a temperature-switch that will turn on the lamp only when the temperature approaches freezing.
malibujason79
Original Author
10 years ago
That is basically what I've been doing now but with a shop light. I was hoping there was a better solution than doing that. I've also thought about putting in some type of drain in so I could drain the water out of the lines when not in use.

Is there any type of faucet out there that is frost free, that would help solve my issue?
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User
10 years ago
You could replace the faucet with two anti-siphon frost-free sillcocks, one for hot and one for cold water.
jonnyp
10 years ago
Open the faucets so they are dripping. Moving water is less likely to
freeze. You may want to add shut offs.
Also be aware that the trap on the drain may also freeze and crack allowing dangerous sewer gas into the building. For this you can purchase a winterizer , a type of anti freeze.