Neighbor told me to wrap my outdoor faucets with old towels instead of buying covers last winter.

I shrugged it off and bought the cheap foam covers from Home Depot, then woke up to a cracked pipe after that hard freeze in January and now I'm wondering if the old timer was onto something, anyone else had better luck with the ghetto wrap method?

3 comments

3 Comments

richard_ramirez1mo ago

I read something on a plumbing forum last year that said the old towel method works way better than foam covers because towels let the pipe breathe while still keeping frost off. The foam traps moisture against the metal and causes condensation that freezes and expands from the inside out, which is exactly what wrecked your pipe. My grandpa used to wrap his outdoor spigots with old rags and duct tape every winter and never had a single freeze issue in 40 years. I tried the foam covers one time and got a slow drip after a cold snap, so I switched back to the raggedy towel wrap and it's been solid ever since. The old timers figured this out through trial and error back when nobody sold special pipe covers, they just used what was on hand and it worked.

xenaw251mo ago

Honestly does it really matter that much lol.

robinwalker25d ago

That towel vs foam debate reminds me of when my neighbor tried to winterize his sprinkler system with beer coozies, said it worked for his buddy. Ended up with a fountain in his front yard after the first freeze, guess the cozies weren't rated for below zero. Sometimes the old raggedy ways really do win out over the fancy store bought stuff.