Can anyone help me out. I am starting to winterize my outside garden faucets. Today I disconnected my hoses and and turned off the interior shutoff valve to the faucets. I had read that you should release the remaining water in the pipe by turning a bleed valve at the shutoff valve. On the one shutoff valve there is a small knob but when I turned it it started squirting water everywhere and I don't think it was water that is trapped in the pipe since it appeared to be endless. What exactly did I turn? If it isn't for releasing water in the pipe then what exactly is it for? Do some valves not have anything that lets you drain excess water from the pipe? Is it good enough if I just get a cover for the faucet and maybe put some type of pipe insulation around the pipe?

 

If you have a shutoff before the faucet, inside the dweeing, just open the bib and release the pressure. Are these frost proof faucets?

 

That type of shutoff valve will have an arrow on it. It sounds like the valve was installed backwards which means when you open the cap you are draining the house instead of the faucet.

 

I have no idea. I doubt they are. As of right now I shut the valves off from the inside and then turned the knobs to the open position on the outside. I was just looking for a valve near or on the inside because I saw some videos that talked about doing that.

 

Do the shut off valves turn anything else in the building? Is it a frost proof faucet?

 

My house has 2 non frost proof hose bibs and all I do is shut off the water supply to them and open the spigots to drain the water. I leave them open until it's time to turn the water back on. I've been doing it that way for the last 25 yrs and haven't had any issues.

 

Do as Marksr says and you'll be OK. The bleed valve on the inside was installed backwards.

 

The inside shutoff valve is called a "stop and waste" valve, and as others have said, it was installed backward. You'll probably be fine if you shut off the valve inside and open the outside faucet and let it drain. Steve

 

http://s3.supplyhouse.com/images/pro...5-0000lf-3.jpg

The little knob looks to be the same as the one in this picture. Is this what everyone is saying is installed backwards? It seems like mine has a tiny pinhole on it but it looks the same. Thanks everyone!