Frozen Spigot

[dalamarjj78]

So we had quite a scare tonight. This is our first winter full timing. We're currently in NC where it's been unusually cold for the area recently. It's currently been more than 24 hours below freezing and likely won't get above freezing for another day or two.

So far this winter we've been using the onboard water pump and fresh water tank when the temps have gone below freezing. But as that's a tedious process and we knew it would be below freezing for a few days we decided to invest in a heated hose and some foam pipe insulation from Lowes in hopes we could just stay connected to the water.

It worked fine the first few nights when temps were above freezing during the day but a few hours ago my wife noticed we didn't have any water.

We went outside in the snow and after some investigating determined that the spigot was frozen. We had wrapped some pipe insulation around it as much as we could but apparently it wasn't enough as the handle was frozen in the open position.

We managed to reheat it enough so everything was working as expected and then decided to just put water in the fresh water tank, use our water pump and turn the spigot off.

Is there anything that we can do to better protect the campground's water spigot during prolonged freezes? Constantly connecting / disconnecting the hose to fill the water tank is less than ideal and it would be nice to figure out a way to just remain connected.

 

[flybouy]

You can purchase a heat tape and wrap the spigot and pipe. Then wrap foam around it. There are many types and lengths available at Amazon, Walmart, HD, etc.

 

[Rhagfo]

You can purchase a heat tape and wrap the spigot and pipe. Then wrap foam around it. There are many types and lengths available at Amazon, Walmart, HD, etc.

While a heated hose is nice, as a full Time Park Host in the PNW, we see below freezing temperatures often during the winter.
I chose to build a heated hose, standard RV white hose, a heat tape about 3' longer than the hose length, and covered with foam pipe insulation.
On the trailer I have about 4" of extra heat tape that is used to heat the inlet elbow at the side of the trailer. This is then covered with foam insulation.
The majority of the extra tape is at the spigot end, it is used to wrap the faucet and or pressure regulator which is then covered with foam pipe insulation.
I used 8" Velcro strips to secure the heat tape to the hose, and to secure the foam insulation around the hose, I use 1" foam insulation so it fully closes around the hose, the end joints secured with gorilla tape. This has worked well down into the teens, and likely even colder.

 

[sourdough]

As posts 2 & 3 note, there are multiple ways to skin that cat but the bottom line is to heat the spigot with heater tape (in my experience). I use the additional length just for the spigot (I believe 3') since I have a factory heated hose. I have used the white hose, add on heat tape, etc. but it makes the hose too bulky and unwieldy. The factory heated hose is pliable and easy to work with but sort of heavy.

 

[Rhagfo]

Well Danny, I guess just different, my 40’ SOOW 50 amp power cord fits in a 3 gallon bucket, my water hose 25’ coils to about 2.5’ across and is just tossed in the bed of the truck.

 

[sourdough]

Well Danny, I guess just different, my 40’ SOOW 50 amp power cord fits in a 3 gallon bucket, my water hose 25’ coils to about 2.5’ across and is just tossed in the bed of the truck.

Yep, just different ways. The hose I had with the add on heat tape rolled up but was not "pliable" when frozen like most white/blue water hoses and then the heater tape made it worse. I don't "toss" anything in the bed of the truck but put them in plastic totes and the bulkiness was problematic IMO. My power cord is zero problem - it rolls up on a reel.

 

[DutchmenSport]

I'm at a state historic site in Louisiana and they (we) got hit with that winter blast also. "They" are not prepared for this type of weather, not like we do in Indiana). So the alternative solution for the freeze was to turn on all the water spigots in the park and let them run. So, the spigots have been running for days now. Slow dribble, but it makes for some interesting ice figures that form.

There's no campground here, just 2 spots for volunteers to park their camper with full hook-ups. But, there are numerous spigots through the park, restrooms, and water fountains. They did shut down the outside water drinking fountains. The rest have running water to prevent freezing.

For the camper, (and we do a lot of cold weather camping), we never leave the garden hose connected. It's always drained too. And we always check with the State Park or site we are on if they want the water dribbling or if they have a heat source. If no heat source, then water stays trickling.

These photos were taken the day after the storm and the temps were warming up to about 33 degrees. Some of the ice formations had already melted away or broken off:

our camper spigot:

 

[jxnbbl]

Different problem but thought I'd throw it into this thread as a tool for the topic. We have a house that we rent and the tenants said that the washer started overflowing.

What I discovered is that the washer has a seperate drain that goes through an in accessible part of the house in the wall behind two large propane tanks and underground to the septic tank.

Normally this would be fine, but we have been in the negative numbers at night for a while now. What I found was the condensation drain for the new high efficiency boiler also shares this drain. So I suspect where it has been fine for washing and "bursts" of drainage....not good with that steady trickle.

I know how to fix it and just competed this...cut there train and put a 3/8" hose into the drain as far as I could and ran very hot water....this drains back and just fills a basin which I had to empty 2-3 times.

The fix moving forward is inserting a heating probe into the pipe with a newly added Y fitting which is activated by the outside temps when they get "into the teens". I never knew this existed prior to this week but useful for situations where a supply/drain will freeze that cannot have heat tape added.

https://a.co/d/8clpubF

 

[TXiceman]

In freezing weather we chose to fill the fresh water tank (100 gal), drain the waste tanks and store the water hose, filters and waste hose. I told the campground they needed to protect THEIR spigot as we were not hooked to it. We easily went 5 days before needing to drain and refill.

All the folks around us depending on heated hoses had issues with water and sewer hoses freezing.

There is no easy ways or short cuts to winter camping.

Ken