Which Faucets to Drip During a Freeze, How Much, and When Dripping Is Not Enough
# Which Faucets to Drip During a Freeze, How Much, and When Dripping Is Not Enough
This is the most asked freeze question on every Southern forum: which faucets, how much, hot or cold, and when. Here are the answers, and then the answer nobody gives, which is what dripping cannot do.
Which faucets
The faucet farthest from where water enters your house, plus one faucet on each exterior wall. The far faucet keeps water moving through the longest run of pipe in the house. Exterior wall faucets protect the lines with the least insulation between them and the cold.
How much
A thin steady stream, not a drop. Drops refreeze. A pencil lead stream keeps water moving and, just as important, relieves pressure. That matters because of how pipes actually burst: not from the ice itself, but from water pressure trapped between an ice plug and a closed valve. An open faucet gives that pressure somewhere to go, which is why a dripping line that partially freezes often survives the night anyway.
Hot, cold, or both
In a standard freeze, the cold line does the work. In a severe, multi day event, open both sides slightly, or set a single lever faucet to the middle. Hot lines freeze too, they just get a head start from the tank.
When to start
When the Freeze Warning is issued, or when the forecast shows 28 degrees or below for four or more hours. Start before dark, tell everyone in the house the drips stay on until morning, and open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls so room heat reaches the pipes. A full night of dripping costs well under a dollar.
When dripping is not enough
Here is the part the simple advice skips. Dripping protects heated houses in ordinary freezes. It did not save homes during Uri, because when the power fails and the house itself goes cold, a drip cannot fight the whole envelope freezing around it. And in a regional emergency, some utilities ask residents to stop dripping to protect system pressure for firefighting.
So treat dripping as one layer, not the plan. The plan is the whole house: hoses off, faucets covered, exposed pipe and the backflow preventer wrapped, the water heater pipes protected, the pool running, and your main shut off located before you need it. If the power dies in a hard freeze and the house is losing heat, the strongest move left is shutting the main and draining the system down, which is a five minute job if you know where the valve is.
The complete Southern checklist, printable, with the shut off line to fill in, is free. Get the free Freeze Prep Pack