How To Repair Dripping Outside Faucet

How To Gear up a Leaky Outdoor Faucet

A common issue that any gardener or homeowner volition likely run into one solar day is the problem of a leaky spigot. This tin can present as a pocket-sized, insignificant effect, but if left untouched for long plenty, even an outdoor faucet leaking gently can cause serious damage to your garden, your business firm's foundation and your depository financial institution account. Luckily, a leaky outdoor faucet repair tin can be easy, quick and, most importantly, cheap. All you'll need is a wrench, pliers, a screwdriver and a spare washer for your leaking hose bib repair. Annotation: If you're working with a frost-free faucet and yous meet that h2o is leaking from the top of the bib, yous might too need to replace the vacuum breaker. Skip to step 5 for more details on vacuum breaker replacement.

Step 1: Check the Packing Nut

Commonly referred to as a spigot or a hose bib, the outdoor faucet on your house has a fairly straightforward anatomy. Behind the handle, you'll find a packing nut that keeps the water's egress sealed off from the outside. Tightening this packing nut with ½ to ⅛ plow is the commencement step in any leaky outdoor faucet repair. If your handle is secured instead with a screw at its center, follow the same steps applied to the spiral instead. Often, tightening this seal is all you need to get your hose bibb back to functioning the way information technology should be. If you find that your spigot is however leaking after this, you'll take to motion forward with removing this packing nut completely to gain access to the hose stem. Before you exercise this, make sure your h2o supply is turned off.

Stride 2: Turn Off Your H2o Supply

It's important to make certain your water supply is turned off when moving forward with a hose repair; otherwise, you will run into a globe of problems when yous remove the packing nut to admission the faucet stalk. If y'all aren't sure how to do this, we recommend locating your h2o meter start, equally yous'll typically find your water close-off valve nearby. The location of the close-off valve and meter vary, with indoor water meters more common for colder regions and outdoor water meters used frequently in warmer climates. If you believe your h2o meter is located indoors, try searching your basement, garage or crawl space. Typically, turning the water shut-off valve clockwise to horizontal will turn your water supply off. If your valve uses a knob, plough clockwise until y'all tin can no longer plough. Afterwards you've done this, make sure to turn your outdoor faucet to open before proceeding with the repair to get any excess water out that might be left in the pipes (and to brand sure y'all succeeded in cut off the water supply).

Step 3: Accessing the Washer Assembly

Once you are sure your water supply is shut off, apply an adjustable wrench to loosen the packing nut that is behind the handle of the faucet. Remove the handle to gain access to the washer associates, which will likely need to be replaced. This step differs depending on whether you are working with a regular or frost-gratis faucet. On a regular spigot, you lot'll find the washer assembly directly behind the faucet handle. If you lot are using a freeze-proof faucet, you'll notice your handle is attached to a long metal rod chosen the faucet stem. Remove the entire stalk, and you'll find the damaged washer at the opposite end to the handle. Utilize a screwdriver to remove the washer assembly, gaining access to the washer. Replace the damaged washer with a new i of the same size and thickness.

Step iv: Reassemble Your Faucet

Supplant the spiral at the terminate of the faucet stalk or faucet handle. Supersede the handle back to its starting position and tighten the packing nut by turning information technology clockwise.

Step 5: Replacing the Vacuum Billow on a Frost-Free Faucet

If yous accept a newer firm, you might find that you are working with a frost-free faucet. While these faucets are great in that they forestall freezing and burst pipes, they accept more parts to deal with and, therefore, there are more than places where your leak could exist coming from. The valve on the vacuum breaker has a tendency to wear down and interruption, letting h2o through when it normally wouldn't. Replacing the vacuum billow is easy but volition likely require you to take your former function to a hardware store to brand sure the replacement part is an exact fit for your particular spigot. Before heading to the store, only unscrew (or popular off) the vacuum breaker cap on top of your faucet. Underneath, you'll find the vacuum breaker. Each faucet is different in this department, just typically you will exist able to dislodge this function by either unscrewing it to dislodge it from any threads or pulling it out using pliers. You'll install the replacement the same way that you removed the original.

All content provided in this article is for general informational purposes only. All apply of products referenced in this article should be done in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.