Do Outdoor Faucet Covers Really Work? When winter comes, you need to make sure that you are ready to face it. It is important for you to make sure that the HVAC works as well as your outdoor faucets are safe and sound.
You must already know that freezing, frost temperatures can damage outdoor pipes and faucets. Therefore, it is essential to cover them up during the winter.
Since you will not likely use it for a while, using an outdoor faucet cover can prevent pipes from freezing.
But do outdoor faucet covers work? If you correctly cover and seal them, yes, an outdoor faucet cover can help you to prevent your outdoor pipes from freezing.
Outdoor faucet covers are made from Styrofoam or other similar materials. They are effective in keeping your outdoor pipes and faucets away from freezing down to some degrees below zero.
In this article, we will let you know more about outdoor faucet covers.
Why Outdoor Faucet Covers are Important
When the winter and freezing temperatures come, the pipes at your home can freeze and burst. So, you can try to use outdoor faucet covers to prevent such a condition from happening.
Moreover, they can also help to keep heat and air from escaping your home. You should not use outdoor faucet covers when the first freeze happens.
Instead, you should use them in the fall to set up your house for facing the winter.
How Outdoor Faucet Covers Work
Outdoor faucet covers work by trapping the heat that naturally escapes from interior pipes to outdoor spigots. These covers are insulated and prevent the heat from going out so that the water does not freeze.
This way, there is no breaking or expanding of the pipes or spigots. Do outdoor faucet covers work?
Generally, these covers work fairly well at their primary job, which is preventing outdoor pipes and faucets from freezing during the winter.
However, they indeed have limitations. Typical outdoor faucet covers are a simple device. As it is said before, they are made from Styrofoam or other similar materials.
These covers are fine up to freezing temperatures, which are a couple of degrees below zero. But they are not that effective to use in super-cold temperatures, like a couple of degrees below freezing.
The Best Type of Outdoor Faucet Covers
There are 2 primary types of outdoor faucet covers, which are the rigid thermal foam and flexible insulated bags. Both are affordable and easy to install.
They are designed to tightly fit around the base of the faucet, creating a seal. So that if you appropriately fit and install them, both types of outdoor faucet covers can do the job well.
The rigid thermal foam cover has a flexible gasket around the edges. While the insulated bags or also known as a faucet sock looks like a cone.
Softer faucet socks are easier to slip on so that they are ideal if your faucet is a tight fit or in an uncomfortable place. While the more rigid covers provide a tough cover.