How to winterize outdoor faucets and hoses
Disconnect the hose, close the valve inside, open the faucet outside. Ten minutes, before the first freezing night.
Why the outdoor faucet goes first
An outdoor faucet sits at the end of a short run of pipe that passes through the wall, the coldest place in the house. A hose left connected keeps water standing against it. Illinois Extension's advice is to take the hose off and drain the line, which "reduces the chance of freezing in the short span of pipe just inside the house."
The three steps
- Disconnect the hose. Drain it, coil it and store it somewhere it will not freeze full of water.
- Close the inside valve. Most outdoor faucets have a shutoff valve on the pipe inside, often in the basement or a utility room near the wall the faucet is on. Turn it closed.
- Open the faucet outside. Let the water in the pipe between the valve and the faucet run out. Leave the faucet open for the winter so any water left can expand without splitting the pipe.
If there is a small cap or drain screw on the inside valve, open it with a bucket under it to empty the last of the line, then close it again.
When to do it
Before the first night the forecast reaches freezing. The National Weather Service's advice for cold weather starts with making the forecast part of your routine, so that night does not catch you with a hose still on. The freeze check turns a forecast low into the steps for that night.
If there is no inside valve
Some faucets are frost-free: the valve sits far back inside the wall, so the outdoor part drains on its own. They still split if a hose is left on, so the hose still comes off.
The steps for outdoor faucets and hoses
- Disconnect the garden hosesA hose left on holds water against the faucet. Drain it and store it inside.
- Shut off and drain the outdoor faucetsClose the valve inside the house that feeds each outdoor faucet, then open the faucet outside to drain it. That empties the short run of pipe just inside the wall, the part most likely to freeze.
- Watch the forecast lowMake checking the forecast a habit, so a night at or under 32 degrees is not a surprise. The freeze check turns tonight's low into tonight's steps.
Sources
Drafted on October 26, 2026 with a language model from the pages listed above, each opened that day, and sampled by the editor after publication. Every figure is computed by the same code the tools run, and a test fails the build if one stops matching.
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