We just had the 2 sill cocks/taps/spigots on the outside of our house replaced (we wanted one relocated, and the other leaked). They put on 2 new sill cocks. And they worked fine when we just turned them on.
But today I connected a hose, and when I turned the water on, there was considerable leakage from the sill cock. Same thing when I put my thumb over the hose to spray.
The new taps seem to have some kind of “adapter” on them. Reminds me of a shower “water saver.” Whereas the old spigots simply had the end of the tap threaded for the hose connection, these seem to have a stainless steel “adapter” on them. It seems to be (at least) 2 pieces, joined by a rubber washer. And there is a sticker with some tiny writing on them saying not to use it for more than 12 continuous hours.
Some times it seems to leak from where the hose connects, and other times from the middle of the “adapter”.
We have a call in to the plumbers to find out exactly what we got installed on our house, but I was wondering if any of you might have some idea? Really confirms what a Luddite I am, when I apparently need instructions to turn on the freaking hose!
Is the adapter a little brass thing with a set screw (which was tightened then snapped off? It’s likely a backflow preventer/anti-siphon. It’s there so that if you, (for example) have the hose filling up a pool and the pressure reverses it won’t suck your clorinated pool water up into your house plumbing or even into the city mains for everyone else to drink. The pressure could reverse if, say, there was a big fire nearby and the firetrucks were pulling a lot of water out of the system or more likely if there was a water main break and you were on the ‘no pressure’ side.
It could probably be fixed by taking it off and putting a new washer between it and the spigot and also a new one between it and the hose.
All right - did a little surfing. My guess is that this “adapter” is an anti-siphon device/vacuum breaker. Apparently required by code, and intended to keep waste water from flowong back from hose into house’s water supply. Didn’t see a good pic of mine to link - most looked like attachements on the top of the spigot.
Apparently they are designed to leak some water upon changes of pressure, and can be damaged if a water-filled hose is left attached and freezes. But it doesn’t seem right to me that these should leak the amount they do. Hell, the reason we replaced one of them was because it leaked, causing a puddle to form underneath. The new one leaks at least as much.
We’ll see what the plumber says. In the meantime, I’d appreciate any thoughts/ideas.
The one’s on top, that usually look like a little black cap are the anti-siphon frost proof sill cocks, it’s all one peice, it’s desgined so that when you close the valve it drains the water out of it (and about 8 inches into the house) to keep it from bursting. What you’ve got is a anti-sipon/backflow preventor. The frost proof ones DO leak a bit when you turn them on and off and sometimes even while you use them. The brass anti siphon adapters should NOT leak. It might just not be on tight enough or has a bad washer. And if it’s leaking between the brass and the hose connection it’s almost certainly a bad washer in the hose, or a bad hose connection.
Thanks, Joey.
Will have to look into this a little more.
Like I said, kinda frustrating to have the “fixed” one leaking as much if not more than it did before.
And would have been nice for the plumbers to tell us they were installing something that worked somewhat differently than what was there before.
Well, I’m all about paying someone for a job well done, but if the job isn’t well done, it’s not fair that you had to pay for it. On such a small job, I, personally, would attempt to fix it myself, but I’d not see them problem in calling the plumber and telling them it’s leaking.