Pipe insulation trick I learned after a burst last winter

I used to just wrap foam tubes around my outdoor spigots and call it good, but after a -10 degree night in January blew out a brass fitting in my Amarillo crawlspace. Now I tape heat tape around the pipes first, then add insulation, and I haven't had a freeze issue since. Anybody else switch up their winter prep after a bad leak?

3 comments

3 Comments

emmam891mo ago

Swapped in some cheap hardware store heat tape for my setup, @corap21, and honestly my pipe prep is more complicated than my morning coffee routine now. Took me three tries to wrap it without looking like a confused paper towel roll, but no leaks since the big freeze.

corap211mo agoMost Upvoted

Hang on, heat tape under the insulation? That is wild to me. I have lived in cold places my whole life and never thought to double up like that. A brass fitting burst at -10? That must have been one heck of a mess to clean up. Your setup sounds bulletproof now, I might have to try it myself. Did you use a specific brand of heat tape or just whatever the hardware store had?

laura_chen411mo ago

Has anyone else had that moment where you're standing in a hardware aisle staring at heat tape options and just praying you pick the right one? I tried the cheap stuff from a big box store last fall, and corap21 I swear it was like wrapping Christmas lights on a wet noodle. My tape was all crinkly and wouldn't lay flat, so I ended up with some weird bumpy wrap job that still worked but looked hilarious. My neighbor told me about these adhesive-backed heat cables that stick right to the pipe, and that changed everything for me. Now I layer those on and then put the foam insulation over top, and it's way less of a wrestling match every November. Your Amarillo freeze sounds brutal though, I had a similar leak in my garage from a pinhole that sprayed water everywhere and took me two weekends to fix.