Outdoor spigot froze and split last winter, cost me a repair. What should I actually be doing differently this year so it doesn't happen again?
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Two things, both cheap:
One, disconnect and drain your garden hose from it every fall, that's the #1 cause — a hose left attached traps water in the spigot with nowhere to go when it freezes.
Two, if you don't already have a frost-free sillcock (the long-stem kind that puts the actual shutoff valve inside the heated wall, not at the outside tip), get one installed, maybe $50-75 in parts plus install. Regular spigots WILL eventually freeze in real cold no matter what you do, frost-free ones are built for exactly this.
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