Summer Plumbing Checklist: Hose Bibs, Irrigation and Outdoor Water

Start with the hose bibs, with someone watching inside

Most freeze damage to outdoor faucets is invisible from outside. A frost-free hose bib has its valve seat deep inside the wall, and when it freezes with a hose attached the barrel splits somewhere between the handle and the seat. The bib looks fine. It even shuts off fine. But when you open it, water sprays out of the split inside the wall while the hose end runs normally, and you never see it until the drywall in the garage or the subfloor under the kitchen is soaked.

So the first summer job is a two-person test. One person turns on each bib with no hose attached while the other stands inside at the wall behind it, or in the crawlspace below it, listening and looking for water. Run each bib for a full minute. Then attach a hose with a shutoff nozzle, close the nozzle so the bib is under full pressure, and check again. A split that only leaks under pressure shows up in that second test.

A bib that drips from the handle when running usually needs a new packing or a cartridge, which is a quick fix. One that leaks inside the wall needs to be replaced, and this is the time to replace a plain sill cock with a frost-free model so it does not happen again.

Irrigation startup done in order

Bringing an irrigation system online after a winter shutdown should be slow and deliberate. Open the main irrigation valve only partway at first so the lines fill without hammering. Air rushing ahead of the water can blow heads off and crack fittings if the valve is opened all at once. Then run each zone from the controller and walk it: look for geysers from broken heads, soggy spots that point to a cracked lateral, and heads that do not pop up.

The controller itself usually needs attention. Batteries die, schedules get wiped by winter power outages, and the rain sensor on the eave has often filled with needles. Set the schedule for early morning so the lawn dries before evening and the system is not competing with showers for pressure.

If the house is on a well, irrigation is the thing most likely to overwork the pump. A zone that pulls more than the well can deliver will drop the pressure for the whole house and can run the pump dry on a low-yield well in August. Smaller zones, longer run times and a cycle-and-soak schedule are easier on the well than a few big zones running back to back.

• Open the irrigation main slowly to fill lines without water hammer
• Run each zone and walk it looking for broken heads and leaking laterals
• Replace controller batteries and reset the schedule for early morning
• Clean or replace the rain sensor
• On wells, keep zones small so the pump is not overdrawn

Backflow testing and why your water district sends that letter

If your irrigation system is connected to public water, there is a backflow preventer between the house supply and the sprinkler lines. Its job is to keep fertilizer, soil bacteria and whatever is sitting in the sprinkler lines from being siphoned back into the drinking water if pressure drops in the street. Washington water purveyors are required to make sure these assemblies work, which is why Kitsap PUD, West Sound Utility District, Silverdale Water, the City of Bremerton and the rest send an annual testing notice.

The test has to be done by a certified Backflow Assembly Tester, and the results go to the district. If the assembly fails, it gets repaired or replaced and retested. The most common failures we see are relief valves that stuck over winter, check valves fouled with debris, and assemblies that cracked when they froze because nobody insulated them in December.

If you are installing new irrigation or adding a hose bib to a well-and-city dual system, the backflow device has to be sized and installed to the district's standard, and we handle that along with the piping.

Wells and pressure tanks under summer load

Private wells in Mason County, South Kitsap and the Key Peninsula get their heaviest workout between July and September. Lawns, gardens, kids in the sprinkler and a house full of summer guests all pull from a well that may already be at its seasonal low. This is when a tired pump or a waterlogged pressure tank gives out.

Listen to the system. A pump that turns on and off every few seconds while a hose runs has a pressure tank that lost its air charge, and that short cycling will burn out the pump motor and the pressure switch contacts. A pump that runs for a long time and delivers weak flow may be pulling from a well that is drawing down, or it may be a worn impeller. Pressure that climbs slowly and then suddenly drops is often a leak in the drop pipe or a failing check valve.

Check the pressure tank air charge with the pump off and the tank drained. The air pressure should be a couple of pounds below the pressure switch cut-in setting. If the tank is waterlogged and will not hold a charge, the bladder has failed, and it needs to be replaced with a properly sized Well-X-Trol or Amtrol tank.

Outdoor drains, yard hydrants and the things that grow into pipes

Summer growth is when roots do their work. A sewer line that was cleared of roots in February will have new growth by August, and a yard with a big maple or a row of cedars over the sewer run should have the line on camera every year or two. Dry weather is also when a bellied or broken sewer section is easiest to excavate and replace, since the trench is not filling with groundwater.

Yard hydrants on rural properties should be checked for drainage. A frost-proof hydrant drains the standpipe into a gravel bed when closed, and if that drain port plugs with silt, the hydrant will freeze next winter. Open it, let it run, close it and watch that water stops coming out of the spout within a few seconds.

Outdoor kitchens, hot tubs and RV hookups all count as plumbing. A hose bib feeding an RV for weeks at a time is a place to watch for a slow drip, and any outdoor connection with a hose left on under pressure all summer is also a connection with a hose left on when the first freeze arrives in November.

Water heater housekeeping while the weather is good

A tank water heater should be drained of sediment once a year, and summer is the easiest time to do it. Sediment builds up faster in well-water homes and in the parts of Kitsap with higher mineral content, and a tank with a few inches of sediment pops and rumbles, heats slowly and fails early. While the tank is being flushed, the anode rod should be checked, because a used-up anode is the start of a rusting tank.

Tankless water heaters on well water need descaling on a schedule, often every year, and a unit that has not been descaled will begin to throw error codes or lose flow in the hottest weeks when demand is highest. Rinnai and similar units have isolation valves for this if they were installed correctly, and if they were not, adding them makes every future service faster.

Summer is also a good time to replace a water heater that is at the end of its life, before it fails on a December evening when every plumber in the county is working freeze damage. A tank that is more than ten or twelve years old, shows rust at the base, or has a relief valve that drips is one to deal with now.

Dry-weather projects that are miserable in winter

Crawlspace work in August is dusty. Crawlspace work in January is lying in cold water. If you have a crawlspace repipe, a cast iron drain replacement or a sagging drain line on the list, schedule it for the dry months. The same goes for water service line replacement from the meter to the house, sewer line repairs that require excavation, and adding an exterior cleanout. Every one of those is faster, cleaner and cheaper when the trench stays dry.

Steep waterfront lots and long gravel driveways in Mason County and along Hood Canal are the extreme case. Getting an excavator onto a hillside lot after the rain starts can be impossible until spring, so a sewer line that showed damage on camera in the spring should be repaired by September.