Garden Hose in Winter: Disconnect, Drain, Store, and When a Heated Hose Makes Sense

Three jobs, in order of importance

Putting a garden hose away for the winter is three separate jobs. They protect three different things.

This page is about the seasonal put-away of an ordinary, unheated hose. If you still need water outdoors on freezing days, the guide on how to keep a garden hose from freezing covers the daily routine and the heated alternative.

Disconnect: the step that protects the house

Every source we read starts here. The Portland Water Bureau: “Disconnect hoses from outdoor faucets.” University of Illinois Extension joins it to a second step: disconnect garden hoses and shut off and drain water from pipes leading to outside faucets. “This reduces the chance of freezing in the short span of pipe just inside the house.”

If your house has a separate shutoff valve for the outdoor faucets, the Portland Water Bureau describes the sequence: turn off the water to the outdoor faucets, then “open each outdoor spigot to drain the remaining water from the pipes.” After that the bureau recommends insulating covers on outdoor faucets and hose bibs. The types of cover, and which faucet each one fits, are compared on the page about faucet covers.

A cover goes on a bare faucet. That is one more reason the hose has to come off first.

Drain: what keeps the hose from splitting

Water that stays in a hose freezes at 32 °F like any other water. Oregon State University Extension gives the condition under which a hose survives the winter: it can be stored outside “as long as you make sure to drain all of the water from the hose.” The method it describes needs no tools: “Hoses can be drained easily by running them over a tall place where gravity forces water to exit the hose.”

Three practical points, which are our own reasoning from that advice:

1. Take off the spray nozzle, splitter or timer before draining. A closed nozzle holds the water in, and these parts hold water of their own.
2. Drain before the cold makes the hose stiff. A stiff hose is hard to lift and coil.
3. Store nozzles and timers indoors with the hose.

Store: outside is possible, inside is better

Here the two extension services agree on the facts and leave the choice to you.

• University of Georgia Extension names two ways to winterize hoses. One is to “simply leave the hoses hanging outside disconnected from the faucets.” The other is to “disconnect, drain and store your hoses someplace with a constant temperature, which can extend the life of hoses.”
• Oregon State University Extension allows outdoor storage for a drained hose and states the cost: “the temperature swings will cause the hose material to age at a faster rate”, and the hose “will not last more than a few seasons, even if it is completely drained.”

So a garage, a shed or a basement is the better place, and a drained hose on a hanger outside is the acceptable one. Neither source gives a figure for how many years indoor storage adds, and we do not either.

Forgot to unhook the hose?

It happens every year: the first hard frost arrives and the hose is still on the faucet, full of water. Two things are then at risk, the hose and the faucet behind it.

Do not twist a frozen coupling with force and do not pull the hose loose. Wait for a thaw or warm the coupling gently, then take the hose off and check the faucet the first time you open it again. The steps, and the reason a faucet needs a check afterwards, are on the page about a hose frozen to the spigot. If the faucet gives no water once the hose is off, continue with the frozen spigot.

When a heated hose makes sense instead

Disconnecting and draining works for everyone who can do without the hose until spring, or who needs it for a few minutes at a time. It does not work where water has to stay connected through freezing nights: an automatic waterer, a greenhouse line, a trough that cannot be reached every day.

That is the case for a heated water hose: a water hose with an electric heating element running along its length that keeps the water inside from freezing when the hose is plugged into a 120-volt outlet, with the heat switched by a thermostat or limited by a self-regulating cable. The comparison for house and yard is on the page for heated garden hoses.

Two limits belong in the decision. A heated hose heats itself and not the faucet; the PIRIT manual says its hose “is NOT designed to provide freeze protection to your water supply.” A faucet that stays in service all winter needs protection of its own. And a heated hose is put away for the season too: Miller Manufacturing tells owners of its heated hoses to drain them when not in use and to store them indoors after winter. The guide on storing a heated hose has the steps.

A hose sold as flexible in the cold is a third thing: easier to handle on a frosty morning, but unheated, and it has to be drained like any other. The page on the freeze-proof hose explains the terms.