In the winter I want to turn on my faucets a trickle to prevent pipes from
freezing. However, faucets are not designed to meter small amounts of water
flow, so it is tricky to let out small amounts of water from both hot and
cold sides. It's even trickier for single handle faucets -- they are not
balanced with small amount of water flow, so centering the handle does not
let out equal amounts of hot/cold water. And the hardest is to make everyone
do this after using the faucets.

Are there special faucets to help ease this task? Ideally this special
faucet would be separate from the regular faucet, have adjustable flow rate
independent from the on/off valve, and can be installed under the sink and
drain into the P trap without a dripping sound.

I did not find such device on the web, perhaps because I don't know what it
is called.

On Nov 29, 4:05*pm, "james" wrote:
In the winter I want to turn on my faucets a trickle to prevent pipes from
freezing. However, faucets are not designed to meter small amounts of water
flow, so it is tricky to let out small amounts of water from both hot and
cold sides. It's even trickier for single handle faucets -- they are not
balanced with small amount of water flow, so centering the handle does not
let out equal amounts of hot/cold water. And the hardest is to make everyone
do this after using the faucets.

Are there special faucets to help ease this task? Ideally this special
faucet would be separate from the regular faucet, have adjustable flow rate
independent from the on/off valve, and can be installed under the sink and
drain into the P trap without a dripping sound.

I did not find such device on the web, perhaps because I don't know what it
is called.

Time to quit fooling around and freeze proof your domicile. It isn't
expensive nor difficult, so head to your local Ace hardware, box
store, and survey the heat tapes, insulation, other commonly used
materials. If the place is really hopeless, maybe you don't want to
waste the money. Find a better house, trailer or shed.

Joe

Joe wrote:
On Nov 29, 4:05 pm, "james" wrote:
In the winter I want to turn on my faucets a trickle to prevent pipes from
freezing. However, faucets are not designed to meter small amounts of water
flow, so it is tricky to let out small amounts of water from both hot and
cold sides. It's even trickier for single handle faucets -- they are not
balanced with small amount of water flow, so centering the handle does not
let out equal amounts of hot/cold water. And the hardest is to make everyone
do this after using the faucets.

Are there special faucets to help ease this task? Ideally this special
faucet would be separate from the regular faucet, have adjustable flow rate
independent from the on/off valve, and can be installed under the sink and
drain into the P trap without a dripping sound.

I did not find such device on the web, perhaps because I don't know what it
is called.

Time to quit fooling around and freeze proof your domicile. It isn't
expensive nor difficult,

What's your estimate of the expense of such a project including the
permits, electrician work to get power to the heat tapes, patching
the drywall you had to remove to gain access to pipes, removing/replacing
insulation, asbestos abatement, etc.?
Feel free to itemize.

I had interesting conversations with two weatherization consultants
and a weatherization contractor. They all believed that insulating
pipes keeps them from freezing. All pipe insulation does is
slow down the freezing process. Insulation elsewhere that results
in raising the temperature around the pipes above the freezing point
is required. Heat tape can do that, IF it's working. If it quits
working due to age, loss of power etc. you can be fat dumb and happy
while your pipes are breaking.

so head to your local Ace hardware, box
store, and survey the heat tapes, insulation, other commonly used
materials. If the place is really hopeless, maybe you don't want to
waste the money. Find a better house, trailer or shed.

Joe

On 2010-11-29, james wrote:
In the winter I want to turn on my faucets a trickle to prevent pipes from
freezing. However, faucets are not designed to meter small amounts of water
flow, so it is tricky to let out small amounts of water from both hot and
cold sides. It's even trickier for single handle faucets -- they are not
balanced with small amount of water flow, so centering the handle does not
let out equal amounts of hot/cold water. And the hardest is to make everyone
do this after using the faucets.

Are there special faucets to help ease this task? Ideally this special
faucet would be separate from the regular faucet, have adjustable flow rate
independent from the on/off valve, and can be installed under the sink and
drain into the P trap without a dripping sound.

I did not find such device on the web, perhaps because I don't know what it
is called.

I hate those typical single-handle faucets. I replace them with gooseneck,
two-handled, leavered faucents whenever I have the chance.

If your faucet isn't cooperative, can't you just leave the faucet
open and choke down the shutoff valves to the faucet? Those might give
you more metered control.

"mike" wrote
Joe wrote:
On Nov 29, 4:05 pm, "james" wrote:
In the winter I want to turn on my faucets a trickle to prevent pipes
from
freezing. However, faucets are not designed to meter small amounts of
water
flow, so it is tricky to let out small amounts of water from both hot
and
cold sides. It's even trickier for single handle faucets -- they are not
balanced with small amount of water flow, so centering the handle does
not
let out equal amounts of hot/cold water. And the hardest is to make
everyone
do this after using the faucets.


Time to quit fooling around and freeze proof your domicile. It isn't
expensive nor difficult,

What's your estimate of the expense of such a project including the
permits, electrician work to get power to the heat tapes, patching
the drywall you had to remove to gain access to pipes, removing/replacing
insulation, asbestos abatement, etc.?
Feel free to itemize.

Balance that with the cost of repairing the freeze-ups. To replace the
split tubing you'd have to do most of what is listed above, plus, perhaps,
abate the water damage. You can fix it properly for the life of the house,
or you can to temporary work arounds and hope it never fails.

Since none of us has seen the entire setup, none of us can give a valid
estimate to fix it the right way. It may be very simple, really.

On Nov 29, 10:05*pm, "james" wrote:
In the winter I want to turn on my faucets a trickle to prevent pipes from
freezing. However, faucets are not designed to meter small amounts of water
flow, so it is tricky to let out small amounts of water from both hot and
cold sides. It's even trickier for single handle faucets -- they are not
balanced with small amount of water flow, so centering the handle does not
let out equal amounts of hot/cold water. And the hardest is to make everyone
do this after using the faucets.

Are there special faucets to help ease this task? Ideally this special
faucet would be separate from the regular faucet, have adjustable flow rate
independent from the on/off valve, and can be installed under the sink and
drain into the P trap without a dripping sound.

I did not find such device on the web, perhaps because I don't know what it
is called.

This will stop your pipes from freezing. Just check that the trickle
can't freeze in you drains and block them maybe causing a flood if
they are external.

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:05:05 -0800, "james" wrote:

In the winter I want to turn on my faucets a trickle to prevent pipes from
freezing. However, faucets are not designed to meter small amounts of water
flow, so it is tricky to let out small amounts of water from both hot and
cold sides. It's even trickier for single handle faucets -- they are not
balanced with small amount of water flow, so centering the handle does not
let out equal amounts of hot/cold water. And the hardest is to make everyone
do this after using the faucets.

Are there special faucets to help ease this task? Ideally this special
faucet would be separate from the regular faucet, have adjustable flow rate
independent from the on/off valve, and can be installed under the sink and
drain into the P trap without a dripping sound.

I did not find such device on the web, perhaps because I don't know what it
is called.

You can have my kitchen faucet. It's been leaking and it's an old
Delta and I can't figure out how to get it to stop. I'll have to take
another look at it but it may just be time to get a new one.