Shut Off Valve and Insulation

[tsfrance]

Being I was adding a icemaker water line under the sink I needed to turn my water off. It took me awhile to find the shut off valve but I finally did. It was under the house and I used the crawl space to get to it. I live in Nevada and it will freeze here a lot this winter. This is my first winter here and this is a new place for us. So the water line under the house and the valve is very heavily insulated. It took me about half an hour with a pocket knife to cut away enough insulation just so I could move the wheel on the valve to turn it off. My question is does that valve wheel need to be that heavily insulated? The pipe is insulated and most of the valve is too but if the wheel is that heavily insulated it will take a bit of time to cut that off in order to turn it if there is an emergency. So the valve is insulated but does that wheel also need to be covered? Thanks.

 

[frodo]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAkxaNeg8I-D9xkREGma2E-EtKtR4PsXJLKHjtlHL7PamHci6Y

the body, of the valve needs to be covered. the stem does not. see the attachment.
see the brass nut, below the red handle. that needs to be covered

 

[tsfrance]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAkxaNeg8I-D9xkREGma2E-EtKtR4PsXJLKHjtlHL7PamHci6Y

the body, of the valve needs to be covered. the stem does not. see the attachment.
see the brass nut, below the red handle. that needs to be covered

Thank you. The way they had it then was a little overkill.

 

[frodo]

better safe than sorry, most likely