Charles75plumb
New Member
I find myself looking for a solution. I am working on a year round home, but a home that is only occupied sporadically in the winter months (upstate new york). The waterline to the house is a 3/4" copper line that comes down a 30'-40' embankment from the road, with the last stretch being a steep drop (retaining wall). There is a "utility closet" built into the retaining wall and there is about 7' of exposed pipe that is currently heated with a heat trace during the winter within this closet. After the 7' of exposed copper line, it again goes underground for about 10' to the home. My idea is to install a new shut-off valve yard hydrant (or other type of valve that allows air into system) near the top of the embankment such that I can shut off the supply from the town and open the yard hydrant valve (allow air in) and drain the system down to the house. This would give me mucho confidence when the property is left that a burst waterline situation is not going to happen. Anyone out there do something like this? Any suggestions or concerns? I am slightly concerned with debris getting into my system when the yard hydrant is sucking air into the system?? I can't find anything online where someone has done this, so I am inherently skeptical and don't want to invest in something that will cause problems or break sanitary codes etc.. Are there manual valves made specifically for adding clean air into systems for draining purposes?
