I Ignored a Dripping Garden Tap All Winter — Then Found the Pipe Split in Spring

Why the Drip Mattered

Because it kept refilling the pipe.

A closed, dry pipe can often survive a freeze. If you shut off the interior valve in fall and open the outside tap to drain the line, there’s nothing left to expand. Even if a few drops remain, air can compress enough to absorb the pressure.

But I left the tap closed and didn’t kill the supply. Every time the drip ran, it pulled a fresh slug of water into the pipe.

That water froze. Then more water dripped in behind it. Then that froze. The cycle repeated all winter, and each freeze built more pressure against the trapped water downstream.

By February, I had a solid plug of ice near the valve and a column of pressurized liquid behind it with nowhere to go. The 90-degree elbow — already stressed by the cold — never stood a chance.

If I’d drained the line in October, the pipe would still be intact.

So what actually stops this from happening again — and do I need to replumb the whole wall?