Exposed copper pipe for garden tap

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mikeF00

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Hi, I have about 2m of exposed copper pipe on the outside of the house leading to a standard garden tap. I have an isolator valve on the inside of the house so I can drain the pipe in the winter. However , this is not fool -proof as I got caught out by a frost when the pipe was full of water, and burst. Does anybody know of any good outside lagging/insulation that I could wrap around the pipe in case I get caught out again?

Cheers
 
The lagging doesn’t stop frost, only delays it. Are you able to run the pipe inside at all?
 
I have a electric trace heat wire wrapped round and lagged 2 metes of pipe like yours , but I don't have isolate stop tap on this pipe so cannot drain.
I put this on in October switch off May, does not use much electric.

Never had a problem with icing up.in the 20 years it's been installed.

Others may have a better solution.
 
I lagged our pipes and boxed them in. When winter calls i make sure to wrap the exposed tap in rags. So far so good.
 
No, not really. I’ll try the insulation that claims to be weather proof. This may help if I get caught out by sudden frost. Otherwise , I’ll try to be more vigilant and drain the pipe
 
pidgeon1 said:
I have a electric trace heat wire wrapped round and lagged 2 metes of pipe like yours , but I don't have isolate stop tap on this pipe so cannot drain.
I put this on in October switch off May, does not use much electric.

Never had a problem with icing up.in the 20 years it's been installed.

Others may have a better solution.
Click to expand...
Hi , never heard of this?- can you elaborate? Is this an ‘off the shelf’ product ?
 
An alternative to Trace Heating is Impedance Pipe Heating where current is driven through the pipe. A very low voltage applied to the ends of the pipe creates a current along the pipe that is high enough to create heat in the copper pipe.

This method was used by a friend many years ago as a temporary fix on a few metres of a pipe which could not be accessed for conventional trace heat. It was in use for several years before the building was demolished.,

The down side is that a bespoke transformer is needed to provide the isolated very low voltage / high current supply.

Google "impedance pipe heating"
 
A colleague worked on something similar in one of his previous roles, 230KV in, one turn secondary at about 100,000 amps for resistance smelting in a blast furnace. But get the turns ratio right and it will work a treat.
 
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