As colder days and nights approach, it’s important to remember to disconnect your garden hose after every use. Here in Colorado, our temperatures fluctuate quite a bit in the winter and we tend to use our garden hoses on those sunny warm days to wash our car or water our trees and then forget to disconnect the hose from the spigot after we are done. This increases our risk of the pipes freezing and bursting.

Why? Water expands when it freezes. When we leave our garden hose attached and filled with water, bad things can happen. When that water freezes, ice takes up nearly 10% more space than the same amount of liquid water does. Unfortunately, in the case of a water pipe, there’s no room for expansion. This can result in burst pipes and broken valves and joints. Be sure and disconnect your garden hoses after every use in the winter.