Outside Tap

[Samantha Booth]

I want to put an outside tap round the side of the house so I can wash down when the dogs have been out there. I have a downstair loo with a sink on an outside wall and I can tap into the pipes and run them through the wall, then put a tap and hose on. Thing is, I would prefer the water to be hot as I could also use the tap to clean other things like the car and also its better for washing down after the dogs. As I have an instant hot water boiler is it OK to attach the tap to the hot pipe and will it work like my indoor taps as in when I turn it on so far the hot comes out.

thanks

[Roger Mills]

Yes. If turning on the basin tap causes the boiler to fire, turning on an outside tap connected to the same pipework will work in the same way.

One thing to watch though is that garden hoses may not like hot water.

[Samantha Booth]

Thanks Roger

I never thouught of that, the hose may not like the hot water. i wonder if they make hoses that withstand hot water

[Tim S]

Samantha Booth coughed up some electrons that declared:

I've run hot taps through hoses. They get quite pliable but the worst that can happen is the hozelok type connectors lose grip and fall off. I assume your hot water is a reasonable temperature?

Cheers

Tim

[Samantha Booth]

Yes it gets extremely hot when slow and cooler the more I put the tap on. It would be warm i would be using on. I have some self amalgamating tape used for aerial rigging I could use to fix the hoselock fittings

[Frank Erskine]

A point to bear in mind is that if the outside bit of the pipe freezes and bursts while you're out you could end up with a biggish gas bill :-)

[Tim S]

Samantha Booth coughed up some electrons that declared:

Might not be such a good idea then... I reckon you'd be OK upto about 60C, much hotter and the hose is going to get very soft and you have a risk of being burnt when the connectors fall off and spray water everywhere.

Just my 2p's worth.

Cheers

Tim

[Rod]

I'm sure Samantha didn't intend to fit one without a suitable valve for isolating the tap in the winter. :-) Also a good reason for using plastic pipe for the through the wall and outside bits - seems better able to cope with a bit of freezing.

[John]

What about fitting a thermostatic mixer valve so the water is a reasonable temp - to avoid scalding the dogs.

[John]

One of these

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's an awfully expensive way of washing a car given the cost of energy these days. I hose it down to soften the dirt then use about a bucket of hot water with a suitable detergent then hose it off with clean water.

BTW, you must have a soft dog if it can't stand cold water. ;-)

[Owain]

You can get "quite long" replacement shower hoses for bathroom showers, should be possible to get couplers to join two or three (I think it's a "standard" fitting) and a nice spray on the end.

Personally I would have a thermostatic hot spray for the dogs and a cold tap for buckets and hoses.

Owain

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its obviously a combi. Very hot water will not be a spray, it will be a thin trickle.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Regulations also insist on a non return thingie, so you cant suck foetid hose water back into the house circuits IIRC.

[Rod]

And to make that easy, every standard external-type bib tap I have seen recently has had one built-in.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Most do: you CAN still buy them without..

[Cicero]

================================== It might be a 'multipoint' ('Main', 'Worcester', etc.) in which case the temperature can be regulated by turning the control knob on the front of the boiler to a setting which is low enough to prevent scalding under (almost) any circumstances.

Cic.

[ARWadworth]

Two outside taps, one hot and one cold.

Adam

[Samantha Booth]

LOL, You wouldnt say that if you tried to get in lol. ;) What I meant was washing the floor down after the dog has been to the loo with hot water. I didnt want the hot tap for actually washing down the dogs.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The ones in the external-type bib tap were destroyed by freezing, and I've read the non-return valve now has to be positioned indoors.