Without proper protection devices, something as useful as your garden hose has the potential to affect the quality and safety of the water in your home. In fact, many backflow incidents have involved garden hoses attached to hose bibs that do not have a vacuum breaker.

Pictured above is a hose bib with a built-in vacuum breaker.

Pictured above is a hose bib without a vacuum breaker.

Why are garden hoses a concern?

Garden hoses are used for a wide variety of jobs around the home including watering lawns, washing cars, filling pools, and applying fertilizers using sprayers that attach to the end of the hose. Backflow can occur when there is a sudden drop in the water pressure. This can be caused by a number of things. Imagine what could be siphoned back into the plumbing system in your house if water pressure was lost while the hose was being used. 

What can be done?

Fortunately, it is very easy to protect the water in your home from backflow coming from a garden hose. A hose bib vacuum breaker will provide an appropriate level of protection. Some hose bibs have vacuum breakers built into them. A vacuum breaker can also easily be added to a hose bib that does not have a vacuum breaker.

How do I know if my hose bib has a vacuum breaker?

Vacuum breakers stop backflow by letting air into the faucet. The air breaks the vacuum, stopping backflow. You can see how this works by making a hole in the side of a drinking straw then trying to use it. It does not take a very big hole to stop flow through the straw.

All vacuum breakers have an air inlet.  Hose bib vacuum breakers will have either a series of small holes around the threads where the hose connects or a round cap covering up the air inlet.

In the picture above, the air inlet holes are shown. 

In the picture above, the cap covering the air inlet is show. 

Installation

It is not necessary to replace the hose bib to install a vacuum breaker. A hose bib vacuum breaker can be added to a hose bib that does not have one. The vacuum breakers can be purchased at a plumbing or hardware store for $5.00 to $20.00.

To install a vacuum breaker on a hose bib, simply screw it onto the hose bib until it is tight. Then tighten the setscrew until the setscrew snaps off. The setscrew prevents the vacuum breaker from being removed inadvertently. The vacuum breaker can still be removed if it needs to be replaced. A pipe wrench will easily remove the vacuum breaker.

Each hose bib in the home should have a vacuum breaker installed. Vacuum breakers are not required on and should not be used on water heater drains, boiler drains, or clothes washer connections.

This model is drained by sliding the black ring up.

This model is drained by pushing the white stem to the side.