Sillcock / Hose Bib
A sillcock, or hose bib, is the outdoor faucet on the side of a house where a garden hose connects, with frost-proof versions designed to resist freezing.
A sillcock is the threaded outdoor faucet, also called a hose bib or spigot, mounted on the exterior wall for hoses and outdoor watering. The standard kind is just a valve in the wall, but the frost-proof version is a long-bodied design whose actual shutoff sits well inside the heated wall. When you close it, the water drains out of the exposed pipe so nothing is left in the cold to freeze, provided the hose is disconnected and the spigot pitches slightly downward.
Homeowners meet the sillcock when it drips, will not shut off, or, worst of all, when one bursts in spring. A frost-proof sillcock left with a hose attached over winter traps water inside, and the freeze can split the pipe several inches back inside the wall; the leak then only shows up when the faucet is turned on in warm weather and water pours into the wall cavity. That hidden failure is why disconnecting hoses before winter matters so much.
Many sillcocks also include a vacuum breaker, a small backflow device on the top that keeps dirty hose water from being siphoned back into the drinking supply. A leak from that cap usually means the vacuum breaker, not the whole faucet, needs attention.
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