Repair and Outdoor Faucet Types

Typical outdoor faucet

Having water easily accessible in your backyard is an extremely convenient feature. So, when things go wrong with your faucet, it makes a lot of your routines more difficult.

Figuring out what outdoor faucet repair approach you need can also prove challenging depending on the symptoms.

What to do?

Simply understand the symptoms and possible causes, then either make your repair or replace with something better from one of the many outdoor faucet types available.

Below you’ll learn about outdoor faucets in general and then the most common and tried and true fixes to get everything working again.

Why You Need Your Outdoor Faucet

An outdoor faucet in your home’s backyard or garden is an extremely convenient feature.

The best part is you just plain have fewer hoses running around your yard. Even better, outdoor faucets keep you from having to run back and forth to your house to get or use water.

Outdoor faucets come in many shapes, sizes and provide a variety of uses. What most people don’t know is that they can be relatively easy to install (and repair if you have one that is not working or is leaking).


The biggest considerations usually have to do with the location and whether or not precautions need to be taken to avoid your feeder pipes or actual spigot from freezing.


Outdoor faucet types for your backyard

Outdoor Faucet Types and Uses

Think about these uses for outdoor faucets:

Filling up a watering can, spraying off garden vegetables on the vine, filling a pool, or rinsing off after a dirty yard project, washing down walkways or yard equipment–the list goes on and on!

There are more uses on this topic than you ever thought possible. And each could be used from one of the standard hose bibs types.

We should be noted that outdoor plumbing related to irrigation such as in-ground sprinklers, drip systems and the like will not be covered in this article. The focus here will be the following outdoor water supply applications:

Spigot on Your House:

Most homes new and old usually have at least one outdoor faucet attached to their structure. This is called a sillcock or spigot.

Tied to your home’s indoor plumbing, these outdoor faucets offer not only basic convenience but mere necessity when it comes to tasks like watering your lawn with a manual sprinkler.


Yard Hydrant:

Yard hydrant faucet type

If you have a larger yard, it’s possible someone (maybe even you!) installed an outdoor faucet near your garden or a far corner of your yard.



The best yard hydrant is one with plenty of lead pipe to bury (to ward against freezer in cold winter areas) and that comes up out of the ground high enough for added convenience.

These models usually come with a level you can pull up and push down. This makes turning off and on much easier than turning knobs. Those are difficult to turn when stuck. With a larger lever, you can definitely get more force if it’s resisting opening up.

Outdoor Kitchen/BBQ:




Outdoor Shower:



Pool Fill Valve:



Outdoor Misters:



Repairing Outdoor Faucets




Fixing a leaky outdoor faucet

The most common thing you can do to repair an outside faucet that’s dripping water is to try tightening the packing nut located just below the handle. Use a wrench to turn this clock-wise and see if any dripping goes away.

If adjusting the packing nut doesn’t help, you unscrew this nut and check inside your faucet to make a repair. Look for a small black washer in there. It may be old and deteriorated and flattened out too much to do its job anymore. Simply buy a replacement at a hardware or plumbing store and you should be back in business.

Another option is to reduce the water pressure going to your faucet. Either install a valve on the supply line to regulate the pressure or an actual pressure regulator to reduce the amount of water your faucet’s valve is having to hold back.

When you have a leaky outdoor spigot that doesn’t respond to the above repair tactics, it’s usually best to replace it. Again, they are usually cheap and only require a little bit of work to put in a new one.


You’re literally going to rotate it off (turning to the left). When you put the new one on, be sure to coat the threads with plumber’s grease or wrap with joint tape.


Stuck faucet?




Low water pressure?



Faucet frozen shut?

If you have a freezing outdoor faucet, there are a couple of repair options.



Screw or tack it to the siding. Now, wrap your outdoor faucet with fiberglass pipe insulation, securing it with duct tape.




As with anything, sometimes the best kind of outdoor faucet repair is just replacement with a new one. Starting over can definitely be a good thing.