Pro Handyman Blog

A hose bib vacuum breaker is also generally referred to as an anti-siphon. When you hear of an anti-siphon device or a vacuum breaker, you typically think of a device for your landscaping, and you would be correct, these are common plumbing terms. However, you should also have a device on each hose bib for protection against contamination.

So long as the water pressure remains high, clean healthy water is delivered to the neighborhood. However, if a problem developed and caused a drop in water pressure, such as a water main break, contaminated water could be drawn back into the home and mixed with it’s clean drinking water. This can cause sickness and can even be fatal depending upon the level and type of contamination and the person ingesting the water. Imagine for example if you were filling up a child’s swimming pool and the pressure dropped drawing that water back into the house’s potable water supply. Whatever contaminants that were in the pool could end up at your faucet. With a vacuum breaker, that water could not enter the water supply.

By installing a hose bib vacuum breaker, this contamination problem via the hose bib will be eliminated. These devices cost under $10.00 and simply screw onto the hose bib. Once they are screwed on, you can tighten the setscrew to firmly secure them in place.