Vacuum Breakers: What, why, and how

If you're selling a house in Minneapolis, get some vacuum breakers. When you have a place for a garden hose to connect to the municipal water supply, you need some type of backflow prevention, and that's what these devices are for. This is one of the required repair items for the Minneapolis Truth-in-Housing evaluation, which is a required inspection for anyone listing a home for sale in Minneapolis.

[johnnystaccata]

I'm using a soaker hose. I don't think it would backflow, unless the pressure dropped in the house.
However, I read that the vacuum breakers may leak in a soaker hose situation. I might have to buy one, but I think mine is an odd size and they cost about $45 with tax.
I really don't want to install a new male end on the hose bib, because of the set screw issue.

[paulrhoades]

Great help...made it very clear on how this works!

[scooter]

Can anyone please tell me how the water can back flow when the faucet is turned off? I think this hypothetical rule was dreamed up by someone who was hoping for a pay rise.

[dean]

It’s a common practice In Canada that you pay for a home inspector when you buy a house. If everything is ok you buy it. Trust my own inspector, not the seller’s inspector. It’s only few hundred bucks.

[TF]

I do not see a link to the other video removing that lock screw.
I looked at the list of other videos but could not find it.
Where is it?

Using a Dremel with a thin blade might work to.

[ObsessionoftheMonth]

In my city, the city came through the neighborhood and installed them on all the houses within a couple of months, they were all removed. it wasn't mentioned in our home inspection even though they were not installed.

[McCloudX]

I installed a vacuum breaker to replace the ones that came with the house due to leaking and the new one makes the pipes hum and it's extremely loud in the house. No idea why but I'm just going to remove them for now

[Rustytales]

Thank you for the information.
The faucets in my house have built-in vacuum breakers. They began to leak from under the cap. I've already replaced them three times and they still start leaking again every few days. What could be the reason? Perhaps the entire faucet needs to be replaced?

[kyguy]

YouTube won't let me share the link to his other video, but it's titled, "How to remove a vacuum breaker." You can find it under their channel's playlist labeled, "Instructional."

[brandonjones]

Probably required because people have hooked up their hoses to some ant killer canister, left pressure in the hose, and then it back flowed into their home when their well pressure fell below the hose pressure.

[ofiasdfnosdf]

Thank you! My 1980's spigot has a female outlet with very fine threads. I'm having trouble finding one that fits it. The old one got completely corroded and leaky.

[chrisquattrocchi]

Hoping someone can answer this. I'm a home inspector and I never pass up the opportunity to learn something new. I have always avoided hose bibs with vacuum breakers when I wanted to test the home's water pressure because it seemed to me that it would give a falsely high water pressure reading. I wasn't sure so I just test elsewhere. But now I'm at the point where I really would like the answer to that if someone could tell me. Does a vacuum breaker affect the water pressure reading if you attach the water pressure meter to a hose bib that has one?

[Alkatross]

I wish someone would get into the specific cases of contamination that have led to these requirements. That's what I want to know.

[SyrianHammieCute]

Can I use one of these anti siphon for the build in ones that has broken anti-siphon. I tried to replace the anti-siphon but the replacement kit has very poor quality (EVERBUILT ANTI-SIPHOE SILCOCK VALCVE REPLACEMENT) . According to a lot of reviews on home Depot, this valve doesn't work.

[yogibearstie]

Why do they break off the set screw? This is the first house I have with this and it sure is a wet mess to turn the house on and off

[daviddavies]

Back flow prevention is NOT the same as back siphonage. These do not protect against back pressure.

[eliumolina]

…And love your neighbor as your self the two biggest commandments, Shalom

[eugenegeorge]

I took off my breaker off because every time I turned the valve off water sprayed every where. Very annoying. No matter how far I tried to stay away from the bib my shoes always got wet. Is this normal?

[billbaillie]

I need 2 vacuum breakers that are a bit larger than usual. Male thread diameter on the faucet is 1 3/16" OD. (1.1875)
Any ideas on a source for that?
Thanks much.

[darrylt]

Ge what did we do in the 50s and 60s and 70s washout a VB