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A Hose in a Bucket

Of everything on this site, this is the one that is probably true at your own address right now, and the fix costs a few dollars.

Key point

A garden hose left lying in a bucket is a cross-connection: a continuous path from whatever is in the container into the building’s plumbing. A hose bibb vacuum breaker vents to atmosphere when the supply is off, which addresses backsiphonage but not backpressure.

Source: U.S. EPA, Cross-Connection Control Manual, EPA 816-R-03-002, February 2003.

CrossConnect is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect property owners and managers with independent contractors. Backflow assembly testing is normally restricted to testers holding a specific certification and using calibrated equipment, and the report usually has to reach your water purveyor — ask to see the certification and ask who files the report. We carry out no testing, we certify nobody, we do not set prices, and we never charge callers anything. Nothing here selects a device for any installation or states that any assembly is passing.

Why a hose counts

A cross-connection is a link between a source of pollution and a potable supply. A hose screwed to a tap and lying in something is exactly that — a continuous water path from the container to the plumbing of the building.

It does nothing at all until the supply loses pressure. Then atmospheric pressure has something to push against, and what is in the container has somewhere to go.

Source: U.S. EPA, Cross-Connection Control Manual, EPA 816-R-03-002, February 2003.

What has gone the wrong way through hoses

EPA’s manual documents the category rather than treating it as a theoretical risk: a pesticide bucket, a herbicide holding tank, chemical mixing operations. Unprotected hose connections left submerged recur through the case histories.

It is the most ordinary arrangement imaginable and it is also the one that keeps appearing in the record.

The hose bibb vacuum breaker

A small spring-loaded fitting that screws onto an outdoor faucet between the tap and the hose. Under normal supply pressure it seals against its atmospheric opening; when the supply is turned off it vents to atmosphere, so there is no continuous column to siphon.

It addresses backsiphonage. It is not a backpressure device and should not be treated as one. The difference, and why it matters here.

The habits that matter more

Do not leave a hose end submerged in anything. Not a bucket, not a pool, not a stock tank, not a container of anything being mixed. Hang the end up when the hose is not in use.

That single habit removes the connection entirely, which is better than protecting it, and it is free.

Where it stops being a household matter

Irrigation systems, pressure washers with chemical injectors, boiler fill connections and anything with a pump on it are a different question, because a pump can create backpressure and the vacuum breaker families do not address that.

Those are connections a purveyor will normally want assessed and protected. How that assessment works.

Know what is on the tag before you call.Make, model, size and the date of the last test are usually stamped or tagged on the assembly itself, and they decide which test kit and which paperwork the visit needs. We will route you to somebody who covers your area, selected on the ZIP code of the property, and you are never charged. Backflow is our specialty, though the number will take any plumbing request on the property.

Call (888) 764-9890