Back Flow Preventer Leaking on Outdoor Faucet

Quick plumbing question. I have a back flow preventer on my outside faucet per city code. It started to leak late last year. Now that it’s gotten hot enough that I need to run my drip irrigation system again, I…

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Quick plumbing question. I have a back flow preventer on my outside faucet per city code. It started to leak late last year. Now that it's gotten hot enough that I need to run my drip irrigation system again, I can't really use the timer part yet, as the water needs to be on all the time to do so. I don't want to just ignore it, as the leak will waste water and give me a big water bill.

I'm fairly sure the leak is coming from the device itself. I've heard they can go bad in time. I also heard that I can't just remove it myself and connect the timer directly to the faucet because the threads are deliberately made different, and won't work.

So, do I need to call a plumber to remove it, or is there another way to fix this?

Thanks in advance,
Greg

Our Answer

A backflow preventer is a handy $5 add on to a hose faucet that should be easy to remove and replace. I say “should be” because I have also seen them seemingly fused to the hose faucet too. Let think positive and try to simply remove it. Threads are standard and if you want to hedge you bet, give it a squirt or two of Liquid Wrench to loosen things up before applying pressure with a Vice-Grip or Water-Pump Pliers to remove it. And, remember the age-old rhyme for the direction: righty-tighty, lefty-loosey!