Heated Hoses?

[trekerboy]

Ok, maybe not strictly a "winterizing" topic (admins, feel free to move if necessary) but clearly a "winter" topic...

Anyone had experiences with heated hoses? I've been in situations twice now where our water line unexpectedly froze overnight while hooked up, and I'm thinking this might be a nice option to have in the future. Before I take apart out whole hose recoil assembly to install one of these, just wanted to put the question out the community here about the reliability of these things, practicality, etc... thoughts?

Video Link

[KelloggKid]

My wife and I spent a year in a SOB while our house was being built in N Idaho. Rather than spend the money on something this fancy, we simply bought heat cable at Home Depot, wrapped it around our city water line, and then covered the hose with the round foam insulation that is split lengthwise. We also wrapped the heat tape around the spigot and wrapped it with fiberglass insulation. We experienced several nights in the single digits with no problems.

[mixedpuppy]

I use one (not the camco) in combination with dripping the faucet. No problems so far this winter (down to -8C at night). Most people here are just using insulation as described above and (I assume) dripping the faucet, some people have had frozen pipes (probably not dripping).

[pmclemore]

I bought one of the hoses but now wish I hadn't bothered. When I have camped in freezing temperatures, the campgrounds required that the hose be disconnected from the hydrant overnight.

So, no advantage to the heated hose over just draining the hose when I disconnected.

Pat