pipes in winter - drain 'em dry or just insulate?

For choosing between the two methods, the key detail is whether the outdoor run is exposed to freezing air and whether it can drain completely. Insulation slows heat loss, but an exposed pipe can still freeze during a long cold spell. Draining helps only if water can empty from the whole run, including low spots.

Before choosing a winterizing method, identify whether the outdoor run is a hose bib, an irrigation line, or something else, and how its shutoff and drainage are arranged. A hose bib with an indoor shutoff and drain point isn’t set up like a sprinkler system, and using the wrong procedure can leave water trapped.

For example, with a hose bib that has an indoor shutoff and drain point, I’d use that setup to empty the line and treat insulation as extra protection - not as a replacement for draining. If the outdoor run is arranged differently, the same routine may not clear it safely.

That neighbor comparison is most useful if your pipes were exposed similarly and faced similar winter conditions. Do you know whether they were?

I don’t know whether their setups were comparable, so I’d treat the neighbor’s trouble-free winter as a useful data point, not proof that insulation alone is reliable in a harsher freeze. Similar exposure and weather make the comparison more meaningful, but they still don’t guarantee the same outcome next winter.

Given the hassle you described, I’d still lean toward draining if the whole line can actually empty: one inconvenient winterizing session seems worth it to me compared with risking a costly burst. I wouldn’t count on insulation alone as a substitute when freezing weather is possible.

What made draining take so long - getting to the shutoff, dealing with several outdoor runs, or something else? Knowing where the hassle was might point to a simpler routine without assuming insulation alone is enough.

If access to the shutoff is the bottleneck, improving access could make the routine easier; if there are several runs, handling them together may save repeated trips. And if water is lingering in low spots, the drain arrangement - not more insulation - is what needs attention.