BEEWAY Outdoor Tap Cover Review: Frost Protection for Outside Taps

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An outside tap is the one bit of your plumbing that spends the whole winter outdoors. The BEEWAY outdoor tap cover is a padded, waterproof jacket that slides over it and straps on, and it’s about the simplest frost protection for outside taps you can buy.

We have a BEEWAY outdoor tap cover on our own outside tap. It was easy to fit, and it just works. Here’s what it is, how to fit it, and the two-minute job we do alongside it every winter to be sure.

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What the BEEWAY Outdoor Tap Cover Is

The BEEWAY outdoor tap cover is an outside tap cover in the truest sense: a soft insulated jacket for a garden tap. The outer shell is 420D Oxford fabric with a waterproof coating, and inside it’s filled with thick cotton padding. It measures 22 x 18 cm and fits standard outside taps, with room to spare around the tap body.

The waterproof outer matters more than it sounds. Insulation only does its job while it’s dry. The old trick of wrapping a tap in a towel works right up until it rains, at which point you’ve got a cold, wet towel hugging a cold metal tap all night. The BEEWAY keeps the padding dry, so it keeps insulating.

There’s also a reflective strip on the front. On a dark January evening, when you’re checking the garden with a torch, it shows up straight away instead of blending into the brickwork.

Fitting an Outdoor Tap Cover Takes Seconds

You slide the BEEWAY outdoor tap cover over the tap and fasten the hook-and-loop strap around the back. That’s it. No tools, no fiddly ties, no instructions to lose. It comes off just as quickly when you want to use the tap.

Take any hose and hose connector off the tap first. A hose left attached holds water right up against the tap, and that water is the first thing to freeze.

Wall-Mounted Tap or Exposed Pipe?

Our tap is mounted straight onto the wall, so there’s no exposed pipe outside, and the BEEWAY outdoor tap cover covers everything that’s out in the weather.

Plenty of outside taps aren’t like that. If yours sits on a run of pipe along the outside wall, the cover protects the tap itself but not the pipe feeding it. That pipe needs lagging too. Foam pipe lagging is cheap, it’s sold in every DIY shop, and it just pushes on over the pipe. Lag the pipe, fit the cover over the tap, and the whole lot is protected.

Outdoor Tap Cover for Winter: Isolate and Drain to Be Sure

A cover keeps the frost off. But in winter, to be completely sure, we also isolate the outside tap and drain it. It takes a couple of minutes, and it means there’s simply no water left out there to freeze.

Most outside taps have an isolation valve on the pipe indoors, often under the kitchen sink or close to where the pipe goes through the wall. Turn that off, then open the outside tap and let the water in the pipe run out. Then fit the BEEWAY outdoor tap cover over the empty tap.

That combination is belt and braces: no water in the pipe to freeze, and the tap itself kept dry and out of the wind until spring. When the warmer weather comes back, close the outside tap, turn the isolation valve back on, and you’re ready for the hosepipe again.

Useful All Year, Not Just in a Freeze

The BEEWAY outdoor tap cover is reusable, and it isn’t only a winter thing. It shields the tap from rain, wind, sun, rust and rot, so you can leave it on through the seasons when the tap isn’t in use. When you do take it off, dry it out and it’ll be ready for the next cold snap.

Is the BEEWAY Outdoor Tap Cover Worth Buying?

A burst pipe is one of those winter jobs nobody plans for. It usually starts with a puddle where there shouldn’t be one and ends with a plumber standing in your kitchen in January, explaining the call-out fee with great sympathy. An outside tap cover is so cheap and so boring that most people never get round to buying one, which is exactly how they end up meeting that plumber. Frost protection for outside taps is worth sorting now, before the first frost, not after it.

If you’ve got an outside tap, get an outdoor tap cover for it. If you’ve got two, get two. Fit it, isolate and drain for the coldest months if you want to be sure, and lag any exposed pipe. Then forget about it until spring, which is the best thing you can say about any bit of winter kit.

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What the Rest of the Team Think

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BEEWAY Outdoor Tap Cover Pros and Cons

Pros

• Waterproof 420D Oxford outer keeps the cotton padding dry, so it keeps insulating in wet weather
• Slides on and straps up in seconds, with no tools
• Fits standard outside taps, 22 x 18 cm with room around the tap body
• Reflective strip makes it easy to spot in the dark
• Reusable, and protects the tap from rain, wind, sun, rust and rot all year
• Pairs perfectly with isolating and draining the tap for complete peace of mind

Cons

• Covers the tap only: any exposed pipe along the wall needs lagging separately
• Sized for standard taps, so oversized fittings or tap timers left in place may not fit inside
• You need to take the hose and connector off before fitting it
• It’s insulation, not a heater: for the coldest spells, isolate and drain the tap as well

Frequently Asked Questions