While we're on the subject of seasonal plumbing....I was always able to drain the pipes in my 70 year old cottage by gravity. A couple of years ago the bathroom shower had rusted out to the point of needing to be totally replaced. The old shower had separate hot and cold faucets. The plumber would not replace them and insisted because of code that he had to put in a mixer valve for the hot and cold water ("so no one can be scalded"). OK, fine, despite the fact that for decades no one had been scalded from said shower. I learned the following season that gravity drainage of the shower was no longer possible, despite having left the mixer valve half way open. Water gushed forth from my mixer valve the first spring. This left me with 2 alternatives: remove the valve for the winter (a pain in the neck) or blow out the valve with forced air from my compressor. I have chosen the latter and no longer have problems. But I still miss my 70 y/o classic hot and cold water faucets.
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