Frozen yard hydrant

[koziol41]

I have a one of those yard hydrants in my barn went to open it up last night and it is frozen i can open the handle about a 1/3 then it stops.It is buried about 5' below ground i live in southeastern wi temps the last few days have been in the single digits at night and teens to middle 20s during the day.I guess to keep this from happing when i am done using it i should shut off the water supply to the hydrant and give it a chance to drain.Am i correct?It never gets used in the winter i just checked it becuse it has been cold.Any help would be great.Thanks

 

[billbill1]

There wasn't a hose hooked to it by chance? That will freeze them everytime.

 

[Tarzan]

The handle might just be frozen. Pour a bucket of water over it slowly,
Dan

 

[schmism]

I have a one of those yard hydrants in my barn went to open it up last night and it is frozen i can open the handle about a 1/3 then it stops.It is buried about 5' below ground i live in southeastern wi temps the last few days have been in the single digits at night and teens to middle 20s during the day.I guess to keep this from happing when i am done using it i should shut off the water supply to the hydrant and give it a chance to drain.Am i correct?It never gets used in the winter i just checked it becuse it has been cold.Any help would be great.Thanks

when was the last time you used it period? could be the seat i just stuck from lack of use.... (not that i condone forceing it)

 

[midlf]

If a hydrant freezes it is because it is not buried deep enough or it does not drain properly. Having a hose hooked up will mess up the drain function.

 

[TwinWillows]

My experience is the same as said by midlf.

Unless a hose is connected I'd say it's probably time to dig it out & redo the gravel around the base.

All the ones I've installed are on concrete blocks set on end & filled up with gravel well above the drain hole. This appears to provide enough volume for any water to leak out & I've had no freezes yet & it went down to -5 here last winter.

 

[rback33]

Try and save some backache by doing some testing before you dig. I am guessing you have never had one a part so I'll try and explain some of this as I go. Those things functions by a big rubber plunger on the end of the rod that slides up and down when you move the handle. Where the handle pulls on the rod is adjustable, usually by a set screw. I found when I moved into my place that all my hydrants were out of adjustment. If the handle is locked into place too high, it will usually allow more flow through the hydrant. This is fine except that when you shut it off, the rubber plunger does not not travel far enough down to uncover the weep hole for the excess water to drain back out. This allows everything to freeze up. Once I adjusted all my hydrants, they worked fine, they just had less flow. You can test this really simple when they thaw out. Run the water out for a few seconds and then shut it off. IMMEDIATELY put you hand in front of the faucet. If it is draining you should be able to see and hear the vacuum of the water as it siphons back into the ground. I dug a hydrant out for no reason to find out the hard way to fix the issues. Might fix you, might not, but I'd rather you not dig if you don't have to.

 

[koziol41]

Thanks for all the great info.Yes there was a hose connected (yes the water in the hose was also frozen) the last time used was in the late summer early fall.I think its deep enough its a 8footer 5 in the ground and 3 above i will try the warm water trick.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Thanks for all the great info.Yes there was a hose connected (yes the water in the hose was also frozen) the last time used was in the late summer early fall.I think its deep enough its a 8footer 5 in the ground and 3 above i will try the warm water trick.

Yup, definitely keep the hose off or install an all weather vacuum break so the hydrant can empty. Another think you can try is to get a small gutter deicer (they are just special electric cords) and wrap that around the pipe of the hydrant. Plug it in and it should deice it. When I installed my hydrants back in 05 I was tempted to bury these in with the hydrant install .

 

[bky]

It is not a good idea to leave a hose hookled up to it as i found out the expensive way. Because when the warter in the hose would not alow all the warter to leave the hydrant all the way froze and cracked the head of the hydrant.

 

[Pilot]

Like bky, I left the hose attached, but I drained all the water out of the hose, or so I thought. Had 16 deg. temps last winter with 20 mph winds and it broke the casting on top. Was not frozen underground, as lots of water was shooting out of the thing, turning to ice everywhere. Was not fun to fix standing out there in the cold. Big problem was that the hardware store was sold out of hydrants. Had to dig it out & put a plug on the pipe until I could get a new hydrant.

 

[dubba]

We have a few hydrants here that are buried nowhere near deep enough because of ledge problems

Our SOP on the ones that freeze constantly is all outside water must be shut off whenever not in use. I put in an irrigation control valve on the water line at the house end, pulled the control wires to the barn (conduit is always the right idea) and installed a "water switch" in the barn. Shutting off the water removes the problem of a hydrant that might be weeping around the plunger.

On the main hydrant I use a big trashcan with lid & a bucket. Poke a hole big enough for the hydrant to fit through in the bottom of the trashcan & lid. Put the trashcan over hydrant, fill with paper grain bags, install cover on trashcan. Put large bucket over the top of hydrant when not in use. We use a 3ft length of hose for filling buckets, so that also goes under the top bucket. So far this setup has not frozen down to -25. BOL

 

[mintex]

my hydrant isn't frozen-the handle is up and only goes down 3/4 of the way so you can't shut the hydrant off. It's only a couple years old and it worked the firs year but not sense. We are going to move out there and now it's a problem. HELP PLEASE

 

[whistlepig]

Frost free hydrants are rebuildable from above ground. It's been my experience when the handle loses stroke, freezes, or gets hard to cycle it most times needs rebuilding. Most hydrant manufacturers have rebuild kits that can be purchased online. One thing is for sure. There are extremely good frost free hydrants and extremely bad frost free hydrants. I have owned both.

 

[Ken45101]

I have one that leaks bad around the stem when I'm using it.

Yes, I know, tighten the nut around the stem. But the nut is frozen. Brass nut in a cast iron housing I've tried penetrating oil with no success. Any suggestions as how to free it up? I'm afraid to force it too much.

The hydrant works well except for the water spout shooting up by the head when I'm using it.

Thanks,

Ken

 

[Whatswrong]

Is there room to get a six point deep socket on the packing nut if all the handle hardware is removed ,possibly that would let you gently fee it up without taking all the corners off I can't see there being corrosion on the brass.

 

[Ken45101]

Is there room to get a six point deep socket on the packing nut if all the handle hardware is removed ,possibly that would let you gently fee it up without taking all the corners off I can't see there being corrosion on the brass.

I'll have to take another look at it, thanks.

Generally dissimilar metals tend to corrode with galvanic action.

Ken

 

[jenkinsph]

Ken,
I use tubing wrenches on those brass packing nuts, you can buy them at Sears or any decent auto parts store like NAPA. Use a regular open end wrench to determine the size you need to get.

 

[Ken45101]

The handle frame and the rod pivot is in the way to use a socket wrench.

I'll give the tubing wrench a try.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Ken

 

[kafoster]

I made this contraption. A 2 foot white plastic hose (the kind used behind refrigerators for water) and a sqeezy bottle. Cut an X in the top on the bottles top and push the hose into it about 1/2 inch. Glue or seal around the hose on the lid. Then pop the lid off the bottle and 1/2 fill with table salt and 1/2 boiling water. Put the lid with hose back on the bottle. Shake as best as possible. Then go to the hydraunt, push the hose up into the spout as far as you can. Hold the bottle upside down and start to squeeze the shaken mixture. Make sure it doesn't clog with salt as you might have to blow out the salt in the hose and repeat putting back into the spout. This make take a couple tries and wait. Worked for me.