Help In stopping Hyrant Leaks

BSVLY · Mar 2, 2007

The place we bought has five (5) freeze proof hyrdants. They are all put-in around 4-foot deep. They were installed 8-10 years ago, so the soil is well compacted around them. I don't have a backhoe, so digging them up by hand for an easy replacement is sort of a brutal thought.

I'm pretty sure these are the cheapest brand of hydrant too. They all leak steadily out of the top stem at the handle when they are opened. I want to put in some irrigation timers on these, so having them consistantly leak like that is out of the question.

I have heard that there are rebuild kits available for these. Searched a bit on here too and have read what I can. However, since I don't know where these off-brand hydrants were purchased, it will be impracticle to run around the area to find a proper kit (very remote location).

Question: Can I effectively reseal the leaking heads just using Teflon Valve packing? I have found two diameters of this Teflon rope and even one small packing rope made of graphite impregnated something or other. One neighbor says to uses square "Gland Packing" yet I can't seem to find that at the improvement stores.

I was hoping someone who has already cracked this code could recommend a proceedure for the "rebuild". I have no experience packing stems or plumbing glands. I really hope there is a temporary fix to get me through this spring and summer. Eventually I will buy heavy duty USA made hyrants and retrofit the lot...

Thanks for any suggestion/instructions.

Rich

JRobyn · Mar 2, 2007

On mine, there's a brass packing nut that the stem runs through. Under the nut is usually packing material of some type (oakum, teflon, leather) or an o-ring. Without raising the stem and opening the valve down below, disassemble enough of the handle assembly so that you can back out the packing nut and find out what is in yours so that you can obtain a suitable replacement. If yours have packing material, I think that most any kind of replacement packing material will suffice (I'd recommend the teflon/graphite "string" type.

You may also find that you can simply tighten the packing nut down a bit to compress whatever packing material is stil in there and stop the leaks.

dooleysm · Mar 2, 2007

If you can twist the top of the hydrant around enough to break one of the below ground fittings, then you can let the water run for a while down there to soften the ground up. The digging is much easier, although messier then. You can all guess how I know this.

midlf · Mar 2, 2007

I have a similar leak. I was going to repack it but I couldn't break the brass packing nut loose. Previous owner's wife said "it doesn't leak", her husband said it die. Her answer was to just move the handle down a bit, without starting to shut off the water, and the leak stops. She was correct. That works for us. However the fixer in me still wants to crack that packing nut loose and repack it.