frost free Hydrant problems

[eponia]

hi, I have several TSC blue hydrants. This year they all froze. The main one is in the barn. it has been warm enough to have "thawed out" and I applied heat tape et all. still No water - adjusted the water flow bolt, still nothing. ( no i can't dig- as it is all under a slab of crete. ( some dumb fool planned it -the previous owners) so wondering what next steps to try....BTW I am a tiny old lady.

 

[Billrog]

Unfortunately if none of them are working your feed line may be froze some place along the way.

 

[BeeferMan]

hi, I have several TSC blue hydrants. This year they all froze. The main one is in the barn. it has been warm enough to have "thawed out" and I applied heat tape et all. still No water - adjusted the water flow bolt, still nothing. ( no i can't dig- as it is all under a slab of crete. ( some dumb fool planned it -the previous owners) so wondering what next steps to try....BTW I am a tiny old lady.

Yes, you didn't tell us anything about the water line, but it's likely to be frozen at some point as well. The way our water dept thaws out frozen lines is using a thin piece of stiff plastic tubing, a small hand pump and a tub of hot water. Access the line from inside the house (or where ever your line to the barn is sourced, feed the small plastic in until hitting the frozen part. Start pumping water with the hand pump and feeding in more tubing as the ice melts. In their case they have pressure on the other side, so when the last of the ice melts, you know it in a hurry! In your case you might have to measure how far your tubing is or put an ear to the hydrant and listen. If you haven't got all that equipment (and who but a water dept would?) then haul water until the thaw comes. Spring is just around the corner, I hear! Or depending on the distance you could run a hose over the top of the ground, roll it up when you're done. Been there, done that! Sorry, no easy answers to frozen water lines...

 

[JRobyn]

Are you pretty sure that they are still frozen, or is there a chance that the operating rod or valve plug down below the surface is broken? The entire top head of the hydrant can be unscrewed from the riser pipe to check and repair or replace these parts as needed. BUT don't do this unless you have a means to cut off the water supply source somewhere or you may wind up with a gusher in the barn! You will likely need a large pipe wrench on the riser pipe and either another large pipe wrench or adjustable wrench for the head. Good luck, and WELCOME to the forum! :welcome:

- Jay

 

[varmint]

Yep- unscrew the top valve handle, and pull up the rod, and you will find a rubber cone shaped seal on the bottom- the part that opens and closes the flow of water. Like the poster above stated, be sure the water supply if OFF. The rubber cone is replaceable, along with some of the metal wear parts. You may have to adjust the rod's length afterwards, to get just enough pressure to shut off the water without crushing the rubber seal.

 

[silvertramp]

If you have a steel line, you can hire a welder to thaw the line. The water will freeze at my place. I hire a mobile welder. He clips to either side of the frozen portion and puts 250 amps DC through the line. I've been doing it for years, and it's worked every time. Not many people doing that work anymore around here.

 

[arlen4720]

It might be easier to just let it thaw on its own at this point.
If you ever have to put in another hydrant use a Woodford Iowa

 

[jenkinsph]

Most of the time when more than one hydrant has this problem the water line was placed too shallow. You would need to have this determined and may need the water line replaced at a deeper depth. A local plumber should be able to do this for you.

 

[groundcover]

Mother Nature brought it, she will fix it as well! Just need to wait it out. Just saw a septic tank that had frozen, a first for me. Plumber told me a water line in the town next door broke and they had frost six feet down!

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Mine acted strangely during our last cold snap. I got 5 gallons and then it quit. It turned out to be the nipple to the pressure switch for my well pump that froze.