Frozen yard hydrant

   / Frozen yard hydrant #1  

koziol41

Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2006
Messages
28
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
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #2  
There wasn't a hose hooked to it by chance? That will freeze them everytime.
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #3  
The handle might just be frozen. Pour a bucket of water over it slowly,
Dan
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #4  
koziol41 said:
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)
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #5  
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.
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #6  
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.
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #7  
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.
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant
  • Thread Starter
#8  
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.
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #9  
koziol41 said:
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 :).
 
   / Frozen yard hydrant #10  
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.
 
 
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