Yard Hydrant Connection

[Kays Supply]

If anyone else has more experience at this that me, I will give to there advice. If not, I have been plumbing for 30+ years. If you want the least trouble with this, you will run the feed line to the hydrant from inside the house/barn whatever. Put a shut off valve on it. If the hydrant gets damaged on a cold winter day you just shut the valve and fix it when the weather is better. If it is on your house line ahead of the house you will be out there fixing it rain or shine so the momma can take a bath.

Use soft copper about three or 4 feet long to connect to the bottom of the hydrant. It will give quite a bit before failing. PVC will snap at the threads if the hydrant is torqued much at all. There are fittings made by McDonald that are brass compression. They can connect to the PVC without glue so you can get back to using it and don't have to dry it out to make a glue joint if you must connect ahead of the house. I would still put a valve between the house line and the hydrant even if it is under ground.

Anchor it to some kind of post for sure. A mower or lifestock can do a real damage quick.

 

[heehaw]

i hate yard hydrants: i put a bunch in when we built in 86, an replaced all but one several times before i quit using them: except for the one that is still original an still works: they should not drip out the drain hole after a couple minutes: i connected my outside faucets several different ways till i finally did this: i put a 2 or 3 foot piece of clear nylon reinforced flexible pipe on the end of the pipe and connected that to my pvc: i have donkeys that love to scratch on the pipe, an they broke everything i tried till i did this: i think they could push it completely over an it still wouldn't break: i got the clear, nylon reinforced pipe at lowes, its high pressure hose and has been in for close to 10 years now with no problems. i did put a piece of scrap 1.5 or 2 inch pvc over the top of the pipe to make sure it didn't collapse when i run over it.
heehaw

 

[Gator6x4]

Follow the detailed instruction in the web page below. The only thing I would add is instead of just pouring the bag of cement around the hydrant is to place a form around the hydrant and then place cement in the form. This will give you somewhere to set a bucket to fill with water, not splash muddy water on you when using the hydrant without a hose attached and will provide support for the hydrant. Be sure to place a bag of gravel in the hole before adding any fill.

How to Install a Yard Hydrant : How-To : DIY Network

 

[heehaw]

yep, an when you pour cement around it, get ready to either tear out the cement, cut off the hydrant or have a useless pipe sticking up, in about 10 years: all of them i have had, required repairs after a few years: the ones used the least, required the repairs the quickest: they would stick an when i opened the water, it wouldn't close. that said, i have seen some last 25 years too: but my experience hasn't been on that end.
heehaw