DIYbanter - View Single Post - How do I Unthaw yard hydrant underground?

dpb

wrote:
....

There's a lot that isn't clear. Leading me to wonder if it's really
frozen
where he thinks it is, or somewhere completely different. If this
thing
is in a barn, ie reasonably protected, goes straight down 5ft, and has
heat tape on it, one would tend to doubt that it froze there. Perhaps
there is somewhere else the pipe is more exposed?

Except'n he's said the pull rod won't...that's pretty clear.

Now, there may be other points in the line froze first and it's just
progressed this direction, but I'll venture OP's correct in that there's
a frozen plug in the standpipe.

We've got half-dozen and have had since as long as I can remember (which
is back towards 50 yrs or more now) and in all those times the only
causes have been either the weep is plugged, the drain area saturated or
they didn't shut off absolutely tight so filled the standpipe.

Only the last of those is fixable w/o access to the foot, unfortunately,
and can either be the adjustment isn't quite tight enough or the rubber
on the stop has worn or gotten a set so doesn't seal. Theoretically, a
seat could go bad but I've never in all that time had to replace one;
only way I would see that happening would be if someone were to do the
silly of trying to use one as a control valve instead of off/on.

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