I continually have problems with my frost free hydrants freezing up after a few years. We have heavy clay souls that don’t drain quickly, so the drainage rock gets plugged up fairly quick. Has anyone used a septic field “chamber” for the hydrant to drain into? I think they would work great, as each chamber leaves a 30+ gallon airspace that would be below the frost line, and I know my neighbor has had these installed on his septic tank for 15 years and has had no problems with it, even with having 4 teenage girls in the house. Thanks, Charles
I have the same soil. When you dig a hole in clay you are making a drainage hole for any ground water. I think that may fill up that chamber you install. You may be ok it doesn’t rain in the winter.
Yeah like Jack said, your drainage isn't draining because that clay is what they line ponds with. Using gravel around the drain hole will work fine but the water needs to have somewhere to go...you might need to put in a small drain line to a lower elevation...
My soil will drain, although very slowly. I ran into the old plumber that did most of the work in the county until he was forced to retire (several heart attacks and a pacemaker). He would use a 55 gallon barrel cut in half the long way, similar to the septic chamber, and put the top of the barrel at the level of the drain port. He also had a piece of 2” thin wall pipe 4’ long that had the end sharpened and a slot cut out of the side, similar to a soil sample probe. He would push that in with his backhoe 10-12 times to add more drainage, then put the barrel down, anchoring the hydrant to a t-post, then cover the barrel and water line with sand, then finish backfilling the hole. He also told me who has his clay cutting pipe, so next week when I get the mini-ex moved, I will be ready to fix my damm hydrants. Charles
I have a hydrant that froze once and burst at the plastic elbow that threads into the hydrant. I dug it and replaced it but I also have a shut off in the house that feeds that line and I just leave it shut off unless I need to use that hydrant in winter then shut it off after. Never another problem as it drains out and without the lines being full and pressurized it does not freeze and expand. Now I understand if you need them to feed a livestock trough that would not solve the problem.
We have horses, goats and poultry, otherwise I wouldn’t worry about the hydrants. Of course none of the pens are close enough to use just one hydrant... Two of the hydrants have pex between the brass elbow at the bottom and the PVC main line. The other hydrant has a chunk of galvanized pipe threaded into a tee in the PVC line- it will get changed out to pex so there is some flex in the line; I also think there is a crack in the PVC line because it will loose pressure overnight when I have that line shut off.
I’m on gravel, so none of the drainage issues. I always put a galvanized 90 on the bottom and 3’ or so of metal before transitioning to plastic.
I use a brass 90 then a brass pex adapter. When I used PVC, I would use a 3’ piece of galv pipe with a galvanized 90. I make sure there is extra pex in the hole, so it can flex when needed. When I picked up the clay cutting pipe, he gave me a template to cut a 4’ long piece of 2 7/8” fence pipe into a brace for the hydrant. It has a 2’ slot in one side so the hydrant can slide in. It has 2 holes cut at the bottom of the slot, 1 for the pex, the other for the drain line. When installing the hydrant I put some sill seal between the hydrant and pipe to prevent some corrosion, then fastened it all together with fence wire. I put a 4” nipple into the drain hole so it wouldn’t run down into the brace pipe.
Sounds quite robust. These are the jobs we prefer to do only once, and your system sounds like some great insurance. I’m not tooled up for pex, but can see how it would be nice for a lot of situations.
