Iowa hydrant repair

[MarkB_MI]

Why is it that Woodford, which has been making yard hydrants in Colorado Springs since the dawn of time, calls their top-of-the-line hydrant "Iowa"? My theory is they're supposedly so reliable that they're as boring as the corn-fed state of Iowa. That's a pretty audacious claim.

At any rate, Iowa hydrants do fail. Last fall I noticed my pump was cycling all the time. Since I have separate shutoffs for my yard hydrants, I was quickly able to isolate the problem to one of them. Initially I feared I had a leak in the pipe, but then realized the hydrant probably wasn't closing completely, and the water was leaking out the drain at the base of the hydrant.

There are YouTube videos that show how to fix Iowa hydrants, so I won't go into details. But I thought y'all might be interested in what I found, so here's a few pics:

You need a couple of big pipe wrenches to take apart a fifteen year-old hydrant:

Here's the repair kit I picked up at Menards. I used all the parts, although only the rubber plunger was bad.

Here's the old and new plungers. You can see how the old plunger was no longer closing properly.

 

[Russ from MN]

Yes, I had to repair ours once. I have found that they work smoother if you oil the mechanism on top, the hinge points.

 

[K Effective]

I've got one right now with a broken rod down to the valve- I was just able to get it closed last time I used it, but will not open it for fear of not being able to get it shut off without digging. It's so wet out there right now, plus shutting off takes the water from the cattle fountain.

 

[MarkB_MI]

I'm told you can swap out a hydrant without digging, although I've never tried it. The trick is to leave the water turned on, then unscrew the whole hydrant with a pipe wrench. When you pull the old hydrant, water flowing out the hole will keep it from collapsing and you can insert a new hydrant down the hole and screw it into the elbow underground.

I wouldn't try this if the hydrant is plumbed with plastic. You're supposed to use galvanized pipe for the last few feet before the hydrant, which is how I did mine.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Mark,
I have a hydrant at the well head. Produces 10+ gallons a minute. If I unscrewed the pipe I would get a bath. It might work if I turned the pump off and when water pressure was almost nothing unscrew the pipe. Another hydrant next to pole barn is connected to plastic pipe. I might damage the plastic trying to back out the riser pipe.

I think I'll dig.

 

[grizz02]

you can put your ear to them and hear which one is leaking

 

[MarkB_MI]

Well, George, I suppose down in the balmy climate of Terra Hot you only need a two foot bury depth hydrant, so digging is an option. But I suspect most folks with six foot hydrants would want to give it a try. My hydrant is down a mere four feet, but that's still about 42 inches deeper than I like to dig in Michigan clay.

 

[GEO-TH, In]

Frost line is 24 inches. My hydrants are 36. I think both hydrants are connected to 3/4 plastic, so digging is the only option and easy to do with a terramite.

 

[IowaJohn]

Our local plumber used to do it. Changed out a couple of Ritchie's for Iowa's here. Sadly he passed away a couple of years ago.

 

[4520BW]

I have adjusted the turnbuckle on the handle to get them to stop.leaking out the top, does that also help them leaking out the weep hole?

 

[MarkB_MI]

> I have adjusted the turnbuckle on the handle to get them to stop.leaking out the top, does that also help them leaking out the weep hole?

I might have been able to stop the leak with adjustment, but it seemed to have plenty of downforce on the plunger. And I wasn't 100 percent certain the leak was even in the hydrant. So went for the rebuild, which turned out to be the right thing to do.