Outside water hydrant

[NathanHunter]

I have an older water hydrant in the barn, recently replaced the O ring and vertical pipe and put everything back together. No leaks when handle is closed, when I turn it on, the water leaks from the weep hole constantly while water is running, it does stop eventually when handle is closed as it should.. any thoughts on why the weep hole leaks while water is running??
Thanks
Phil

 

[Janicholson]

The weep hole is supposed to leak. A 1/32 inch pee stream is correct. when shut off, the weep hole drains the stand pipe, preventing
freezing. Jim

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you Jim!
I didn't realize the weep hole was supposed to stream constantly while the water was turned on, I thought it was only supposed to weep when turning off the handle.
Learn something everyday!!!
Thanks
Phil

 

[Brian AB]

The hydrants I have only weep down when the handle is shut off. It has three orings.

 

[used red MN]

Your original thought about the operation of a freeze free yard hydrant was correct. The port to the drain back weep hole should only be open when the hydrant is in the fully shut off position. There is a possibility that there may be some leak by if you are operating the hydrant just slightly open for a low flow use. You say you replaced an oring, in most of the brands of hydrants I am familiar with the shut off is more of a plunger or ball made of rubber. There may be some cheapo hydrants out there that do not shut the drain back, I do not know, if you used your hydrant a lot in a normal outdoor installation eventually you would have a swamp around the base of the hydrant. See video
Freeze free hydrant

 

[Russ from MN]

I have never seen one with a weep hole, but it sounds like a good idea, should eliminate the need for an ant-siphon fitting.

 

[used red MN]

The frost free drain back hydrant would increase the need for the anti siphon valve in my thinking. Although in many farm applications they are not utilized. Say your hose is in a stock tank and it has a good sealing connections. When you turn off the hydrant the drain back hole would continue to siphon the water out of the tank all be it at a slow rate. The weep hole or drain back is down at the level the water supply line is dug to below the freeze depth of the area. There is a small gravel bed say 6 inch deep about 2ft in diameter around the base of the hydrant at its connecting point to the supply. The gravel bed dissipated the drain back water into the surrounding soil. The replacement hydrant I installed at my moms farm earlier this summer had an 1/8 in pipe thread hole for the drain down.

 

[K Effective]

I just replaced two hydrants in the last month- the new one came with adjustment instructions to stop it from spraying out the weep hole while in use. Maybe you can download some from a manufacturer's website. I'll see if I still have mine to post.

 

[Russ from MN]

I heard a horror story about a frost free hydrant once, the hydrant was next to the well and drained into the well, probably not a legal thing to do. A farmer was filling a sprayer, already had the chemical in. It started raining real hard. He shut off the water and ran for the house, and most of the chemical siphoned into the well! The well and the surrounding water table was contaminated for years!

 

[Bob Bancroft]

The drain hole on my hydrant is mounted well below ground level, next to a drain tile. So I never knew whether it was weeping
while in use, or not. I replaced the plunger once, and saw no provision for sealing off the drain hole. So I have to assume it's
always open.

 

[zuhnc]

The weep hole is OPEN when the hydrant is shut, and CLOSED when the hydrant is fully open. If only partially open, it might weep. I have installed anti-siphon devices on all my hydrants, as well as positive drain-down valves (I forget their technical name) for use in freezing weather.
The anti-siphon valves DO NOT allow the standpipe to drain; no way for any air to get into it. Opening the drain-down valve will provide for complete draining of the standpipe. Of course, if you have no anti-siphon valve, your hydrant MIGHT drain, if your hose is open at the end. Otherwise, with a closed hose, there is, again, no way for air to get into the standpipe to drain.
Anti-siphon valves WILL prevent your stock tank from draining, or other liquid from siphoning back into your potable water system, if your house/barn/etc. is on well water. I am on a well for all domestic water, so I need the anti-siphon protection. zuhnc

 

[K Effective]

When I installed the new one, I turned the water on and cycled it several times before backfilling. When you open the hydrant, it blocks off the weep hole, and then opens the weep hole when the hydrant is closed, as zuhnc said earlier.

M water table is so high some times, the pipe never drains down, and the control rods rusted in two. You could open the hydrant and maybe the bottom part would come up and let water flow, and then hopefully the top part met up with it to push it closed when you were done. Not a comfortable place to be.

 

[MarkB_MI]

If the weep hole you're talking about is the one at the base of the hydrant, it shouldn't leak while in operation. If I understand correctly, you dug up the hydrant and replaced the pipe between the valve assembly and head. If the new pipe is slightly shorter than the old one, or its threads are cut a bit deeper, the operating rod would be too long to close off the weep hole. Since you have it dug up, I would just replace the whole hydrant and be done with it.

 

[miangus]

The rubber mushroom shaped seal at the bottom covers the weep hole when the valve is open. I would make sure the valve rod was adjusted correctly. Its not too hard to pull the head, rod and inspect/replace the rubber seal at the bottom.

 

[jniolon]

I have a Prier thru the wall unit and the faucet only 'weeps' when you shut it off. Mine started leaking around the stem and calling
them got me a rebuild kit that fixed it...might be worth a call to their tech people

john

 

[WNYBill]

We have several frost free hydrants and they adjust at the handle. I think you are not pulling the stand pipe high enough and the
weep hole is not shut and continues to weep.

 

[fixerupper]

The weep hole should not pee while the hydrant is on. If it did we would have a lake around the hydrant when the hydrant is on all the time feeding a cattle tank with a float shutoff on the tank.

 

[NathanHunter]

(quoted from post at 07:49:38 10/06/21) The weep hole should not pee while the hydrant is on. If it did we would have a lake around the hydrant when the hydrant is on all the time feeding a cattle tank with a float shutoff on the tank.

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[NathanHunter]

Thank you for your input!

 

[buickanddeere]

(reply to post at 14:02:02 10/05/21)

Wide open or fully closed , there is no in between operation of a frost protected hydrant .
The drain bed is usually too shallow and too fine of stone is used .

 

[MarkB_MI]

> Wide open or fully closed , there is no in between operation of a frost protected hydrant .

In my experience, both the Woodford Iowa and Merrill Anyflow hydrants can be adjusted to pretty much any flow you want. I'm not so sure about the cheaper hydrants, but why go cheap on something you might have to dig up if it fails?