Frost free hydrant for potable water

[SoonDockin]

I plan to run water to a location by our driveway. Same area has power and sewer. I was looking at frost free hydrants but wonder if there is a particular brand that is safe for drinking water. It would be nice to have a one stop location to prep the RV before or after trips.

[hornet28]

Lynnmor, sounds as though someone put a short one in. They make them as long as 9 ft. If you end up later digging it out I'd certainly think about a taller one

[Lynnmor]

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Put in my RV pad at least 15 years ago. Dug down a couple feet below the bottom of the hydrant and filled with coarse gravel. The line to it is 3/4" soft copper. Before connecting I always run the water for a bit.

I left a hole in the concrete large enough to replace hydrant if ever needed.

I have a house that has a hydrant installed like yours, too close to the wall. I could do repairs to it if only the faucet could be turned to unscrew it, but that ain't possible. When the thing totally fails, I will need to dig down inside and outside the wall, lengthen the supply line and do a complete reinstall. And the dang thing is buried so deep that a 5 gallon bucket just fits under the outlet.

[hornet28]

A tip for keeping the drain hole open. First use a street L on the drain hole and a short nipple pointed down. Then use a piece of 4 or 5" PVC pipe, cut a slot the width of the supply line so that if fits over it then add a reducer to the PVC to get it to the diameter of the upright faucet line, seal it to that line with plumbers rope or something similar and you won't get any dirt or stone clogging the drain hole

[Thermoguy]

SoonDockin wrote:
Its going to be about 75 ft from the house near my unheated shop. No basements here. I use the RV off and on all year round. I currently pull over by the house to fill the tanks or run 100ft of hose to the rv at the staging spot. I want water over by the shop so that's going to happen either way. I see now that a frost free is not going to solve all needs, so I will just need to do the frost free then leave a stub for a standard spigot I can keep from freezing.

Reading this comment, As I mentioned in my last post, I have a frost free hydrant at my barn, for horse water. That is outside the barn. It's great as it works all year round and I don't have to protect it from freezing. I also have a sink inside the barn, which is open and not heated. I have that next to an exterior wall. When we built it, the water line comes off a T near the frost free line, it goes up into the wall area. From there is is like a standard faucet connection, but we insulated the heck out of it, and wrapped it in heat tape. If it's going to stay below freezing for a few days or get really cold at night, I pug in the heat tape, I also have some insulation foam tubing I put on the faucet and handles to protect them from freezing, not sure if I need that, but haven't had a leak or problem from freezing. Easy solution, and kills 2 birds. We don't have hot water, so both sides of the sink are cold. We do have a hose connection on the sink so we can use it to connect a hose for whatever we need.

Good Luck with your choices, but I am a fan of the frost free hydrant.

[Thermoguy]

Wow - People are making more out of this than it is. Any frost free hydrant will work. It doesn't need to be stainless or anything special. If you are filling up from an outdoor tap at your house now, is it a special tap or just water from the house? Just make sure you bury the end deep enough that the line won't freeze on your coldest winter storm. They have to drain or they are not frost free. We have horses, so if our water supply froze we would be in a world of hurt.

I have 3 frost free hydrant's on my property. The same thing you would buy at Lowes or in my case the local farm supply store. They are decent, reliable, and you can replace the internal rod and such if they fail. I have one failing now and its original to the house, over 20 years. I'm sure there are different qualities, I've never looked to see where the ones I have bought were made, but not a lot of local choices. However, I haven't bought a bad one. I think I have replaced 2 of my 3 due to varying issues. It's not fun, but not that bad either.

I can fill up from any of them, but the oldest one is near where I park my trailer. I do use a filter on the end of the hose, but I'm sure most people do that anyway when filling their RV tank. It's the same water that you pull from the kitchen sink, so doesn't need to be special.

[Cummins12V98]

Put in my RV pad at least 15 years ago. Dug down a couple feet below the bottom of the hydrant and filled with coarse gravel. The line to it is 3/4" soft copper. Before connecting I always run the water for a bit.

I left a hole in the concrete large enough to replace hydrant if ever needed.

[SoonDockin]

Its going to be about 75 ft from the house near my unheated shop. No basements here. I use the RV off and on all year round. I currently pull over by the house to fill the tanks or run 100ft of hose to the rv at the staging spot. I want water over by the shop so that's going to happen either way. I see now that a frost free is not going to solve all needs, so I will just need to do the frost free then leave a stub for a standard spigot I can keep from freezing.

[deltabravo]

JaxDad wrote:
Why make it more complicated (and expensive) than it needs to be?

Run PEX pipe from a disconnect in the basement

Where is there information saying he has a basement, or that the water location is even near his house?

[JaxDad]

Why make it more complicated (and expensive) than it needs to be?

Run PEX pipe from a disconnect in the basement with a sediment drain and ball valve. When you’re finished with the water each fall just shut off the supply and open both spigots, the water drains back and anything left won’t matter, PEX will freeze thaw no problem even if it didn’t completely drain.

[wa8yxm]

I would use fine gravel instead of sand in the hole. and stainless steel hydrant.

Campground (South Cove, Seneca SC) got froze big time a few years ago.. They re-did it with all frost free.. then people complained about "Rusty water" so they replaced 'em all with stainless steel units. What can I say. I don't tank up there 🙂

[pbeverly]

Cheap ones won't last. Had 3 Made in China and they all started having issues within a couple years. One rebuilt and it too started having issues. We have one left working and need to replace another, will go Made in the USA as supposedly they last.

[SoonDockin]

Lots of good info here. I suppose I could put a ground box in and a sealed hydrant with the option to put heat tape on it should it get too cold. I will probably put a cheap frost free one in for washing cars and the RV.

[enblethen]

The drain can suck in unwanted material from the soil. Drain operates when the hydrant is off. Woodfords have a heater in lower section.

[Blacklane]

If you’re going to install a hydrant, I highly recommend a Murdock hydrant. Those are commercial-grade, reliable, and repairable. They’re also expensive.

If that doesn’t fit into your budget, then the Woodford is a distant second place, but way better than whatever you will find in the big box stores.

Since I put them in in 2002, both of my original hydrants have failed. The first failed to seal, even with a re-build kit. Of course, you have to get that repaired before winter, so I just installed another one from a home center. Now I regret that. On the second hydrant, the rod broke off at the bottom where it meets the stopper. There was no way to get the stopper out to replace it. I replaced that with a Woodford, which seems much better.

Replacing a hydrant is not fun. You think, “Oh, It’s only 3 feet deep. I can handle that.” But then you discover that the hole has to be big enough to get into so you can hold the bottom joint, or roughly the size of a grave Then that may be below the water table, so you’re into sticky, heavy clay mud. Plus, you try to leave a step to stand and kneel on, so you have to work below your knees, in a hole, in the mud.

Most hydrants offer an “EPA” or "Sanitary" version. This keeps ground water out of the hydrant drain, since in a regular frost-free hydrant, the drain is open to the ground water. This is what you want for potable water.