Water hydrants (tsc)

[TheCaseFamily00]

We are getting ready to put a hydrant in at the barn and I'v been price checking. The tsc brand is priced at around 60.00 but i'm wondering if it works well. I priced one at lowes(heard good things about brand) but i's around 170.00,any thoughts? It can get pretty cold here in the winter and was afraid the cheaper one might freeze,says it's frost free.Thanks!

 

[kuelinkellyville]

As long as you have it buried deep enough under the ground for your area then it should not ever freeze, make sure your hole has plenty of gravel in it so that it will drain. If you are running plastic pvc pipe for your line to the hydrant, DO NOT hook the hydrant directly to the pvc pipe, because if someone or something bumps it pretty hard it can break the pvc pipe. Connect to the pvc pipe with galvanized water pipe and go at least 24" before you connect the hydrant.. I am talking from experience about this, there is nothing like putting one in and than having to do it again with water running everywhere.

Danny

 

[dgrminis]

I would say if you can afford it go with the expensive ones... We moved to our property 6 or 7 years ago -- it was just pasture when we moved out here -- had water, electricity and all that brought in... We only did one hydrant as it was all we had time/money for at the time (plus it was winter and the ground was frozen so took alot of work to even get that one in).... We bought the cheaper one at TSC - pretty much were spent on money with everything else... Did it work - yes -- did it freeze - only once and that was "special" circumstances as we had about 6 inches of ice on everything so not the hydrants fault... It worked well and we never had any issues However with that said we built a new house last september/october and so we put in a bunch of new hydrants... After we trenched all the lines we decided to pull the old hydrant out (it would have been in the middle of nowhere close to our driveway if we had left it) - but when we dug it up the pipe of the actual hydrant - not sure the right words but the part where it elbows off at the bottom to tie into the line -- that part was almost rusted through in 4 or 5 spots and their was some water in the hole from where it had been trickling out of the holes.... My father-in-law had just dug up a hydrant that got hit with the tractor and it was the nicer/more expensive brand from Lowes and it had been in the ground 20 years and looked fine.... So for our new lines we spent the extra and put the more expensive ones in. I have to say that they also feel "sturdier" to me -- that could be all in my head though since I know they cost more... So I would go with the more expensive ones if you can afford them and if not then the cheaper one will also do its job...

Good Luck!!!

 

[Jill]

I don't know. We have heavy duty ones I think "Iowa" brand (?). BUT I do have one piece of advice -- when it's cold, do not leave even a small length of hose hooked up. I didn't know better and froze my "frost free" hydrants the first really cold night we had them. Now that I know to disconnect even a short hose, there's never been a problem again. I mistakenly thought draining the hose was enough to keep it from making the "frost free" hydrants freeze.

Good luck!

 

[TheCaseFamily00]

The Iowa brand was recomended by a friend/well guy but it's the costly one. I'm just so excited about not having to haul in the winter

.Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[leeapachemoon]

I work at TSC and have never had any complaints about the one we sell.

 

[wantminimore]

I got mine from the local Agway store, I went with one that's about 52 inches with 4'bury depth and about 3' sticking up, don't have to bend down so far, lol. We are still installing it. Can't wait untill its done, good luck with yours

 

[Miniv]

Don't know about the brand names, but if it's installed properly, you should be okay. You need to find out what your "frost level" is for your area and dig below it.

I ditto the PVC pipe advice from Danny AND Jill's advice regarding keeping a hose connected to it (during winter time.) We've accidentally left a hose on our hydrant in the barn in early winter and had it frozen for days.