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Elite Veteran
Posts: 614
 
Location: Usually on my horse | OK, so I go out to the barn to fill water troughs last night. Lift the handle on my hydrant,...nothing. Wrap heat tape and insulation around the pipe......try again this morning.....nothing. I thought hydrants were not suppose to freeze. !!!! It is inside my building. Granted it has been extremely cold, but I have never had a problem before with the hydrant. Any suggestions anybody ??? With the most extreme cold weather yet to come, I am not relishing the idea of hauling water from the house for 5 horses. This is just the frosting on the cake for this horribly cold weather. |
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 The Non Sky Diver
Posts: 9004
 
Location: SE Louisiana | It depends on how deep it is... But they make those things long enough unless it is chin-high it should be down under the frost line. I'd go check the other end of that water-line and see if the problem is there. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 464
| Frost proof hydrants are great, untill the ground get saturated. Then the water in the above ground section can't back flow to the ground. Find a piece of hose that is smaller in diameter than the hydrant. Stick it in the hydrant. Use a funnel to put almost boils water in the hose. Use your mouth to force the water into the hydrant. It should thaw the water froze in the pipe fairly quickly. |
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  The Color Specialist
Posts: 7530
Location: Washington. (The DRY side.) | Don't know what to tell you since it is inside. When the outside ones freeze, which can happen occasionally, we thaw them out with a weed burner. (The kind that attach to a propane tank.) We had an outside one freeze the other day. It was only in the mid 20's out. This same one worked fine when it was -3. But "crap happens". Do you have a portable heater of any kind you could put by it? |
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I Need a Xanax!
Posts: 2774
| Your water lines may be froze up underground. If that's the case its going to be a while till they thaw I'm afraid. If you are using a well maybe your well house froze up? We keep a heat light in our well house to keep it from freezing. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 614
Location: Usually on my horse | Thanks for the suggestions/replys. The well house is insulated and has a small heater in it. I am afraid that the pipes might be froze in the ground. Like I said, I have never had a problem like this before. This sucks !!!! I am going to try a blow torch on the pipe and see how hot I can get it. Hopefully hot enough to go down and melt the frozen part. Or I might be screwed for the rest of the winter.  And that would REALLY suck !!!! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 503
| haulin4cash - 2014-01-04 8:57 AM
Thanks for the suggestions/replys. The well house is insulated and has a small heater in it. I am afraid that the pipes might be froze in the ground. Like I said, I have never had a problem like this before. This sucks !!!! I am going to try a blow torch on the pipe and see how hot I can get it. Hopefully hot enough to go down and melt the frozen part. Or I might be screwed for the rest of the winter. And that would REALLY suck !!!!
Good luck... I know it does suck. We had ours frozen until April and then dug MUCH deeper pipes that summer. |
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Meanest Teacher!!!
Posts: 8555
Location: sunny california | when my pipes froze in the barn I put a 100 gallon water tank in the wash rack and drug a hose from the house as far as it would reach and used a muck bucket on the cart to get the water to the tank at night. then i plugged in a tank de-icer. that way I only had to lug buckets of warm water down the breeze way to each horse in the mornings before work. sorry you are dealing with this.
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Posts: 1365
Location: waiting for the thaw | We have one that does that.. its outside. and -70 with wind chill! But have a hand propane torch. Use it to thaw it out when needed. |
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 The Vaccinator
Posts: 3810
Location: Slipping down the slope of old age. Boo hoo. | When temps are going to drop below freezing, we turn off the water at the main meter to our barn, open the taps and drain all the pipes and hoses every afternoon after watering. (We also have heated water tanks for the horses). We do this every day when it is going to drop below freezing. It's the "routine". We also have all the pipes/hydrants in the barn very well insulated. |
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Member
Posts: 18
| I had that happen several winters ago when I was just turning the hydrant on to fill a small chicken water every day, when it got 20 below the thing was froze for the winter. Somebody told me to find someone with a portable Welder on the back of their truck and they could "zap" the pipe??? I didn't ever do that. I was told when I run my outside hydrant in the winter I should let it run for at least 30 or 40 gallons so the pipe does not freeze at the top. My line wasn't froze under ground because my Nelson water was still working it is on the line before the Hydrant. The stupid Nelson plastic valve broke on me last week so I have my back up tub plugged in now. Hope my hydrant doesn't freeze, the summer after the chicken water incident we wrapped heat tape on it several feet below ground just in case. we had 35 below last night, colder than that with wind chill. |
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 Always Off Topic
Posts: 6382
Location: ND | someone already gave you all the help you need........i have a piece of copper pipe about 5 feet long with one of those little plastic funnels taped on one end......happend very rarely but have had to use it.......a couple gallons of boiling water will do it.....don't do things that you risk ruining your line...... |
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Always Off Topic
Posts: 6382
Location: ND | glideriders - 2014-01-04 6:46 PM I had that happen several winters ago when I was just turning the hydrant on to fill a small chicken water every day, when it got 20 below the thing was froze for the winter. Somebody told me to find someone with a portable Welder on the back of their truck and they could "zap" the pipe??? I didn't ever do that. I was told when I run my outside hydrant in the winter I should let it run for at least 30 or 40 gallons so the pipe does not freeze at the top. My line wasn't froze under ground because my Nelson water was still working it is on the line before the Hydrant. The stupid Nelson plastic valve broke on me last week so I have my back up tub plugged in now. Hope my hydrant doesn't freeze, the summer after the chicken water incident we wrapped heat tape on it several feet below ground just in case. we had 35 below last night, colder than that with wind chill. i'd bet you were wrong and that the line was froze right under the hydrant....and good thing you didn't have someone try to 'zap' it with a welder...
Edited by dhdqhllc 2014-01-04 7:06 PM
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 Veteran
Posts: 268
| We've had this happen. We used a heat gun then wrapped the pipe in a plug-in heater/insulator |
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Blessed 
Location: Here | haulin4cash - 2014-01-04 8:57 AM Thanks for the suggestions/replys. The well house is insulated and has a small heater in it. I am afraid that the pipes might be froze in the ground. Like I said, I have never had a problem like this before. This sucks !!!! I am going to try a blow torch on the pipe and see how hot I can get it. Hopefully hot enough to go down and melt the frozen part. Or I might be screwed for the rest of the winter. And that would REALLY suck !!!!
depending on how far the line is from well house you could take the weed burner and warm up the ground along the pipe and see if that helps, Big foots idea works too if it just hydrant |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 984
Location: Southwest Minnesota | I feel your pain. My water hydrant quit working after the ground was froze solid this year. We have been hooking hose up to the spigot on the house and running approximately 200ft of hose out to the horse tank every other day or so. We thought it was frozen but after trying everything to thaw it, hubby now thinks something is broken below ground. So....we have to wait until the ground thaws to dig it up and fix it. Until then, we hook up the hose, fill the tank, and then re-roll the hose and bring it in the house so it doesn't freeze. I am already ready for spring....
Edited by chuckie31 2014-01-04 8:14 PM
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 Sweet Tea
Posts: 3496
Location: Home of the World Famous "Silver Bullet" | we use twisted newspaper and light a fire keep holding it to the line. |
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Location: stumbling around BHW | We always unhook and drain our hoses. That helps. When our hydrants at the end of our run freeze, (we have about a mile of underground pipe here) we just put charcoal around the base and light it for a few. Its thawwed within 10 minutes.
When we moved here, being from the south I was not used to this, and I freaked when ours froze...LOL>..my mom, a tough ole bird that homesteaded in Alaska in the early 40s told me to do this. I thought she was crazy but it worked. |
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 Banjo and Baby
Posts: 7259
Location: South of Canada and North of Mexico | Delta Cowgirl - 2014-01-04 9:42 AM When temps are going to drop below freezing, we turn off the water at the main meter to our barn, open the taps and drain all the pipes and hoses every afternoon after watering. (We also have heated water tanks for the horses). We do this every day when it is going to drop below freezing. It's the "routine". We also have all the pipes/hydrants in the barn very well insulated.
You must not run your water lines below the frost line?? What a pain!!! |
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Add Poop. It Works!
Posts: 1360
| I will be filling 3 plastic manure buckets up today, in anticipation of a frozen hydrate in the main barn tonight and tomorrow..  |
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