My hydrant was leaking at the base. A plumber came out, dug a hole and fixed it. He did not recover the hole so we could get more pea gravel to fill the bottom. When I went to the barn, the hole was full of water. The plumber came back out and told me the water was coming from the frost free drain hole. I did not think it would put out that much water. Last night, I turned on the water for about 5 seconds, and today the hole, which is about 2 feet, is half full of water. Would the frost free drain put out this much water? I am doubtful.
I would get a second opinion form another plumber. I know nothing about plumbing but it doesn’t sound normal. If it were coming from the drain hole wouldn’t you have notice it before? I just had a new well dug and my frost free hydrant doesn’t do this pooling of water. Sorry, not much advice.
I do agree with you 100%. I am just glad I am not alone in thinking this was too much water. UGH!!!
We have six frost free hydrants and never had OP’s issue
may be they did not put thread tape on the fitting connecting the supply pipe to the hydrant?
or a fitting is cracked?
The only water that should back drain is the water standing in the hydrant
The shut-off may not correctly adjusted allowing some water to seep into the hydrant then is draining through the weep hole … there is an adjustment on the top of the hydrant
One other possible source for the water collected in the hole would be ground water. We have have had well over twenty inches of rain in September alone, we have dry surface ground but everything below the surface is the wettest I have ever seen here … If OP can, dig another hole nearby to see if it collects water also
I think I’m having the same problem? I’m curious to learn what you find out.
I had a pipe leaking under ground. The ancient hydrant was also dripping, so the landlord replaced the entire hydrant with a new frost-free one.
Now when you turn the hydrant off, water rises/bubbles up from the ground, around the pipe of the hydrant. Sometimes it doesn’t do it, sometimes it’s a ton of water, and I haven’t noticed a pattern of why. I also get dirt in my water sometimes.
Of course, when I tried to show it to my landlord, it wouldn’t do it, so he thinks I’m crazy. If I ever get a spare moment, the DH and I plan to dig down and see what’s going on, but it’s not like either of us know what we are doing.
@spotnnotfarm The weep hole is to drain the hydrant of all the water that is in the leg of the hydrant down to the valve at the base, is is what makes it “frost free”.
I noticed quite a bit of water when testing mine, it was also a bed of clay (that eventually was covered with the 2ft of pea gravel). If you turn it off and turn it on again several times, you’re draining out the volume of the hydrant into that hole. Depending on the size of the hole, it could seem like a lot, and depending on the size of the hydrant, you’re providing more volume.
So, if someone in upstate new York has an 8ft hydrant, that’ll produce way more than a 4ft hydrant in the area where it weeps.One thing you can do, if you know where your water meter is, ensure that all your faucets and whatnot are off and take a picture of that meter reading. Go back in an hour. This is what I did to ensure I had no leaks when I installed mine.
@Texarkana It sounds like your hydrant has a bad valve at the base, that’s semi allowing soil to get in some how. But more importantly, it doesn’t sound like you have any silt screen at the base of your hydrant. When I did mine, I installed it wrapped around the base of the hydrant, paying special attention to the weep hole. This is the same stuff you wrap French drains in to keep the soil from getting in and clogging things.
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Great tip about the meter! I will check it out! Thank you!
Try, when your hydrant acts up, to take a video with your phone, so you can show it to your landlord.
Some times, it is better to just install a new hydrant when old ones start having problems.
Easier that keep digging the old ones up to fix them.
Good idea about the video. It is a new hydrant, though. That’s what I meant when I said, “the landlord replaced the entire hydrant with a new frost-free one.” I thought that was clear. 
Was a hose attached? Mine sucks most/all the water back out of the hose (I have a nozzle on the end so nothing drains out the other way), so that could be a contributing factor, also if your surrounding soil is waterlogged from recent heavy rains, etc. it isn’t going to drain off as fast. So if a (closed end) hose was attached you could check it without the hose in addition to checking the meter.
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We have several frost-free hydrants at our farm. Several years ago we had one hydrant (at the end of the aisle of our barn) where the ground was constantly wet (when we weren’t using the hydrant at all) . Called plumber, they dug it up, couldn’t find anything, but replaced the connector between the hydrant and the water pipe. Still had water, called them again & they replaced the hydrant (at their insistence, said it couldn’t be anything else). Kept happening. Called different plumber, they dug up new hydrant and determined we have cracked pipe(s). So turns out that the well company we hired to run new line to the well head who also put in the water to the barn and installed the original frost-free hydrant didn’t put the water line deep enough in the ground. There never was anything wrong with the hydrant.
The pressure when the hydrant was turned off, forced the crack in the pipe to leak, and gravity allowed the leaked water to pool down to the base of the hydrant. Very expensive process of fixing our problem. Moral of the story - not all plumbers are good at diagnosing “outdoor” plumbing issues and are familiar with outdoor plumbing fixtures.
“The plumber came back out and told me the water was coming from the frost free drain hole. I did not think it would put out that much water”
This piqued my curiosity. I just so happen to have an 81 inch stand pipe with no head very handy. So I took a milk jug, fill the stand pipe to the top and released into the 1 gallon milk jug.
They say a picture speaks a 1000 words. So here you have it. Show these to your “plumber”. IMO any “plumber” worth writing a check to. Should know intuitively not a lot of water is going to drain out. This 81" stand pipe holds around 1 quart of water. See pictures below.
There are only 2 things that can be going on. With a possible 3rd.
The the supply line is leaking from the elbow connection. The elbow does not have enough thread tape and is leaking out of that side. Or it is leaking from the supply line connection side. I always use 2 hose clamps when connecting. Opposing each other. Assuming this is connected to what the majority of us use for the water supply line; Black Poly pipe. IMO and expensive experience never use, allow others to use/install PVC pipe.
ALWAYS use the brass elbow that can be had. They stand the test of time. Next to impossible to cross thread when attaching. The cheap nylon elbow can and do crack either when installing and or if the pipe gets knocked around with use over the years. If you have a deep freeze they can easily crack also.
Because this is what can and does freeze, mainly due to thermal bridging down the pipe. In real cold climates, areas that maybe subject to the occasional deep freeze. They should always be install in a sunny location. Good idea to paint the pipe with flat back paint. This helps with warming passive solar gain down the pipe. Even with sub zero conditions.
As others have said the shut off valve is at the bottom of the stand pipe below the weep hole. At the bottom of the long connecting rod is a spring loaded “washer valve” that seats itself into the coupling when the handle is closed. The amount of “down force” is adjustable at the handle interface. Adding a tad more “length” to the rod at the handle closes it tighter. Think of a dripping facet that has a worn rubber washer. You have to give it an extra twist to close.
I have installed lots of these. I have never had to adjust one “out of the box” from the factory setting. Never had to adjust one after years of use. (I did read this was a new one, lol)
I leave the hole open for at least a day or 2 to make sure there are not leaks. If the soil is on the clay side of things, slow draining. I would dig a foot below the base of the stand pipe and fill with gravel. I install a small elbow in the weep/drain hole on the base coupling. For added protection from getting clogged over time. I take a plastic milk jug cut the top and bottom out with a gap for the supply line to the elbow. Set the stand pipe in this and fill with gravel. Holds the drain field gravel in place when back filling. Without and your hole is large you will need to have a lot of gravel to fill properly to protect the drain hole/field.
The 3rd possibility is, a slim one IMO unless PVC was used for the supply line, There is a crack in the supply line not far down stream from the hydrant. Water seek the least resistance and is seeping back to the hydrant hole. Doesn’t take much of a leak anywhere to result with a couple of gallons of water over night. Unless you installed the supply line there might be a splice not far from the hydrant that is leaking at the coupling. When I run lines I try to avoid any splices from the water source to the hydrants. Unless absolutely necessary.
Black Poly pipe is pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things. I buy in it in 500-1000 ft rolls to avoid splices. Even if I am 20-50 short to the hydrant I’d rather suck of the cost and buy more pipe to make a “home run” from the supply side. Plumbers tend to be cheap and won’t suggest to the owner to spend a few more dollars for peace of mind. And or they bid the job and have to stay on budget. Some, a lot don’t bother to “double clamp” the splices as I suggested above.
It is always a good idea to lube the top of the rod where it comes out of the stand pipe. There is a rubber O ring seal just below the nut . That gets a lot of wear and tear from the rod sliding up and down. In the winter there is always a bit of water/moisture on the rod after use. This freezes to the O ring seal. Each time it is opened a tiny bit of the rubber is pulled away. This will cause the seal to leak at some point. The seal will leak at some point in time anyway. But doing this will help it last longer. [ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:“Click image for larger version Name: 1.JPG Views: 1 Size: 9.9 KB ID: 10241698”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“10241698”,“data-size”:“full”}[/ATTACH]
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Welp! You pretty much hit the nail on the head here! Thanks y’all! Looks like he has to come back out!
Yes, it was clear, replacing it made sense about then.
That may be why probably he just did that, even if it is still not working right, oops.
Someone needs to do more digging around there.
Like others said, I expect there is something else leaking to have that much water coming up?
Update; I called them Friday afternoon when I came home from work and found the left half of my barnyard flooded. I was pissed! They claimed I needed a new faucet. My husband picked one up and said he did not want them coming back out. Today, he dug up the line and pulled the old one. Once he had it out of the ground he saw it was barely connected! The plumber pulled it and did not connect the water line to the faucet tightly at all. So, my husband fixed it and the water is drying up as we speak…
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well if you paid by credit charge I would contest the charge… even if he had used a few rolls of thread tape it would have still leaked… husband to the rescue
Oh we plan on it! Hubby was NOT happy!
@gumtree , what lube do you recommend for that rod? I’m a sucker for preventative maintenance and I never considered that.
Update #2…I am getting a full refund for the “plumbing work” by the owner of the company. Thank goodness…
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Good for them, that is the right thing to do, they messed this up.
Glad you have the problem solved now.
