and ā¦YOU DO NOT / CAN NOT āOVERUSEā IT !
and any adjustment should be needed once and Not repeatedly - itās just a hydrant !
this would drive me right off the curb - they would not treat āJoeā cattle farmer like this !
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So I have a frost free in my childhood barn about 40 years ago and that one is still working fine.
We had about 7 more put in to the fields and the barn with indoor about 18 years agoā¦ weāve replaced every single one.
Our far fields we installed 4 about 12 years ago, they are doing ok so far.
Off the top of my head I donāt remember brand other then they were all the same until the replacements we installed for the hydrants from 18 years ago went. Those are a different brand and much more substantial than the ones pictured here.
Leaking and freezing is the first to go. You tighten them up and they freeze again on super cold days. Cover them up and hopeā¦Then you apply heat tape which helps for a year or so. Then they are āstrippedā and the inner working are not allowing the water to drain down below the frost line they drip or run and freeze (this is when you are lugging buckets in sub zero temps) and you need to replace come spring. Ask me how we know.
If you can, replace right away. Our plumber found these new ones and we will see, but clearly there was a time when all frost free were not created equal.
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until this thread I was really not aware Woodford made so many variations of frost free hydrants, the ones we have are the model from the 1929 version with all the bells and whistles (we can adjust flow rates and lock a hydrant such as the one in the very back pasture)
The one OP bought appears to have a brass slider with a set screw screw where as ours are steel with a steel set bolt
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A hydrant is really a very simple device. Any plumber worth spit should be able to install a quality brand one properly or repair it without any callbacks.
Having moved a few times, I have found hydrant brands and brand loyalty to be a regional thing. Here in the south Simmons is respected. In the midwest it was Woodford IOWA. I believe the Woodford IOWA is the gold standard of frostless hydrants and they are often three times the price of other brands. You bought a quality hydrant.
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While you may be right about the 2nd guy they sent: Mr Overuse, 1st guy was honest with me when he was here 10+yrs ago, as his own business, & again in July when the new head/rod was installed.
I just got off the phone with the company & #1 is scheduled to stop here today.
Heās aware of the problem & suggested Locktite may fix it AND that he may request they refund some of the hourly rate I was charged Tuesday.
So far, so Good 
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I donāt pretend to āknowā what is going on here - whether Guy 1 or Guy 14 are honest and/or competent - what I do āknowā is this plumbing issue should be an easy fix. This should not be an ongoing problem. Good Luck - I trust you have a back-up plan for winter in case.
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It sounds like you have it under control from your last post and I did not read the whole thread but thought I would share my Woodford story.
I have had a variety of issues with my hydrant over the years and eventually it froze solid in a cold snap in 2018. Once it de-thawed, we replaced the parts at the bottom of the shaft that make it frost free and I thought everything would be fine. But in September of 2018, so 9 months later, I had NO water one day out of the blue. By then I had to call a plumber as the friend that helped me over the winter wasnāt available. The plumber opened the head and things had actually come undone somehow, meaning the head came off without the plunger, etc. This plumber knew nothing about the Woodford (or any hydrant for that matter), so I explained how it worked and had him watch the uTube video. He āattemptedā to fix it but actually broke the set of everything I had on hand, and then apparently told his boss I refused to pay (he didnāt even ask about payment while he was here). In the end I purchased the parts again and did the repair basically myself (had helped in the winter, rewatched the uTube with idiot plumber and watched him screw up so knew what to do by then, and I didnāt have to raise the plunger and do the bottom part, just the head part) - and it was fine for another year or so until it was leaking and I was worried it would freeze againā¦so May 2020 at the height of the pandemic I hired two hispanic workers to dig down and I replaced the entire hydrant with their help while wearing masks - but so far, so good with the hydrant.
I guess my long winded story is that it may signify you will continue to have issues and may end up replacing it in the next couple of years and risk having it no longer be frost free, or it may be fixed with the good plumber coming back out. My first hydrant was 17 years old when I replaced it and it gets used a very lot, several times a day every day 365 days a year, the hydrant that is as old as the original but doesnāt get nearly the same use is still chugging away without an issue. So plumber #2 is as idiotic as the plumber in my story. Some people, whether plumbers or any other variety, are just plain dumb.
Good luck, and sounds like the āgoodā plumber is on your side!
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THE END
Guy #1 just left.
Checked the hydrant, determined no issue aside from the setscrew (that has been fine since I tightened it Wednesday).
He advised heāll look for a different kind of setscrew that shouldnāt have the issue.
And come back to install it when found.
No charge for this or future revisit & he told me if I have a problem on a weekend (when only Emergency calls get scheduled) I should ask them to email him.
Proves to me there are still honest tradesmen.
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I wonder if Woodford purchasing ordered the wrong set screwsā¦ I was in manufacturing for over a decade, one of my assignment was tracking warranty claims and why the product failed. More than once the problem was tracked back to purchasing having either ordered the wrong part or made an internal change without consulting engineering.
Regarding Locktite there are different grades for different uses
Red: High strength, permanent adhesion
-
Select for high vibration applications where the components donāt need to be disassembled in the future.
-
Green: High strength wicking, permanent adhesion
- Select for high vibration applications for preassembled fasteners that donāt need to be disassembled in the future.
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Blue: Medium strength, removable with torque
- Select to ensure components donāt come loose in the application and there is a possibility of disassembling the components in the future.
-
Purple: Low strength, easily removable
- Select for non-crucial applications and if disassemble of the components in the future is a known possibility.
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Always a possibility.
Forgot:
He added silicone to the setscrew, said that may help as well.
There is a lot here, and I didnāt read all the way thru, so pardon it if this has been mentioned.
I had one of these that was pretty stiff operating, and the set screw would slip after a few open/close iterations.
I resolved it 100% by using my Foredom hand grinder (fancy Dremel tool) to make a shallow notch on the shaft for the set screw to engage. Tightened it in place and never had any more trouble with it.
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Good Plumber mentioned doing something like that too.
I think coming from being Owner/Operator makes him a better technician & employee.
Compared to the Young Pup who told me I was using the hydrant ātoo muchā 
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