It has been nasty for along time ! I have 2 of these that are froze up .Another that has been flawless for 18 years. One of the most troublesome ones I have dug up (in summer )and added coarse rock and gravel .The only thing I can imagine is that the weep holes have plugged from rust or foreign materials .they are all 6 ft bury models .Any secrets to share ? On a good note I have to catch and halter a big broncky 17 hand Percheron Mare every day to lead her to water ,she is thirsty and is really responding good to the daily handling .

I was always told (and it seems logical) never to use gravel when doing a hydrant. The small bits of gravel could get into the drain hole on the hydrant when you are covering the hydrant preventing it from draining back.

I try not to run mine next to the hydrant when its freezing I buy a remnant piece of hose 10-12 feet that drains easy and keeps the water from building up around the pipe and freezing. Painting the pipe black above ground give you a little solar help also. My hydrant area is landscaped flat but if I get away a few feet the pitch drains quicker there.

I'm thinking rock and gravel aren't very good insulators and probably provide a good "container" for water.

just

A friend told me once many moons ago of the same problem. Screw a solid cap on the outlet end and lift the handle, this will preasurize the pipe and blow out the crud in the drain hole.

I have a 4' hydrant where I water my horses. The water line is only 1' down so it is subject to freezing. If it is going to get really cold I tie an empty grain sack in place over the hydrant and put a foot or so of waste hay around the bottom. It worked fine when we got down to -4F. Keeping the wind off the hydrant pipe makes a big difference. I always take the hose off after use and have pea gravel around the weep hole so it can drain back.

I don't have the cold Temps you do but when I put the last 4 I installed in I cut the bottom out of a 5 gallon bucket and made a notch the water line could run through. I Placed the bucket at the bottom and pit the hydrant in the middle. I filled the bucket with river rock I don't know the name. Like pee gravel except 1" to 3" in size. So far I have not had an issue. I figured the larger rock would avoid small rocks geting into the weap hole.

I Take a plastic water bottle, slice it from top to bottom, cut the bottom out, fit it around the bottom of hydrant, tape it and then put clearstone around it. If you have heavy clay, lay a short length of drain tile away from hydrant. If you are using the Iowa brand hydrant, you have the best.

I had one freeze once, I think the seals were bad, I had some old windows, I built a makeshift greenhouse around the hydrant on a sunny day and got it thawed..

They can get out of adjustment by slipping on the pull rod if it happens to have froze from a bit of retained moisture around the seal, check and make sure that hasn't happened before getting the shovel out.

Thanks to all . A friend told me to use a valve stem from a tubeless tire and put that into the spout and put air hose on it to blow out the weep hole . It might be may before they thaw ! I am going to dig both up then and fix .At least 2 ft of frost now and could be 3 ft.

Ive installed countless hydrants in Minnesota. I know its a bit late in the game, but a proper install will have the weep hole protected like others have mentioned. In addition to that, a copper compression fitting can be screwed into the weep hole since they are generally threaded. In that compression fitting a copper line a few feet long is added and placed into a section of drain tile 4-5' long. This will provide a larger area for the water to seep into the ground.

That’s how I do all of mine. I also add #8’s about a foot deep then put my dirt back in the ditch.

I have a insulated 4x4x4' pump house around one of mine that is troublesome. Until I dig it up.
Heat bulb inside.

Reaperman that sounds GREAT . Thanks

Had a contractor who was said he has built manuf. home parks and was good. Okay, had a 206 lot park and he put iowa hydrants 2 to a space but one was under the manuf. home . Well around 20 years later noticed my water usage was going up so done a few things to stop the usage but it continued to raise. And we ain't talking nickle dine raises in billing but thousands as it got worse. U ever try to pull a hydrant up with maybe 2 ft. clearance, ya can't so u dig 5 ft. down under that home to replace everything. Difficult is not even close to what it was for all the homes to be taken care of.. Still a night mare. should have never listened to the so called best in the business building manuf. home parks contractor. :-(