I went to town this morning with Neighbor L to get propane. Everything was fine when I left but when I got back I saw water running across the yard in front of the Lair. “[bad word]! [bad word]! [bad word]!” The most likely source of the break was right where I needed to go anyway to shut off the water…
…and happily I could stop the flow with my new-last-spring shut-off valve. Even more happily…
…once I cut away the insulation the break wasn’t hard to find. I had to dig anyway, because the surest way of keeping this from happening again was to cut off the upright underground and cap it. Which I was able to easily do…
I might never have the right gas fitting on hand but if it’s a 1/2″ white PVC fitting, I’ve got it. In multiples. So I think I set a record this afternoon for time spent repairing a plumbing leak.
But it wouldn’t have happened in the first place if I’d obeyed the angel on my shoulder this past Spring and installed one of those expensive freeze-“proof” hydrants instead of another PVC upright. I’m not as broke now as I was this time last year, so in Spring I’ll fix this right. In the meantime that upright isn’t of any use anyway – except in case of a hard-to-fix leak under the cabin where having a yard spigot is handy.
I love stories with a happy ending.
Never forget that “freeze-proof” hydrants must be installed below the frost line, and you need good drainage at their base so they can empty properly!
Would a low point drain valve be an appropriate application in your setup? I use them all over the place for ‘summer’ water, here.
I used them in Michigan, in my lawn sprinkler plumbing, because those pipes were buried really shallow and only used in the warm. As soon as I turned off the pressure those valves opened and kept the pipes from breaking. Worked great. But the only seasonal plumbing here is my redneck water heater, and that’s completely disconnected and drained. So I can’t think of anywhere low-point drain valves would help.
Heh! I am in Michigan and forgot to drain the outdoor feeds to 4 taps scattered across an acre or so.
This morning we drained them from the indoor feed point, got about a bucket of water which should be most of what was in the lines below 3 ft of dirt. No worries at all, the previous owner used the heaviest 3/4 galvanized pipe I have ever seen, have not had one fail in the near 40 years in this place and we are currently at a balmy 18 degrees F.
Heavy galvanized will laugh at the ice but I have had the actual outdoor faucets leak and ice as it presses past the rubber seal in the unit. It is the cheap thin wall, plastic or even copper that fails when frozen. Yes, I know steel can fail too but it appears that a thick enough wall on the pipe will hold up pretty good and like yours, if anything splits it will be what is coming up vertical from the buried lines.