City girl needs help with country well/pump

[Master Plumber Mark]

build the TEE-PEE

If you just build that tent or TEE-PEE

and then put the heat lamp inside it ,

it will thaw out....you need to warm up the ground too...


it is cold as hell out there.

 

[Leejosepho]

Ah, it just struck me! What Mark just said about heating up the ground is true, but only in order to actually heat the hydrant, and I believe I know an easy way for you to do that!

Go to an auto parts store and get a heated dipstick. Basically, it will be a dipstick with an electric cord attached at the handle. Then, go to a hardware store and get a 3' piece of small angle iron, something like 1/2" x 1/2". Ask somebody at the hardware store to file the inside edges at one end of the angle iron so they will not gouge your riser pipe, then use a hammer to drive that angle iron vertically (and carefully) into the ground right next to your yard hydrant. Driving it into the ground only a couple of inches at a time, wobble it around a little and pull it up and start over several times so you do not end up getting it stuck in hard ground. At some point after you have gone into the ground at least a foot or so, set the angle iron aside and place the heated dipstick in the ground and right next to your riser ... then wrap the two together with something that will not easily melt and put your insulation back around it for a while. That dipstick is going to get much warmer than heat tape, and maybe you can even push it down a little more as the ground begins to soften.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Randyj]

Just a stupid suggestion... wrap it all up with an electric blanket, pull a garbage bag over it, wrap with newspaper for insulation and put another garbage bag or tarp or somekind of good "windbreaker" over that...transients do the newspaper and garbage bag trick for sleeping on park benches...works really well.

 

[Rancher]

The electric blankets that I've used only seem to get warm next to the body, also they are probably 200 Watts max. How about a tent/teepee with a propane fired Mr. Heater in it?

Rancher

 

[Sammyhydro11]

How about you run a garden hose from your hot water tank and back feed the hot water into the hydrant. Or maybe run it the other way through the line that feeds the hydrant. The hot water will eventualy make its way through.

SAM

 

[Alternety]

If you have a water connection for a clothes washer, attach a hose and fill the water trough. Take the hose out a window and stuff something in to keep out the cold air while you are using it. Drain the hose and/or bring it inside between uses.

You may be able to find a fawcet to hose adaptor if you do not have a laundry connection.

 

[Raucina]

What she is calling a pump sounds like a freeze proof hose bib-hydrant. Handle down it self drains, handle up it may keep water in the riser. Must be a check valve at the pump holding water in the line. Need to put HOT heat at the pipe and cover it up - the heat tape wont do anything.

 

[Rancher]

That's what she's got allright, but she allowed to freeze up before it drained... I hope we didn't scare her off with all our suggestions.

Rancher

 

[Leejosepho]

I hope we didn't scare her off with all our suggestions.

Nah, here is what she has said:

I bet I never forget to put that handle down again.

Thanks for the help.

...

I guess I'll have to wait for spring.

I thought about volunteering that my wife and I might drive down and give her a hand, but everybody already knows not to ever trust anyone on the internet, eh?!

 

[ScotDeerie]

Whooohooooo!!!!!

It's thawed. Five days of sitting quietly with heat tape, insulation, and a garbage can shoved down on top of everything finally thawed the hydrant. It works fine; nothing cracked.

And it was 3 degrees here this a.m. so it has to be just sitting under all that stuff without being disturbed for five days that did the trick. It gave the heat tape enough time to do its job.

Yeah! I don't have to haul 50 gallons of water/day in 2.5 gal buckets anymore!

Thanks everyone. This has been one heck of a learning experience!

Giselle

 

[Leejosepho]

"Happy trails to you ..."

 

[ScotDeerie]

That's what she's got allright, but she allowed to freeze up before it drained... I hope we didn't scare her off with all our suggestions.

Rancher

Nah, I wasn't scared as much as I was gettin' broke. Being as there isn't a man in the house, I don't have all those cool man-toys like pipe wrenches and welding units and such. At some point I had to decide that I had put enough money into and it was time to just sit and see what happened. Thanks for all the suggestions, tho'. Next time <cough> it happens who knows what nifty tools I might have lying around and want to try out?

Giselle

 

[Bob NH]

Nah, I wasn't scared as much as I was gettin' broke. Being as there isn't a man in the house, I don't have all those cool man-toys like pipe wrenches and welding units and such. At some point I had to decide that I had put enough money into and it was time to just sit and see what happened. Thanks for all the suggestions, tho'. Next time <cough> it happens who knows what nifty tools I might have lying around and want to try out?
Giselle

Cultivate a friend who has the tools and knows how to use them. Then you can build your own inventory as you learn what you need.

 

[ScotDeerie]

Cultivate a friend who has the tools and knows how to use them. Then you can build your own inventory as you learn what you need.

You mean I should borrow them and not give them back??

What a great idea!!

Giselle

P.S. Yes, I'm joking.

 

[Bob NH]

You mean I should borrow them and not give them back??

What a great idea!!

Giselle

P.S. Yes, I'm joking.

Most people like to help when there is a need. When my neighbor needs help he often gets me along with the tools. Neighborly relationships can thaw more than hydrants.

 

[ScotDeerie]

Most people like to help when there is a need. When my neighbor needs help he often gets me along with the tools. Neighborly relationships can thaw more than hydrants.

Trouble is, I'm very rural here. My neighbors are either elderly or I know more than they do. My closest male neighbor comes to me when he needs power tools, home improvement advice, someone to paint, plaster, strip wood, kill spiders. <hee>

I have a lot of experience in doing a lot of things but plumbing isn't one of them. I'm wishing I had kept my father-in-law's pipe wrenches now but I would have been moving them around for 20 years without needing them until now. And those things were HUGE and weighed a ton. Sometimes you have to leave stuff behind...

The best help I've been able to get is online with folks like you who can at least give me some ideas what to do. I'll try almost anything (except maybe hooking up a welding unit to the pipe to thaw it -- electricity makes me nervous) and each time I solve the problem myself, I have one more thing I know how to do.

Some day I'll tell you all about my learning curve when I was putting up electric fencing for the horses for the first time. (See electricity comment, above. )

Giselle