¹ Note, some don't like reading about lawn hydrants and associated issues. Please read no further.
It's winter in New England and cold as usual. This year we left a hose on one of the hydrants
and that mistake caused a frost proof hydrant to not be frost proof. I figured I would wait for
some warm up and hopefully the situation would remedy itself. In the meantime, I would fill
a couple large plastic trash cans with water, cart them out to the water trough and pump them
out with a sump pump. It worked, but it was a pinta.
Searching youtube, there were a few videos by farmers that were heating the riser with torches.
My only concern, as others noted as well, is the chance of building up steam pressure with the
ice block still in place. We all know what steam can do....
First go at it was with my Red Dragon weed torch. I heated the base at ground level and kept
my hand on the valve head to make sure I was adding heat but not too hot. Being a little gun
shy and safety cautious my mind was thinking about alternatives that were less dangerous,
shall we say. Suddenly:
I put the torch away and headed back to the shed. There I mixed up a strong solution of
calcium chloride and water. Grabbing a short length of hose I headed back to the spigot.
Attach the hose, hold it as high above the head as possible and slowly add the solution.
It will fill to the the end of the hose and slowly go down.
I filled the hose twice then on the third time it gurgled and went right down.
"No, way" I said out loud to the horse watching me.
I pulled the handle and voila
Water.....
I let it run a for awhile to purge the line of the calcium chloride mix and then
removed the hose. Not gonna make that mistake twice.