Hi folks, I have a frost free woodford hydrant. It is I believe the Y34 model, a 1" diameter pipe going down in the ground with the valve down below to make it frost free. It is fed from my house well via a poly line.
Not sure how it is possible but the handle that opens and closes the valve (turns water on/off) snapped. It looks like it may have been bumped when the handle was in the up position by the lawn mower but still can't imagine that solid aluminum would snap.
I did notice that lately it was getting very hard to open and close the handle. I studied the diagrams about how to adjust the handle but no mention was made of lubing or maintenance. It sounded like it was permanently lubed. Now I have to unbolt the areas where the old handle is still attached.
While I'm at it, if something can be done to make it work more smoothly again I'd like to tackle it all at once. I have to take the top 2 bolts off in the attached picture. The adjustment for having it 'click to close' at the end of the downstroke seems to be good as I have no leak issues and it does that final click as it locks closed.
I use this to fill the pond but also to flood the ice in the winter.
If it does leak there are replacement kits available to re do the bushing and plunger, pretty easy to do. I keep a few kits on hand for our Woodford hydrants.
As far as the handle being stiff, we just WD40 the pivot points, you could also loosen up the bolt and nut too where the handle is attached, that area can get rust and make it stiff.
I forget the name brand, but I have several of the kind that are blue where yours is red. The big rubber plunger at the end of the shaft swells and gets tight on the the outer tubing. they are hard to get out once they get tight. i have a couple of mine that are tight right now and i am dreading having to change them. usually have to put vise grips on them and beat them all the way out.
Thanks for the advice. I'll start with lubricating the parts above ground and I was hoping I didn't have to work on the below ground part. How do you pull the inside part out of the tube?
I know I have a fair amount of iron/hardness and my garage faucet on hard water (a standard woodford frost free sillcock) is getting harder and harder to turn all the way off which is because when the water is left on but sprayer at the end of the hose is off then the iron settles in the parts on the inside of the faucet. I'm sure I'm going to have to figure out how to repack the guts on that faucet too unless there is a way to soak the parts in iron-out or something.
I suspect the hydrant by the pond also sets in water containing iron and probably is getting sludged up too.