If you’re going to install a hydrant, I highly recommend a Murdock hydrant. Those are commercial-grade, reliable, and repairable. They’re also expensive.
If that doesn’t fit into your budget, then the Woodford is a distant second place, but way better than whatever you will find in the big box stores.
Since I put them in in 2002, both of my original hydrants have failed. The first failed to seal, even with a re-build kit. Of course, you have to get that repaired before winter, so I just installed another one from a home center. Now I regret that. On the second hydrant, the rod broke off at the bottom where it meets the stopper. There was no way to get the stopper out to replace it. I replaced that with a Woodford, which seems much better.
Replacing a hydrant is not fun. You think, “Oh, It’s only 3 feet deep. I can handle that.” But then you discover that the hole has to be big enough to get into so you can hold the bottom joint, or roughly the size of a grave Then that may be below the water table, so you’re into sticky, heavy clay mud. Plus, you try to leave a step to stand and kneel on, so you have to work below your knees, in a hole, in the mud.
Most hydrants offer an “EPA” or "Sanitary" version. This keeps ground water out of the hydrant drain, since in a regular frost-free hydrant, the drain is open to the ground water. This is what you want for potable water.
