How Do Fire Hydrants Work?
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- čas přidán 25. 03. 2018
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It should be noted that this video isn't meant to be a comprehensive guide to fire hydrants. There are tons of variations of hydrants, especially when you start looking outside the US. In this video, we look mainly at US hydrants and fire systems. Enjoy!
Other note: The colors of hydrants expressed in this video are in regards to the color of the body. The color of the cap can also be used to indicate flow rate per NFPA standards.
Fire hydrants are all around us. These above ground pipe fittings can supply flows upwards of 1500 gallons per minute to save lives and put out fires across the world. We all know what fire hydrants do but how exactly do they work?
Called fireplugs, fire pumps, johnny pumps, fire hydrants, these life-saving pipe fitting shave been around since 1801. Their designs vary by country of origin, but they usually have a connection point to hook up a fire hose and a nut or bolt to turn that will start the water flow.
Essentially every fire hydrant is just an attachment to a main potable water line. If you see one on the side of the road, there's likely a potable water line running underneath that connects to the hydrant valve through a pipe called a "riser." It's important to note that hydrants don't alter the pressure or flow of the water in any way, they simply function as valves so firefighters can utilize the already present pressure in the water pipes. While all of this may sound simple, the internal mechanics of a fire hydrant are a little more complex and can vary by region.
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Hydrants in Russia are placed in underground wells so that they do not freeze in winter. Twice a year the pressure in the hydrant and the flow of water is inspected by the fire brigade. Not a special unit, but directly firefighters on the fire truck.
When using a hydrant, a device for water extraction is screwed onto an underground hydrant.
Learn something new every day...lol
“In russia u don’t use fire hydrant fire hydrant use u”
I just published a new children's book! Get it here: amzn.to/2EDUuNJ
In my neighborhood we don't have many fire hydrants, but when I come across one it'll usually be a blue fire hydrant with a white top and the sides are usually a forest green color
In my current city the Dept of Public Works just flushed the hydrants, where I lived before (same state) the Fire Department performed flushing. I couldn’t find color requirements on my city’s website but it did say hydrants must meet “all other recognized standards” as one of its requirements for hydrant installation.
Pressure typically isn't a huge deal within the hydrant itself, the surrounding water network yeah, but not for the hydrant's function, hydrant's are more so for volume rather than pressure, as long as they supply enough volume of water to the fire engine through the supply line the hydrant did it's job, the pressure is given by the fire engine itself through its pump
@@ConcerningReality hydrants are almost always hooked up to the fire engines (at least in my part of America IDK how west coast does things) yes a hose is used to connect the hydrant to the engine but the engine is always the first stop from the hydrant, my department uses a 5 inch supply line, other places will use two 3 inch likes, the run from the hydrant to the engine is all for straight volume of water, there's no true way to control the pressure coming from the hydrant because it's always giving the same flow to the engine (if not all the water is being used fire engines have an overflow on the tanks that will just dump the extra water on the ground below) now the reason we don't use hydrants themselves to run our hand lines that we fight the fire with is our attack lines' nozzles rely on pressure rather than volume, hydrants only deliver volume and typically it's at 50 psi but that's not always constant and it certainly isn't enough pressure, a smooth bore hand nozzle requires 50psi to operate correctly and a hydrant can't keep this up with friction loss and multiple lines connected to it, the most common nozzle used is a combination nozzle and they require at least 100psi, plus hydrants put out an average of 800 gallons per minute around here and hose lines put out around 150 gallons per, the engine reduces the volume of the flow and bumps up the pressure to usable levels, the engineer has very little control over the flow or psi of the hydrant they just control the pressure and flow to the hand lines after it reaches the engine
@@zachr21897 that's actually an interesting list of facts. Most of my neighborhood doesn't have many fire hydrants.
false. hydrants with very low pressure is a death trap. The engine cannot provide adequate pressure.
Wow the life safer really safes lives! Thank you for sponsoring this video💗
For the UK hydrants are underground and they have a yellow H sign showing where it is.
Nicholas Peberdy same in australia
I’m from the uk too
18 years in the uk and ive never known this lol
In the uk, the access points to water for fire fighters are just via the man hole covers. They're not called water hydrants. But I'm happy not to see these American type water hydrant structures on our pavements.
I build fire hydrants for a living and it was cool watching this, I had no clue the colors had different meanings!
Great video as usual!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it 😃
The music in the background is from KSP ^^
Yeah I recognise it
Hydrant color is not always an indicator of its use. It is up to the local water authority and not the fire department on what color the hydrants are.
Yep, there are various codes that often are not abused by. My mistake for not explaining further in the video🙂
The local water authority also maintains the hydrants as part of their water distribution system. I don't know of any place where that is the fire department's responsibility. They only really perform inspections of fire line backflow preventers in the area they service.
Yep. Our water company that we use for our department got sued for not checking hydrants because one didn’t work on a structure fire so the water company painted them all black which means “out of service” so no one could sue them so we just hope they work.
@@joemurrow5085 That seems slightly illegal.
2401penetanttangent not sure if it is. We’re a very small department in the county though so we don’t have many hydrants anyway
Very good breakdown.
Very informative! Thank you!
Great video!!! Thanks!!👍👍
Thanks!
in Canada, the color of the hydrant corresponds with the size of the water main supplying the hydrant with water and how much water can be pulled from that hydrant
Yeah, the color codes are all over the place depending on where you live, even here in the states
3:27 that explains why I see that thing at work. Where I work, there is a city water tower across the street from my company's plant and there is a big red hydrant. I often see every now and then that that device sticking out when I am leaving work. There is usually a smaller red fire truck or even sometimes the utility company that runs the water tower usually checking the hydrant probably conjunction with the regular maintenance of the water tower.
We got a boil water notice in Texas after the freezing storm.
Some Cities in the US are Hooked up to Separate Lines For More Pressure ' Their Use to be A No. on the Base of the Hydrant Like 12 Meaning 12 inch Water Supply 36- 36 inch Water Main ' Ect '
Good video
0:58 voice crack
Wow, those gate valves are a lot of work.
A third type of hydrant is the dry non pressurized hydrant normally called a dry hydrant. It is connected to a lake, stream, river, or underground water tank.
Don Hanson static water supply
If you live near a Hydrant in a snowy area. If your able to, During heavy Snow fall that might cover up a Hydrant, Try to shovel it out. so it can be used when it is needed.
Now i will invent hydrant bag (to avoid it getting flooded and covered by snow) so that this will not be required
My department has used Dry Barrels even though we live in a desert area.
Dry barrel hydrants are better to have because the stem breaks of if it's hit in an accident, and it's easier to repair.
In germany we have hydrants called "Unterflurhydranten"
Huh seems a overly long name to me. Lol.
@@Fm_1055 Yeah, they are underaneath the ground.
Gute Idee, gute Umsetzung, aber zu oft schlechte Wartung. Wenn der Deckel nicht aufgeht hat man auch ein kleines Problem
schoorinna bei uns werden die nach jedem Winter kontrolliert und ordentlich eingefettet
Ja! 👍🏼
Great animations!
Thanks!
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Can you tell me about the IS code that tells about the minimum flow in pipe and minimum pressure to be maintained for proper functioning of fire hydrant.
In coastal, earthquake prone areas, like San Francisco, fire hydrants use non-potable seawater. Also, the color codes are rarely observed. Most areas in West Virginia use red, yellow, or blue, for all hydrants in a city, regardless of type, and all hydrants are dry well. The bolts are made to break during a traffic accident, so that they only need to replace the bolts, and so they can usually reuse the hydrant.
Interesting, didn’t know about the use of sea water! And yes, color codes are mostly useless in modern infrastructure, just figured I’d throw something in there about them having meaning ✌🏻
@@ConcerningReality Thanks for the reply! About color codes, maybe my area uses a different system for labelling hydrants, and maybe we are more concerned about appearance than labels. I have found hydrants in the woods near railroad tracks, labelled with a green street sign that says FIRE.
superb....
We use wet barrel hydrants
Awesome!
This is my type of content thank you
Of course! More coming your way!
The types of hoses that are attached from the hydrant are 5 inch diameter. Also in my area we use dry barrel hydrants, and they really are a pain to open sometimes.
Handling a live hose from a hydrant is no joke, it takes some serious muscle.
The hoses are not always 5 in diameter. There are 4 in diameter supply hoses, some places still use the 2.5 in hoses with Siamese system.
@@traildog_adventures yes. That is true also
4:00 aww I love doggos 🐕💜
Same :D
Would like a more detailed explanation of hydrant types
Great video
Thank you! 😊
color of the hydrant ears and steamer can also indicate what kind of adapter is needed for the ears.
thanks
hydro
I’m still waiting for your channel to blow up! :D
So are we! #grabsomepopcorn
It would be awesome if you could do a video about recycling! Just a suggestion. :D
Fire plug comes from the old days when thay had a big fire thay would dig down to the wooden water main tap it for fire water then when done plug it. Hydrants have the date thay where made cast in the back behind the ports. In San Francisco there new fire boat is set up to be a big water pump that pumps watering the city water system if there's another earthquake ect.
Our wet barrel hydrants get opened to low pressure for tests or events.... so idk why u said they rnt variable
It’s due to the valve types. They aren’t built to withstand being half open. It’s possible the wet Barrels in your town have a testing function built into them 😊 in normal use, hydrants aren’t supposed to be variable, either fully open or closed.
2:50 U.S. color code: white, yellow, red, purple 3:17 periodic flow rate checks
More often than not anymore a fire hydrants color has more to do with the volume of water it can flow also. A residential fire takes a average flow greater than 750 gallons per minute now compared to 40 years ago when it was less than 500gpm
Yes
Most fire hydrants in Puerto Rico are the dry barrel type as far as I can tell. This does not hold to the statement that they normally used in cold climate regions where freezing can occur. Of course there may be other considerations.
Standards in other countries/territories can differ a lot from here in the US :) I’ll have to do some research into why PR might be majorly dry barrel.
Luis R
Dry barrel hydrants make up the majority of hydrants installed, resulting in a lower costs, not to mention a wet barrel hydrant has three separate valves that can be opened independantly from each other making them quite a bit more expensive than dry units.
In your illistration? the first Hydrant false second one wet barrel when you shut vavle qafer stays in hydrant dry type has valve closer if not in supply pipe when shut drain ports open allowing water to drain out of hydrant
thanks brother
good job bro . now i don't have to study the Fire hydrant's mechanism that broadly as i thought for the morrow exam xD
Lol glad I could help! 🙂😉
ALSO IF IT HAS TOO MUCH PRESSURE THE TOP OF IT CAN BLOW OFF SO WHEN YOU ARE CHARGING A HYDRANT NEVER LEAN ON TOP OF IT
What kind of water did you say?
My dog prefers to pee on the red ones most.
That explains why at times fire personnel would turn the hydrant on from top, otherwise other places on the side.
There were a few things wrong about you video but you really did a great job. First you kind of made it sound like you hook the hose line directly to the hydrant, this is not true you would DEFINITELY not have enough pressure to fight a fire with, you have to hook a supply line to the hydrant then connect it to the truck that has an onboard water pump that will move the water, and the hydrants in America at least are color coordinated with little reflective stickers in the top Indicating how much gpm they supply
what if there is already pressurized water inside the hydrant line supplied by the fire pump or jockey pump. So just hook the line hose open the valve so the water released by 8 Bar of pressure water
@@hardilestarigan5634 most pressure in a good hydrant is about 55-60 psi. This will never be enough pressure. That low psi would look like your garden hose trying to put out fire. You are 100% NOT A FIREFIGHTER
@@billyburn2759 did I already mentioned 8 bar in my previous comment?8 bar means 116 psi that is standard pressure used to extinguish fire according to our standard here.
Im a computer IT nerd which has spare job as HSE by the way and definitely not a FIRE FIGHTER
@@hardilestarigan5634 Wow, that's a lot of pressure. In NYC.....55 is excellent!
@@billyburn2759 yeah right it is 98-115 feet long of spray distance
Where is the pressure coming from?
I’m Houston I’ve only seen white and some red.
Yep, colors aren’t always abided by
I’m so high idk why I’m looking this up I’m smoking that fire 🔥
After use how is the water left in the hydrant above ground prevented from freezing?
Long Ridge Farm they can be drained
How is it drained?
God bless the internet I can learn anything.
For some time until I forget.
We use the truck to pressure
Just Another Aviator engine/pumper prolly
The colours of the hydrants typically specify the flow available at that hydrant.
These American hydrants are based on 200 years old tech and require a lot of work to operate and keep in shape. In West-European countries, we use a system of underground water-locks combined with mobile hydrants. This keeps maintenance low and almost no such issues as broken or frozen hydrants. I found a (very old) instruction-video about how these locks and hydrants work, including a fire-crew operating one: czcams.com/video/3BKiug9mkMw/video.html (start at 2:00). Without rushing, this crew opens a well, connects the mobile hydrant, opens the mains, flushes debris and connect a primary hose all within 30 seconds
I don't get the color thing, cause I've only ever seen hydrants with several different colors.
0:58 lol
😂😂
3 minutes you said!?
What is the difference between wet hydrant and Dry hydrant ?
rewatch video EINSTEIN
I see dates on fire hydrants is that the year they were rooted or manufactured?
If part of the "Casting" it is when they were manafactured.
@@deutschedog3259 Thank you.
@@medusafanatic You are welcome my friend. Always try to help if I can.
What about green hydrants?
Do fire hydrant systems require electricity?
There are several other things I find issue with this Video as well:1) The City of Tampa and Hillsborough County Florida both use Dry Barrel Hydrants2) The maintenance of the hydrants does not fall to the fire marshal...its the water municipalities. The maintenance job is to guarantee the flow.3) Maintenance of a wet barrel hydrant can be difficult as you need to stop the water before the hydrant. With a dry barrel hydrant, as long as the plunger is down, there is no flow. The hydrant can be maintained without formally isolating that portion of the line. if a car hit a dry barrel hydrant, there is NO explosion of water as you see in the movies. It's designed to break off.4) The municipalities test the hydrant and color code it due to the available pressure in that region.5) The colors denote the flow from that particular hydrant. There are two colors..the barrel and the cap.6) There is a minimum flow and line size each hydrant is supposed to attach to and deliver. There are some on water mains that cannot deliver this (reason for the color code). In such cases, the hydrant is hooked to the truck, which has a tank already filled, and uses the public water to fill that tank while pressurizing the water to meet the proper flow and pressure.There are a few other things missing...but it was a good attempt. I clicked "like".
Thank you for saying POE-table and not POTT-able
I never knew the colors of the hydrants means something.
Yep! I should note there are a few different color standards that are sometimes disregarded, so don’t take the standard I presented as universal, but the colors do still have purposes🙂
Hi
1:44 NUT
Do you plan to do more videos for M&E building engineering? By the way fire hydrant system does not consist of pumps?
I do! I’m a civil engineer so I try to cover technical topics when possible. And no pumps at the hydrants. The water system is already pressurized back at the treatment plant. I’m doing a video about that in the next few months.
Great. I'm in M&E building engineering line and videos like this will be very beneficial to me!
o
In the US, the fact about hydrant colors are wrong. They are meant to be for available GPM. Class C is red, ClassB is orange, Class A is green and class AA is light blue. Just in case any of you are taking fire 1 and wanting to study more by this video
As I said, it wasn’t universal, and the code presented in this video is one of two in the US, both often not abided by
The colors indicate the amount of gallons per minute you can expect out of the hydrant. Red = less than 499, Orange = 500 to 999, Green = 1000 to 1499, and Light Blue = more than 1500.
austria haf this since 1785
First and for most. As a firefighter I find some things wrong. Like the Hydrant colors. The colors mean that types of water flow we can get out of one. Like red would be the lowest amount of pressure purple highest. Because if we don't know how much water we can pull off of one. We will pull to much and start to pump the water from people that live near by and it will damage the house plumbing and its components. We would suck water from toilets and water heaters.
Technically you're right, but the video also isn't wrong. There are two color codes for fire hydrants, one dependent on use and the other dependent on flow rate. It varies by municipality and how they have their system set up. Also just to clarify, fire hydrants aren't variable flow. I don't think you're saying that in reference to fire flow, but just wanted to make sure it was clear :) If I could do it over again, I totally would've included the flow rate color code as well. Thanks for your service as a firefighter! I'm in the Navy and the little bit of fire training I've done has told me I'm not cut out for it.
so the colour coding you are referring to is the nfpa standard with is the color on the caps or the colour of the reflective rings on the caps. also not all fire hydrants follow the nfpa standard. (I just completed my nfpa 1001 level 1 and 2)
how much is the price of a fire hydrantr
About $5000 or so
If you were a wholesaler in the US a fire hydrant depending on the depth to the water line would cost between $1250.00 and $1500.00.
I have never seen or noticed a fire hydrant in Scotland. Why is this?
Check more carefuly. They might be placed under ground.. If so, they are marked with H
^ they’re probably underground. US is all above ground, many European countries use below ground
Because nothing in Scotland worth saving from fire!
@@deutschedog3259 Nah, probably because it rains here always...
@@EveryTipeOfVideo LOL! Yes that is so true my friend. I worked in Edinburgh for 6 months in the winter of 1974. Never Again!
The guys from Glasgow etc were great, the Edinburgh people.....
You will understand.
Why is KSP music playing in the background hahahahha
Because why not 🤷🏼♂️😂
#groundedcringe
holly you look soooo good in this!! gorgeous girl xoxo
In Germany 80% of the hydrants are under the ground. You have to open the lids in the ground and then every Löschfahrzeug (extinguish vehicle) has an mobile hydrant in it and then you have to assemble it. It is because these Red who are above the street are just disturbing and don't look good. That's why we have it.
Nobody said American infrastructure looked good😉😂
That's not the real reason why we german's use under surface hydrants. In the winter the under surface hydrants need much more time to freeze as the red ones.
@@thomaspase9536 Same in the UK an for the same reasons.
Oh my God lol. "In the U. ESSSS."
Gotta make sure you really get that S out there 😉
@@ConcerningReality Thanks for the video! Have a great day
Hail Hydrant.
"Fire hydrants are all around us" LOL, my whole country has not one fire hydrant
I didint knew what they do 😔
You forgot green hydrants.
Nut
NUT
if this is not for kids then I'm much worried about us future...
A ton of people don’t understand how fire hydrants work...? That’s a perfectly normal thing.
🇩🇪
I would suggest you Google fire hydrants and learn how fire hydrants really work. You have a few misconceptions here.
Fire hydrants are NOT on/off devices, the flow can be minimal or full flow. Very few, if any cities in the US use wet barrel hydrants.
All fire hydrants that are UL listed must flow at least 1500 gpm to be approved. Not all municipalities have that much water however.
All NST standard hydrants are red, they are not special use by any means and are used all over the US. Some cities will paint the bonnett of their hydrants to indicate the size of the water line feeding the hydrant. In most cases the hydrant color has no other significance.
I’m a civil engineer. Fire hydrants are always on/off devices. Their valve type is not meant to be half open or half closed. Wet Barrel hydrants are common in warmer southern states - not to say they are used everywhere. Hydrants are simply valves that output flow based on size and available water pressure. The colors presented in this video refer to the caps not the barrels. There are different color codes for caps and barrels which indicate different things - this code is not always regulated from municipality to states. This often means that hydrant color doesn’t mean anything, yes, but that doesn’t mean that the standards don’t still exist. 🙂
I would agree that fire hydrants would always be used as a full flow device, however they are designed to open slowly and close slowly so as to not cause water hammer within the system. They can definitely be throttled without any issues. I manufacture hydrants from the foundry level up and would be happy to discuss further.
Concerning Reality From my experience in the business very few municipalities follow the color code. A lot of towns want their hydrants all red now a days it’s psychological I guess although to me they should all be blue for water not red for fire XD
@@dougk.5501
By design hydrants are throttling devices that throttle flow when both opening and closing. It's the design of all us manufacturer's not some crazy idea of mine, however I see no issues with using a hydrant in the half open position if thats whats needed to fight a fire.
SoCal, and the entire gulf coast area are full of wet barrel hydrants and if I had to guess probably up the west coast to BC.
@@dougk.5501
Dug I get what M&H and Mueller are saying and why they say it.
It is simply because cracking the main valve will cause water exit the drain system and undermine the soil supporting the hydrant.
The drain holes are completely sealed about 10 turns open which is far from full flow. The main valve in a hydrant is most similar to that of a globe valve which is used for throttling the world over. I'm not suggesting throttled use (for other reasons*) only that the style of valve is designed for that purpose, possibly because when opening and closing a hydrant slowly (which is recommended) you are in a throttling condition.
* Prolonged use of a hydrant in a throttled state would cause cavitation within the main valve and result in main valve failure.
Pressure is put out through the fire truck not the hydrant 😂
Nope, pressure is only increased through the trucks in certain cases.
They are basically water spigots on steroids
Qasam Ak Arizona t
Not bad. Definitely not a fitting. Ever. Always a hydrant. And it contains a valve. It isn’t in itself a valve. Just has one in it(or multiple if wet). Colors are for pressures in NFPA 291 but it just depends. Most of the time they paint just the bonnet for pressure indication. At least what I have seen. Private service mains are usually silver. Meaning nothing other than fire marshals like them to be silver ha. And dry hydrants are for anywhere the temperature even has the possibility of dropping below freezing. I have never seen a wet hydrant in person because I’ve never been anywhere that it doesn’t freeze at some point in the year. Some decent info. I like the animations. But definitely not super accurate all together. They are also mainly used for firefighters to hook up to their apparatus to give it water. Not use the hydrant directly. All right im done. Btw, NICET III NFPA25 Inspector here. I test these ALL the time.
1500 gpm is a mite low
Orange 🍊 tomato 🍅