Flushing a fire hydrant - GIF

[Altair]

Flushing a fire hydrant.




Previously:

Fire hydrant wrench and flow meter - GIF
Firefighter gets blown away by fire hydrant - GIF
Fire hydrants pulled from the ground - photo
Vintage hydrant flow gauge - photo
Fire hydrant cutaway - photo

[Frank S]

And just think, if you are on city water that brown gunk will form at every cast iron hydrant connected to the mains throughout the city.

[mwmkravchenko]

And just think, if you are on city water that brown gunk will form at every cast iron hydrant connected to the mains throughout the city.

I ran hydrants for a friend of mine for a week off and on one summer about 8 years ago. This is potable water. And this is nothing compared to what I have seen. Areas where the water lines are 60 and 80 years old are like tomato soup when you flow them hard. Kind of gives them a good flushing out. 8 inch lines are nothing to fool around with. If you turn the valves to quickly you actually shake the ground with the water hammering. And risk a lot of damage in the surrounding houses. The pressure spikes are huge.