Hydrant colors... Are yours marked properly???

In my area, all of our hydrants are one color.... RED. Now dont get me wrong, I like the look of a classic red hydrant just as much as I like the look of a classic red fire engine but we have been asking the county to paint the tops of our hydrants according to their pressures for years now. I couldnt even tell you what the different colors mean because the only hydrants I've ever tapped were red.

Anyway... is there a national standard for what the colors mean according to pressure? and does your county, area, district, etc. actually go by this and paint the hydrants the right color?

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Permalink Reply by A.Kent Henson on August 13, 2009 at 7:58pm

The colors do have a meaning and they are standards(refer to the Essentials). The barrel color isnt significant but the cap is. Red=0 to 499 gpm. Yellow or orange=500 to 999. Green=1000 to 1499. And blue=1500 and above. Black may mean totally dead or a private system. In our area, the barrels are silver and if theyre red, it means its new and hasnt been flow tested or its private. Some areas have added the same color reflective tape to help find them at night. The water dept. is responsible for all maintenance except flow testing and painting. We carry the pitot, paint, and a grease gun when we flow test and notify the water dept of any other needs. Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Josh Wilde on August 13, 2009 at 9:08pm

Top Colors
NFPA 291
BLUE 1500 GPM or more Very good flows
GREEN 1000-1499 GPM Good for residential areas
ORANGE 500-999 GPM Marginally adequate
RED Below 500 GPM Inadequate

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Permalink Reply by Josh Wilde on August 13, 2009 at 9:17pm

The NFPA does not regulate. They provide guidelines or suggestions. Most departments tend to follow the guidelines set forth by NFPA because if there is every any litigation, it would tend to not be favorable to the department if the guidelines were not followed. Here is a good example....when you are driving on a road with a lot of curves, you see the yellow sign with a speed. This is the suggested speed. It is usually below the speed limit. As a driver, you only have to follow the speed on the white sign with black trim, but when driving on that portion of road, it is highly reccommended that you follow the suggested speed.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Nicholson on August 13, 2009 at 11:30pm

Ouch, non draining plugs... do you have to drain it after use, or you call public works to do it?

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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on August 14, 2009 at 12:06am

LOL... I know what you mean. The town of Hebron is covered fairly well with hydrants. Our coverage area however, goes far beyond town limits and much of it is not covered by hydrants. Thats when its nice to have the biggest tanker in porter county!!!

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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on August 14, 2009 at 12:12am

We are fortunate enough to have the town water dept. test all hydrants within town limits. Our coverage area extends well beyond town limits and seeing as we do not test any hydrants, I dont believe any outside the town have been tested in a long time.

I will definatly bring up testing them ourselves at the next meeting. Or at the very least, providing the county with the info. the town water dept. obtains while doing their testing of the hydrants within town limits

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Permalink Reply by Dustin J. Millis on August 14, 2009 at 12:17am

Thanks for all the info guys!!!

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Permalink Reply by CHRIS PUYLARA on August 14, 2009 at 4:14pm

OURS ARE RED- AND THEY ARE RATED AND WE DO ALL THE MAINTENCE ON OURS---DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE COLD TOO MUCH HERE IN N.C......THE ONLY THING WE DRAIN DURING THE WINTER IS OUR PUMPS ON OUR TRUCKS..THEY HAVE A TENDENCY TO FREEZE UP GOING DOWN THE ROAD

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on August 14, 2009 at 6:43pm

We have a completely different color coding here in Green bay from the NFPA standards.

A RED hydrant...is on a 6 inch main and typically used in residential
An ORANGE hydrant...8 inch main
A GREEN hydrant ...is on a 10 inch or greater main
A YELLOW hydrant...indicates a dead end hydrant

Also the threads on the hydrants are Green Bay threads, not the national standard, so now that we started MABAS here, we can't connect to a steamer connection in the surrounding areas and other depts can't connect to ours.

Other thing is I know Madison, WI has BLACK hydrants around the Capitol building.
It does vary.