Fire Hydrant Flow Testing Blog

Fire hydrant testing is one of the most forgotten aspects of fire safety. The reason why is that most people assume that the testing of fire hydrants is down to their local fire brigade. This is true to some extent as the fire brigade test fire hydrants on the public highway. They do not however test fire hydrants on private land. 

Since 1989, it has been the responsibility of a building's owner / occupier to keep its fire hydrant systems in working order. These can be situated in a business park, TV or Film studio, Farm, Large School / Academy or any large amount of land.

most people assume that the testing of fire hydrants is down to their local fire brigade

Your fire hydrants should be inspected and tested once per year (Ideally between March and November due to the threat of freezing conditions in other months) to ensure the water pressure and flow rate are adequate and the hydrant and surrounding area are in good working order and condition. The test results should then be recorded for each fire hydrant.

So how do we carry out flow testing of your fire hydrants? 

Firstly we inspect the hydrant cover, Pit and surrounding area to ensure that there is nothing obstructing access to the hydrant. Hydrants can be obstructed by all sorts of things like pallets, vegetation, road cones and cars! The hydrant pit and surface paving must be in good condition as it has to be structurally sound in order to hold the cover and not collapse around the hydrant itself. The pit also has to be clear of debris as you can find all sorts of things from rubbish, full pits of soil, flooded pits to frogs, huge spiders and anything else that gets into the area! The cover must also be painted yellow so it can easily be identified. 

Your fire hydrants should be inspected and tested once per year (Ideally between March and November due to the threat of freezing conditions in other months)

We then start to look at the hydrant itself. We check that its in good condition, has an outlet cap fitted, record the depth of the hydrant and ensure that the false spindle is in position. When we are satisfied with these we attach our flow meter ready to turn on the fire hydrant. The first lot of water from a hydrant is usually really dirty so we are careful where the water is discharged as it can make a bit of a mess! When the hydrant is fully switched on we ensure that the fire hydrant is not leaking from anywhere and check that the valve packing is sound. At this point we will have a reading on our digital flow meter which gives is the amount of water being discharged from the hydrant in litres per minute. These measurements can vary greatly with readings from a few hundred litres per minute up to 3,000 litres per minute which is a huge amount of water! Once we have a steady reading we then switch off the flow and obtain a pressure reading from the fire hydrant. Just like the water flow, Pressures can range from 2 bar up to 7 bar which is a big difference. 

We also check the hydrant marking to ensure that the yellow hydrant 'H' plate is in position and has the correct distance displayed from the hydrant and hydrant size visible. 

A report is completed for each fire hydrant which we test and includes photos. It is advisable that this report is available to the local fire brigade and your fire risk assessor. If we find issues with the flow rate or pressure its the responsibility of the land owner to resolve this with the assistance of the local water company and inform the local fire brigade that there are issues so they are aware should the hydrant be needed in the event of a fire. 

Should we find any small issues during the fire hydrant testing like missing outlet caps or false spindles we can fit these at the time of the test. If the fire hydrant cover requires repainting we can usually repaint it if the weather good enough. Hydrant 'H' plates can also be fitted if they are missing. 

If you have fire hydrants on your land then contact us for a quotation. All of our documentation is digital and sent to you via email along with the relevant invoices to keep everything simple.