Why bag the hydrant?
Why bag the hydrant?
Saw this going to a friend’s house- they bagged the fire hydrants….one thought was snow; but this is the first year apparently. And snow has been a mild issue this year compared to most.
Firefighter here:
They're made from cast iron that likes to rust and the only thing protecting them is the Paint on them.
My guess is that the paint got scratched and they're bagging it up until they can repaint it.
Isn't that what paint's for? Seems like a lot of unnecessary plastic trash.
Cheaper to do bags than re-paint off-schedule. Usually cities have a schedule for maintenance, and the bag, in this case, is preventative for rust without being off-schedule for painting.
Paint gets scratches, especially where things turn and rub against each other. You don't want the turning bits becoming seized and finding out at the worst time
Maybe they reuse the bags. Bag up 5th Street, salt it, collect the bags and prep 6th.
Related question. Why are north American hydrants all of the "stick up out of the ground as a permanent fixture" type, rather than the more discreet and less likely to be damaged "pipe fitting concealed beneath a removable plate" type?
Probably because it’s still liable to be damaged (especially by freeze/thaw cycles,), the plate is liable to be lost, it’s harder to find- especially under a foot of snow-
And my personal favorite: tradition.
So dogs can pee on them, dingus.
For safe hydrant sex. Duhhh
Just FYI, the striped pole attached to the hydrant is so it can be found under snow.
I was driving down a highway once and noticed that there was a blue reflective marker on top of the concrete barrier every few hundred feet or so.
Took me about an hour or two before I noticed that it aligned with where the drainage basins were, probably for snow removal in the winter.
Why wouldn't they make the whole thing red?
It works in regular snow and blood snow
I believe there's some logic in alternating patterns being more attention-grabbing to our brains, which is why you usually see stripes on anything you need to be cautious around.
The pole isn't for locating the hydrant, per se, as much as it is for avoiding the hydrant. It's so you don't drive into it if it's covered in snow.
To maintain freshness
The identify the troublemakers in your neighborhood.
You’ve been added to a list.
I'm on soooo many lists.
one more won't hurt.
It's to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Always bag up your hydrants, boys!
Autoerotic asphyxiation.
Evidence.
Possibly out of service. There are dedicated high visibility bags for this purpose but if whoever did this didn’t have one, this looks like a stopgap to help make it more obvious.
My guess is to keep water from getting into the threads and freezing them shut.