Why do fire hydrants not freeze and burst in the winter? The water is theoretically above the freezing line, no?
In: Engineering
>The water is theoretically above the freezing line, no?
No, actually! The part of the hydrant you see is only part of it; there’s a long pipe that extends underground to the water main, where it’s connected with a valve. The valve is connected to the nut on the top of the hydrant (that you twist to turn it one) by a long shaft. The whole thing is kept empty until it’s turned on.
The reason for this is exactly the issue you’re thinking of: to keep the working parts of the hydrant buried so deep that they never freeze.
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