Fire Hydrant Maintenance

Cumming Utilities’ fire hydrant maintenance crew’s goal is to perform maintenance as needed on fire hydrants in the City’s water system. Forsyth County Fire Department inspects all fire hydrants annually and sends repair requests to the City when issues arise.

Cumming Utilities also flushes fire hydrants periodically to flush settled debris from the water distribution system.

As a homeowner or business owner, you can protect your property and the property of others by removing all vegetation from around fire hydrants and by keeping cars and other vehicles from parking next to fire hydrants.

Are you a contractor and need to use water from a hydrant? Please call 770-781-2020 to rent a hydrant meter.

Protecting Fire Hydrants From Damage and Improper Use

Never open and/or close a fire hydrant or valve quickly. this will cause WATER HAMMER.

From Wikipedia: Hydraulic shock (colloquialwater hammerfluid hammer) is a pressure surge or wave caused when a fluid, usually a liquid but sometimes also a gas, in motion is forced to stop or change direction suddenly; a momentum change. This phenomenon commonly occurs when a valve closes suddenly at an end of a pipeline system, and a pressure wave propagates in the pipe.

This pressure wave can cause major problems, from noise and vibration to pipe rupture or collapse. It is possible to reduce the effects of the water hammer pulses with accumulators, expansion tanks, surge tanks, blowoff valves, and other features. The effects can be avoided by ensuring that no valves will close too quickly with significant flow, but there are many situations that can cause the effect.