How to Install a Pipe to a Mueller Fire Hydrant

Fire hydrants get their name from the familiar iron casings that enclose hydrant valves. Turning a large nut on top of the casing turns a long steel rod that opens and closes a valve underground. When the nut is turned, as many city children know, water flows from the hose fittings on the sides of the iron casing. The water comes from "water mains,” pipes that may be from 2 inches to 10 inches in diameter and connect to the hydrant below the buried hydrant valve. Mueller hydrants use a fitting called the AquaGrip to connect to water systems.

Mueller AquaGrip fitting
Adjustable wrench or pipe wrench

Instructions

- 1
  Install the hydrant according to local practices and codes. Often in cold climates, hydrants attach to a long pipe called a “hydrant bury line” that is supported by various code-specified combinations of gravel and concrete. The bury line then connects to the main, and that connection is usually either flanged or an AquaGrip.
- 2
  Connect the hydrant bury line or water main by sliding the pipe through a Mueller AquaGrip connection on the bottom of the hydrant. These connections are standard on all Mueller hydrants manufactured in the last 10 years.
- 3
  Hand-tighten the four sets of nuts on the AquaGrip fitting. Each set of nuts includes two nuts separated by a plastic washer. Although most hydrants need to be "restrained" to the pipe, Mueller hydrants do not.
- 4
  Wrench-tighten each of the four nut sets using an adjustable wrench or pipe wrench until the outer nut and the plastic washer snap off. The pipe is now installed to the Mueller fire hydrant.
- 5
  Backfill the excavation that exposed the main or bury line.

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