Irrigation hydrants and surface boxes: Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza models… how to choose the one for your municipality

If you have worked for a municipal parks and gardens department you know that an irrigation hydrant is not just an irrigation hydrant: it is "the Madrid one", "the oval Barcelona one" or "the Zaragoza one". Decades ago each city standardised its own model, with its own coupling, lid and key, and the maintenance crews still insist on it because their tools and hoses only fit that one. We manufacture the main models in cast iron, and this is a guide to avoid ordering the wrong one.

The models we manufacture

• Madrid irrigation hydrant: cylindrical cast iron body with hinged lid and 45 mm quick coupling, the standard in the capital and in many municipalities of central Spain.
• Barcelona oval hydrant: oval frame and lid, designed for narrow pavements, with the coupling used in the metropolitan area.
• Zaragoza, Granada, Pamplona and Santander hydrants: variants of lid, coupling and closure according to each municipal specification.

All of them have an epoxy-coated cast iron body, an internal spring-loaded or spindle-operated valve and a hinged lid that withstands light vehicle traffic on pavements.

What a surface box is

The surface box is the small cast iron chamber that protects the square cap of a buried valve and allows it to be operated from the surface with a T-key. Just like the hydrants, every municipality has its own: GA model in 14×14 and 19×19, Barcelona, Zaragoza or Almería. Underneath there is usually a resilient-seated gate valve with square cap and a guide tube rising up to the surface box.

How to get it right

1. Ask for the specification or a photo of an existing hydrant with the lid open: the coupling is what identifies the model.
2. Measure the depth between the pipe and the finished surface level: it defines the height of the hydrant or the guide tube of the surface box.
3. Check the diameter of the network: hydrants are connected by thread or by tapping saddle onto the irrigation branch line.

And the rest of the urban castings

In the same product line we manufacture trapped gullies, such as the bell-type cast iron model for courtyards and green areas, in galvanised or stainless steel for indoor installations. They are the parts nobody looks at and that a town council cannot afford to be without in its stores.

If your municipality uses a model that does not appear here, tell us about it: casting allows local models to be reproduced in short runs, and we have done it more than once.