SCBA eyeglass insert

[FF55341]

Has anyone used the Altek dual purpose spectacle insert kit for thier SCBA facepiece? This appealed to me because you can remove it from you facepiece and wear with a headstrap when not wearing your facepiece. Just wondering what others experience is with these inserts.

[DeputyMarshal]

Personally, I use the Scott insert when I'm not wearing my contacts so I can't comment on the Altek universal fit model.

Some questions to ask yourself are:

Does your department approve their use?

What's wrong with the OEM mounting kit issued by the department? (If you're in an OSHA state, they're most likley required to provide the kit as well as to pay for the prescription lenses. That's not necessarily the case with the Altek type systems.)

[DubyaVFF]

The Altek kit is brand labelled by at least one manufacturer. We ordered a Survivair kit for our new Survivair packs, and it's an Altek with Survivair branding.

Universality is highly desirable with the various models of pack in use in our area; mutual-aid ops often see me pulling someone else's pack ad popping in my spectacle kit. Y'gotta dance with the one what brung ya

[DeputyMarshal]

mutual-aid ops often see me pulling someone else's pack ad popping in my spectacle kit.

Do you fit-test annually with the SCBA masks provided by mutual aid companies? If not, you shouldn't be using them.

[DubyaVFF]

Do you fit-test annually with the SCBA masks provided by mutual aid companies? If not, you shouldn't be using them.

Technically true...and I'm all for doing so when the situation allows. But in my district and those surrounding we're always shorthanded, and the mutual aid is as short on resources as we are, so it's often "what gets a hose on the fire" versus "what's the right way to do it". Such are the vicissitudes of rural firefighting, especially here. If I don't use that SCBA, chances are that the things I needed it for aren't happening. At all.

I wish it were not so, but it isn't likely to change anytime soon...