Hose Testing costs

[firefighterbeau]

does anyone have some prices on what companies charge to do hose testing? places like waterway and others. just looking for ball park figures

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

does anyone have some prices on what companies charge to do hose testing? places like waterway and others. just looking for ball park figures

Do it yourself and save a few $$$$!

Yeah... annual hose testing sucks.. but break it down by company, then split the rack among the companies based on hose size.
PS: Truckies can help, too!

[mtg55]

PS: Truckies can help, too!

What's Hose?

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

What's Hose?

See? That's why knuckledraggers aren't allowed on Engine companies!

[pasobuff]

What's Hose?

It's NOT that thing you...umm...never mnid...forgot there are young 'uns here.....

[islandfire03]

does anyone have some prices on what companies charge to do hose testing? places like waterway and others. just looking for ball park figures

We had a company from NJ do ours this year. They showed up at 0630 and once we found a paved road with enough length to set up on it took them less than 5 hours before they were on the way out of town. Thats two engines with full compliment of hose including 1400 feet ea. of 4"LDH brush truck . and 140 rolls of 2 1/2 & 1 3/4 from station racks.

They do everything including repack the hose beds and pre-connects, They give you a computerized inventory and testing report printed out and electronically.

Their charge was in the neighborhood of $1500.00

[CaptOldTimer]

It's NOT that thing you...umm...never mnid...forgot there are young 'uns here.....

Oh it could be though!


When spring comes and the cold is gone, maybe the first of May, take the hose out to a street or parking lot that isn't busy and test it your self. No sense in paying someone to do what you guys can do.

We have 40 front line pieces plus reserve and other vehicles and spare hose that would be tested. Each fire company does their own.

[FireRescueLupo]

We did our hose ourselves, had a "training meeting" and took 2 trucks at a time out to our local school and got it down with department members. Boring job to do but saved us money. We got all of our engines (3) and our other stations (2) and even a mutual aid engine done in 3 different days of about 3 hours a day. As long as you keep doing it yourself your members learn what needs to be done and it just keeps getting smoother. I did not even know you could have a company come in a do it. Always learning on here.

[sfd1992]

Like others have said, it's easy to do it yourselves and save the $$ for more important stuff. Here, most companies rotate it among all the shifts, so we end up doing it once every 4 years. It takes a couple hours and then you're done, it's really no big deal.

[Truck_3]

Waterway

I used the local Waterway Franchise and they charged .21 Cents a foot. They also tested the ladders, repacked the hose, marked the sections and mailed me a cert record with results after the fact. I job out the maint. work, No wrench turning in house other then daily checks. Something goes bad, it goes to a bonded certified Mech. YMMV. This is what I have chosen to do.

[islandfire03]

Like others have said, it's easy to do it yourselves and save the $$ for more important stuff. Here, most companies rotate it among all the shifts, so we end up doing it once every 4 years. It takes a couple hours and then you're done, it's really no big deal.

Our department of labor requires all hose to be tested and certified every 12 months with records from the time of purchase till the hose is taken out of service.
We found it was taking us 4 saturdays each year to get it all done, and the contractor did it all in one morning with 8 guys and a huge high pressure testing pump mounted on a trailer. All we had to do was supply out tanker to provide water.

Cost benefit for taking the crew away from family for 4 saturdays versus paying contractor = priceless !

[GTRider245]

Our department of labor requires all hose to be tested and certified every 12 months with records from the time of purchase till the hose is taken out of service.
We found it was taking us 4 saturdays each year to get it all done, and the contractor did it all in one morning with 8 guys and a huge high pressure testing pump mounted on a trailer. All we had to do was supply out tanker to provide water.

Cost benefit for taking the crew away from family for 4 saturdays versus paying contractor = priceless !

I would have to agree. Between 3 engines and spare hose it takes my volunteer department a full month of training nights to test our full complement of hose. And we have to do it in the summer when the weather is good and we have plenty of daylight. I would gladly budget an extra 2K dollars for hose testing. Takes the aggravation away from use, removes all liability if someone were to get hurt and frees up time for something else.

My career department is a different story. The cost for testing hose for 16 front line apparatus plus 7 reserve would quickly add up. Plus, we can do it on shift any time of day. You don't have that luxury with volunteers.

If you can swing the cash, I say go for it.

[len1582]

What's Hose?

You know...That thing you use to water the grass..wash the car.

[FD1976]

If you have the manpower, equipment and trained to do it, obviously it is fine to do it yourself.

The problem nowadays is reduced manpower (both career and volunteer). Do you really want to dedicate "training" time to do hose testing? Although you can use regular centrifugal pumpers for testing, none of the pump manufacturers recommend it, and can void warranty if damage occurs. Decent amount of injuries also using fire appartus pumps. If you have a small pump designed for testing, it takes forever for a full compliment of hose to reach test psi. Finally, documentation must be properly completed. IMO, if you have the money, far easier to have it out-sourced. Not much different then vehicle inspections, SCBA, & ladder testing, etc.

[tree68]

It's actually in our department bylaws that members must attend one of two hose testing sessions each year. The gung-ho among us (and most of the leaders) attend both.

We usually break it down to the big stuff one time, the small stuff the other.

Years ago we had 2000' of 2.5", then 3", on a supply truck to provide a water supply in the hamlet (no hydrants, but a mill pond in the middle). Since it seems like everybody has 1000' of LDH on board these days, we got rid of that and now just have the 1000' of LDH we carry to worry about.

That 2000' feet was usually the core of one test session.