scottt vs. survivair vs. ??? which scba do you like best?

[firefighter0143]

I've been feuding with a fellow crew memberfor a while now about the scba our department should have.we currently have the old draggers,i totally dislike them. well we're getting new scba's this year and i was trying to get a little poll here to see which scba you guys have or want to have for your department.
i love those new scott airpaks with the composite bottles,big guy here on the other hands love survivair,
u fellow firefighters have a nice day now
(stay out of trouble)!!!!
dan
station #2

[Firelover]

In my department, we run with Scott. I've never tried any others, so I guess I'm not much help, but the survivaire seems confusing in the dawning of the scba!

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Joel

If you sent us to HELL, WE'D PUT IT OUT!!

**And of course these are only my opinion and only mine. Don't take it out on anyone else but me.**

[LHS*]

We like our 2, 5 and 8 year old Sigma Survivairs ([i]16, 6 and 2 respectively) with My-t-lite harnesses so much I'll sell you all 24 of them and 74 - 30 minute (17 carbon, the rest alloy) and 6 - 60 minute bottles, 44 regular size masks and 5 large masks for $30,000. We love to get rid of them.

If you really like Survivairs, buy these first let me see if I can help you get the taste out of your mouth. We are only into the above $113,000, so far and counting parts! If you want 54 - 5 year old 30 minute Cairne's kevlar with 54 kevlar bottles, add $23,000.

However, if you are good witha wrench thy are great packs!

[This message has been edited by LHS* (edited 05-23-2001).]

[phantas]

Our dept uses Drager SCBAs, we upgraded from Scott 2.2s.

Personally I like the Drager packs better than the old 2.2 Scotts.

[SFD-129-3]

I really think all the packs are beginning to look and function the same. After all it is all the same technology. Look into where you can get service for the respective pack in relation to your area. Usually the bigger co's (scott and msa) will have more distributers in an area, hence more competition on pricing.
Personally, we use the scott 2.2's and have never had a problem with them or scott in general. As long as they have the features you want and are reliable I would wear it.
Although, judging by what LHS* said about the survivair's I would look twice.

[EastKyFF]

Between Scott and Survivair, I'd have to pick MSA!

[jizumper-5]

I had the opportunity to be involved in the trial period when my dept. (AFC) purchased new SCBA. For a year we use a demo from MSA, Scott, and Survive-Air. All of their top of the line models. We then had a questionnaire to fill out commenting on each system. Here is how it went:

We sent the Survive-Air pack back half way through the survey. Nobody like it.
It was a toss-up between MSA and Scott. Both had exceptional packs. We went Scott.

I recommend trying something similar. I feel it is the only way to truly have an opinion on how a pack will work.

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Keep Safe!

[CLWFWFD]

I have used Scott, MSA, and Survivair. While teaching at the academy were I work part-time we just bought the new Survivair, after the first demo burn we had bubbled one mask and distorted another(cold building and first burn of the day), myself and another instructor dug out our old Scotts for the rest of the day(no melting of the Scotts,plus the building warmed-up more after several burns).Do your research and see which one most of the larger cities use ect..FDNY, Boston,and Chicago (Scotts). My dept. uses the Scott 4.5 with carbon fiber bottles.

[Fedfire]

I can tell you one to stay away from. Interspiro. My Army unit was force-issued this crap with the intent that we could fight a fire in a chemical warfare environment. Yeahright. Stuff literally falls off these things while your using them. Once the fire is out, go back to the station, remove the SCBA from the trucks, replace them with the ones that were fixed from last time, and start working on the ones you just took off the truck. We had Survivair before these. We didn't like them, but they didn't fall apart. The Fort currently uses Scott Airpack 50's. I have nothing bad to say about these. They have performed flawlesly.

[This message has been edited by Fedfire (edited 05-24-2001).]

[ceno2749]

Scott!!!

[engco2432]

Not even close, the Scott packs are the best. My dept uses the survivair or as we like to call them surpriseair. We had the 4.5 Scott's and really liked them. Smooth talking salesman talked the administration into buying the Survivair.

[This message has been edited by engco2432 (edited 05-24-2001).]

[Ford45]

yeah, our company just got the new suprise-airs. well, so far nothing TOO bad has happened, and they are deffinatly NOT scott's. as for someone mentioning interspiro's-i'd go in w/o a pack b4 goin in w/ one of those things. seriously, wear a leather and go with scotts!!!! stay safe. peace.

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Matt
Newtown Fire Association
Station 45

[bjhfd]

I was recently on the SCBA replacement committee for my department. We looked at all of the main manuafacturers, and the overall winner after both live fire training and research was the ISI Viking Digital. This pack was the most comfortable and also offered many features that the other packs did not have. This pack was also the most simple to clean and any repairs that needed to be done could be done in house.

We did look at Scott and Survivair, and although they were not at the bottom of the list, they were not far from it. MSA was our second choice.

Stay Safe

[D.C. Kron]

A couple of years ago my department bought new packs. We tried all of the major brands and it was our opinion that Scott had the others beat - hands down.
If you can get them, the Scott Plus-Fiftys in 4.5 are great, but we had to settle for the 2.2's, because of the cost factor.

[retrotex]

My department just received new Survivair Panther's. I have only used them in one fire so far but I find the pack to be very comfortable and light with the carbon fiber bottles. Also the mask has a good field of vision when you're not obscured by smoke. Our old SCBA is the old Survivair with the "elephant nose" mask. They are cumbersome but we haven't had any problems with them. We have been relatively satisfied with Survivair products.