Drager SCBAs

[SamsonFCDES]

We are shopping for SCBAs, we just had a Drager salesman come by, and we were realy impressed with his units, Drager Airboss Evolutions and Airboss PSS100. There seems to be no fearture left off of these SCBAs.

And from what he was saying, there is a lifetime waranty on many of the parts.

So, has anybody used Dragers on the fire ground? I am looking for impressions and a review of how dragers, both models, perform.

Are there any major departments that use Drager? It seems that the military is sold on them.

Thanks

[stm4710]

I will throw in my two cents.

As a explorer my dept. used Scott 50's with a 4.5 30 minute composite bottle.
At a near by department I trained with we used both old and new Surviveair(sp?) packs with 30 minute 2216 steel bottles.
At a show I tried on a Drager Airboss PSS100.
I have seen someone don a Carins air pack.

The newer Surviveair pack I did not like because of its rigid "wrap around" your waist piece of metal,small snap hooks,metal tank retention band, too much weight,ill fitting cause of that "wrap around band",the mask fogs up quickly when your not on air. This pack was extremely hard to don and doff in the dark with gloved hands and the steel retention band makes the bottle hard to change with gloved hands---even bare hands and when your bare handed your likely to get a cut from the sharp edge.The swiveling mask regualtor I do not like,cause when you goto go off air you have to search for the don/doff switch and thumb swtiches,again its hard to operate with a gloved hand due to small buttons.Its low air alarm is hard to hear in "hectic" situations and the nose cone absorbs alot of the vibration from the alarm.

When the jake donned the Carins he seemed to have trouble with the straps and also changeing the bottle.

When I tried the Drager,it fit nice but to me it has to many bells and whistles(no pun intended). And seemed to be hard to don and doff in the dark. The straps on the waist band tended to twist.

Scott I belive is the best IMHO. It is light both the pack and bottle,easy to change the bottle(two clicks your done),you can feel the low air alarm well and the regulator buttons are always in the same place and easy to manulipate with gloved hands.I also like the seat belt wait clip and large shoulder strap clamps. The wide straps are also nice as the pack sit well and the distribute the wieght nicely.

[McpFFemt]

SamsonFCDES,
Baltimore City, Md has been using Draeger for some time now with no major problems that I am aware of. We do not have the latest version so I cannot comment on the new additions to the unit. I do not find them hard to use at all and have never had a problem putting one on. Draeger has also been very good in helping us out whenever needed.

[lutan1]

Although not familiar with the new range of Draeger's, we've got approx 26 Draeger PA94's across two sites (Industrial Fire Team's)

Can't really fault these ones. What everyone needs to remember is that just about every brand can be specced up to just about any requirement. For example if you find waist straps uncomfortable, every brand seems to have a model with padding fitted, etc.

Shop around and compare apples with apples.

[mcaldwell]

We switched from MSA to Draeger 10 year ago, and it works fine, but just fine. We have traditionally had some minor problems with regulators freezing below -20 C (it's Canada after all), and we've had some minor issues with the new masks, but for the cost the value is good. I like the options on the new gear, but I don't really see any better quality of materials.

I have used MSA/Survivair/Scott, etc, and my favorite is still Scott by a country mile. It costs more, but is very easy to use (easier than Draeger in my opinion), and can be all "whistled" up too.