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Permalink Reply by Paul Balentine on July 30, 2012 at 6:22pm

you can test your hose with a fire truck. You don't necessarily need a hose tester unit. Some fire departments use a "morse" hydrant gate with a 1/8" to 1/4" hole drilled in the center of the gate valve. They put the modified gate valve on the discharge of the apparatus, then hook the hose up, bring it up to the specified test pressure then close the morse gate.  This way you still have water flowing, albeit a very small amount, but its enough to maintain the pressure in the line and if the hoseline does rupture you will not be pumping a ton of water out the end of the line and have it whipping around endangering your crew.....

Of course you can test just as well by hooking the hose up to your engine (no more than 300' at a time per NFPA 1962) bring the hose up to the test pressure then gate the discharges way back....it does almost the same thing.....

good luck and be safe.

PB

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Permalink Reply by Derek J Sinesi on July 30, 2012 at 9:31pm

We have done it right off our trucks. Make sure all hose is numbered. Mark hose at couplings and when under pusher check and make sure your marks have not moved away from coupling. You will most likely find this on LDH. Record Date Time Pressure and how long hose was under load. Not much to it. When testing hose wear full PPE if something burst and you get hurt insurance will not pay. Stay safe and good luck.

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