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SCBA battery replacement
I'm curious what other departments are doing for a battery replacement schedule for their SCBA's. We train 2-3 times a month with them and maybe one fire a month. The current thought is that to replace all the batteries every 3 months, but there are some who think that every 2 months would be better. To be clear, the packs are all checked each time before drill, but we would like to be proactive to avoid dead batteries on the fire scene.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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If you a worried, I would say twice a year, like a smoke alarm, once a year should be fine, otherwise replace as necessary. Not sure what type of packs you have, we use SCOTT and have an SCBA for each ridining position for each rig, as well as spares, meaning we have quite a few SCBAs and we are not changing batteries as often as you, and packs are checked daily. We have had a few times where we would get a low battery and the PASS would sound (chirp) continuously despite the air being bled off indicating a low battery.
Check your pack and so forth routinely, daily is best, but volunteer, even weekly would suffice to check all equipment. If worried about battery replacement set up a routine replacement but I would say every couple to few months is a bit of overkill. Perhaps look to get a decent battery like Energizer or Duracell than worry about replacing so often.
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Permalink Reply by Don Catenacci on
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Actually, for the Scott that uses 9 volt batteries, Duracell is the ONLY battery supposed to be used.
We have had to replace the batteries in my #1 POC FDs Scotts around 3 times a year.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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Our Scott's have two 9 volt in the Pac-Alert, four AA in the TPASS, and two AA for the HUD. I would love to only have to change them every 3 months. About 6 weeks is all we can get. Our old Scott's could go a year, but we used to change them twice a year.
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Must be why we only have the Duracell in the stations....didn't know that little nugget.
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Yep, we had trouble with one of the modules and it got sent back to Scott, they sent a note back saying ONLY DURACELL 9 volt batteries are to be used. Nice little nugget not mentioned anywhere in the literature that comes with the SCBA.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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We change ours once per month, and only use Duracell Copper-Tops in our MSA Firehawk SCBAs, per manufacturer's instructions.
We have to replace the batteries for the integrated PASS, the LED head-up display, and the voice amplifier on every SCBA including reserves and those assigned to Training.
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Permalink Reply by mean15 on
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The literature that came with our SCBA's stated that the batteries were rated to operate 30 minutes a day for 365 days. Our service tech changes the batteries at our yearly service.....haven't had a problem since we bought them 5 years ago.
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Permalink Reply by Douglas Greenwald on
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We have Scotts, version 4.2's. We do check the packs regularly, the batteries just don't seem to last. We use duracell's, industrial grade. I've heard from other local departments that they have the same issues - the batteries just seem to run down just sitting in the rigs.
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Ours get used more than the minimum amount specified by the manufacturer, which is why we went to the 30-day replacement.
We send a SCBA to our state fire academy Candidate School, an 8-week assignment. We change the batteries in that SCBA at least once during that assignment, due to the high use the SCBA gets and the extra power that is drawn by the LED head-up-display and the voice amplifier.
Your SCBA recommendations may just be for the integrated PASS without any other accessories on the packs.
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Our packs have heads-up display and dual pass alarms, but no voice amps. However we are a small volunteer outfit with low call volume. About 350 runs a year. Maybe 2 structure fires a month. SCBA checks are done monthly, and battery replacement yearly. As I said, in 5 years it has worked for us. You obviously use your equipment much harder than we do.
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We run almost 10 times your fire call volume, although a lot of them are good intent false alarms or other calls on which SCBA are not used.
In addition to calls, we train aggressively, using air in addition to calls. Last month we ran all-day MAYDAY/RIC classes with firefighters on air for extended periods of time and followed it up with vertical ventilation training on the same acquired structure. (An old school building) We also have several new firefighters who use a lot of air during their orientation, etc.
We also use a lot of air for our hazmat team's training.
We have SCBA fill stations with cascade systems and air compressors at our Training Center and two of our stations. We also have a cascade and fill station on our air/rehab truck. All of them get quite a workout.
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Permalink Reply by Moose on
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We have Scott NXGN 7's, they use 3 "C" cell batteries per pack, we have ten packs. We change out our batteries every spring and fall, just like the smoke detectors. We do checks at every drill, and after every call, as per our manufacturers guidelines. The Scott NXGN 7 air pack has the battery test function, which displays different colored LED lights on the pack harness for different levels of battery drain, but we always change them every fall and spring regardless of how many times it does or doesnt get used.
We are an EXTREMELY small department, averaging 140 calls a year, mostly EMS runs, with an average of 3-5 structure fires (in our district) a year and an additional 7-8 mutual aid structural fire responses. Our drills are every monday night, and we use the packs about 30 minutes of breathing time each drill.
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