A couple years ago or department purchased SaberJet Nozzels for all of our trucks. They were supposed to be "the best nozzles out there". Most every person on the department seems to like them but I personally don't like them at all. I just wanted to see what everyone else's opinions were on them and what you think the best nozzels is.
Permalink Reply by Doug on December 28, 2008 at 2:32pm
Hi Jeff My department use TFT (Task Force Tips) . We use Automatic dual pressure and Smooth bore nozzles,Blitzfire on 2 Engines , 1 tanker we like them . I do not now about Saber Jet Nozzels. Doug
We use adjustable flow branches (sorry, I just can't use your term 'nozzles' - to us that's just the little bit on the end where the water comes out - semantics, I know) mostly for structure fires. These are the issued Proteks, I like them. Easy to handle and to use. I prefer the manual adjustment of the Proteks to the automatic TFT's - just a personal opinion as I know the TFT's are good equipment. For wildfire we use either the smaller Proteks or simple twist-control jet/fog or lever control jet/spray types. Even though the smaller Proteks can be miserly with water, the simpler branches will use even less water - and water is a scarce resource on a wildfire well away from the hydrants! Oh, nearly forgot about the adjustable flow Akron on the high-pressure reel.
TFT's are used for both hand lines and master stream appliances. We use the Purple-K wildland nozzles (same ones used by the USFS). There may be a couple of smooth bore nozzles out there but as a rule and by department SOG's, we use a fog nozzle for all of our evolutions. The effectiveness of penciling an interior fire does nothing more than do a lot of damage compared to a fog nozzle that can be turned off and then on, allowing steam conversion to extinguish the fire.
The Saber Jet nozzle is definitely a multi purpose nozzle. My company utilizes CAFS making smooth bore the nozzle of choice, but we also have and use saber jet's. We have a saber jet on one of our cross-lays and gets pulled when we need to do some type of other operation that will be better accomplished using an adjustable fog pattern. At the same time if we were to switch our operation to CAFS for what ever reason we could do so without changing nozzles by utilizing the smooth bore outlet in the saber jet.
Permalink Reply by Scott on December 28, 2008 at 11:16pm
True but thats the exact reason I'd go with the combo nozzle. Granted you cant get a 100% straight stream and you cant get a full fog effect but inside wouldnt it be better? Im not trying to start an argument or anything just want to get a real feel on the positives and negitives.