Scott.
We just received a FIRE Act grant to upgrade our SCBAs.
We had sales reps come in for Scott, MSA, Survivair and ISI and after much comparison, research, discussion and demonstrations, we decided that Scott would fit our needs the best.
And they will meet the 2007 NFPA standard.
So, what are the rest of you using?
If you were the decision maker for your department, would you buy more of what you got or would you get something else?
That is subject to opinion.Let's compare notes(and financials)over a ten year run. My educated guess is that Scott will have the lowest cost of ownership. I can tell you per year what it will cost to maintain my scotts and some are approaching 25 years old.
Our department has just received a grant for SCBA as well and we just had reps from Scott, MSA, ISI, and Survivair come today. My dad is torn between MSA and Scott, but thing we are looking for is one with a fairly universally fitting facemask because we currently have a few with nosepieces that put pressure on the sinuses and eyes on some people like me with smaller faces and it makes it impossible to see.
We upgraded to the 4.5 Scott air-pak 75 last year, also with all the options and accessories. The emergency breathing support system can be reached very easy by the RIT if needed, its a fast quick connect. The Pak-tracker is pretty nice as well, hope we never need it. We upgraded from MSA. The Scott is great, Light and easier to work and move around with. The bottles are small. The pak weighs about 11 pounds, that's not bad. The only problem, you have to monitor the batteries every month. It has so many LED's and alerts that the batteries can run down faster than normal. Thats the only complaint. We're happy with the choice. Good luck, hope this helps.
We use the Scott NXG2's with all the options. By far the best! Heads up display,flashing led's, intigrated PASS, alarm & vibration for low air, Etc. Batteries definetly do make a difference. We've been through them all & Duracell's are the only ones that last for whatever reason.
Permalink Reply by Doug on February 1, 2009 at 5:44am
My department was just awarded a grant as well and are purchasing the latest Scott's with it. My department has always used Scott. However, as long as the air pack performs, there's really no better than the other out there. The only thing I would recommend is to NOT go with Interspiro, they have a history of malfunctioning and are so complicated you need to a be a rocket scientist to service them.