Anybody use REELTEX hose out there?

[Firefighter430]

Anybody use REELTEX hose out there? How do you like it? Just bought a section to try on our Midi Pumper. We have 100' of 1" on a booster reel. It's very light and seems to handle well. Heard about kink problems but we have had no problem on the 4 fires we have used it on. Please advise.

Unique attack hose that handles like a lay-flat hose yet performs like a rigid reel hose. Whether used as a municipal, forestry or industrial hose, REELTEX® will make the job effortless. A spun polyester woven jacket red ENCAP® treated, combined with a special helical interior reinforcement and lightweight extruded T.P.U. elastomer liner makes REELTEX® the lightest, most compact and easy to use reel hose on the market today

[Fire/Rescue43]

We recently replaced the 200' of REEL TEX hose on our brush truck. We liked that the hose was light, easy to drag. What we did not like is that it kinked shut, it uncoiled on the reel either jaming the reel or making you pull it all off even if you only had a few feet off. We replaced it with 1" rubber redline.

[Bowbreaker]

Our VFD has a reel with 100 ft. of Reeltex on a type 6 engine. The stuff is light and easy to work with. We found that we had to keep pressure on the reel all of the time to keep the hose from kinking shut or unrolling when ever you opened another line on the truck. We finally tied the nozzle on the reel with a bungy cord to keep the reel together. Our chief complains alot about the stuff so I doubt we will ever get any more. Generally if we are more than 50 ft. from the truck we use 1 in. single jacket forestry hose, rather than pull off the reel. It just seems to work better for us as we end up with a couple hundred ft. of hose out alot. The forestry is lighter and easier to clean than the reeltex.

[TRK4]

There are tensioners on those reels that you can tighten down to compensate for the diferance in the hose

[Bowbreaker]

TRK 4, We played with the tension on the reel and unless it was so tight that it took 2 firefighter to pull hose off it still would play out every time you opened or closed another line. We just tie the nozzle on the reel and it is not a problem any more. Once you have enough line off to reach the ground it hold the reel from turning with just moderate tension on the reel.

[Dalmatian90]

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Reeltex Kinking????

I'd have to guess you don't have Reeltex if it's kinking!

As a bit of background, my department runs both Reeltex and on our main engines runs standard structural hose kept charged at 50psi on reels, so I'm familiar with the performance of both.

http://www.mortlakefire.org/Mortlake/Photos/ET190rear.jpg

These can kink, just like any other standard hoseline at 50psi. They also tend to "uncoil" on the reel when charged to operating pressure -- especially if the reel brake isn't set.

The Reeltex has rigid reinforcement, like lightweight suction hose, but even lighter. I've never seen our 1.5" Reeltex kink. It too loosens it's coils a bit, but not bad -- I was using it last weekend alone. I couldn't do that with our charged lines (above pic) which take two people at least to reload when the un-coil.