CAFS Nozzles

[Brtengr]

Taking a brief poll:

Of those of you who have a Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) what type of nozzles do you use for it and why? For structural firefighting and any other uses.

Thanks,
Lee

[GreggGeske]

My department uses the Akron Saberjet. It provides the smooth bore for effective CAFS use and the fog for mechanical ventilation and or thermal protection. They did require a little training to get used to because the bail operates the smooth bore and the outer adjustment opens and closes the fog portion. You have to be more careful when you set them down so you do not turn on the fog.

[stm4710]

I have seen in couple video's on CAFS and foam in general where they dont use a nozzle, just have a bail and thats it. I guess anything beyond the bail doesnt help the qaulity of the foam.

[Jmatteau]

We have a couple TFT's, seem to work pretty good. We also have 2 saborjets, but not to many people like them, so they are out of service. I like them, but as the first person said, they take some getting used to. We also have a couple smooth bores for the CAFS.

[CaptLou]

Hi All,

For our CAFS operations, which are 99.9% of our operations, we are using the Elkhart break apart nozzles. On our 1 3/4" lines it is a 1 3/8" ball valve with a 15/16" removable tip. We find this set up to be very versatile. The treads on the open bail of the nozzle are an 1 1/2" fire hose tread. In some cases when the line has come up short we just shut off the nozzle, remove the tip, add a length or two, put a spare nozzle on the end of the hose, open the nozzle that is now a shut-off valve and go back to work.

We also carry an Elkhart fog nozzle tip for each nozzle that can be screwed onto the ball valve when a fog or very wet foam is needed. The fog tips are kept in the compartments. We do however keep the fog tip on our trash line for car and dumpster fires.


When we want a very dry foam (shaving cream) for exposure protection, the nozzle man removes the 15/16" tip and we flow straight from the open bail of the nozzle. The pump operator also makes adjustments as well. But for dry foam the open bail works best.

On our 2 1/2" pre-connect we use a similar nozzle, 1 3/8" ball valve with an 1 1/4" straight bore tip. This is also a removable tip.

CAFS works best when applied with a straight bore nozzle. A fog nozzle will work, but its strips the bubbles (pops them) and will give you a very wet, runny foam. We use fog nozzles with CAFS for car, brush, rubbish and overhaul.

Hope this helps.

Be safe,

Capt Lou
"Got Foam?"