Steamer Intake Valves

[arhaney]

We are about to purchase two valves for our 1,000 GPM truck and I would like to make sure that we get what works best for our department. Most (99%) of our operations are drafting from a drop tank or nursing from a 3,200 or 3,500 gallon tanker. We are looking at either butterfly valves or gate valves, I would like to hear from anyone that has used either with positive-negative issues. From what I have seen, piston intake valves don't work well with drafting operations, is that true? Any help would be appreciated!

[hwoods]

MANUAL Butterfly Valves. We use them. We love them. They ALWAYS work. End of story.

[ScottCook]

We've never had a problem drafting through PIVs, and TFT's valve is a nice one.

You might be able to get a bigger waterway cheaper with a butterfly valve.

[ThNozzleman]

MANUAL Butterfly Valves. We use them. We love them. They ALWAYS work. End of story.

Not always. Of course, we run off a hydrant nearly 99.99% of the time. Once, after charging the line, I could not open the butterfly valve on one of our engines. The pressurized water had somehow gotten behind the seal and caused it to swell on both sides of the butterfly valve, seizing it up tight. We now use piston/relief valves, and have had no problem. Recently, in an area where hydrants are sparse, we were forced to draft from a drop tank. We had no problems at all drafting with the new valves, and used it for at least two hours with no interuption.

[waterboy1]

We use 6 inch TFT ball valves with adjustable relief's. We replaced our piston valves with these. They work very well in all situations.

[CaptOldTimer]

Haven't we seen this subjuct in another post?

Why do we need to duplicate everything?

It is like summer re-runs!!



If you are going to draft, you first need to take the attached suction valves off. Be it a piston intake or butterfly and attached the hard sleeve direct to the pump nipple. This way you are sured of no air leaks.

[arhaney]

Captoldtimer, yes it may be posted before, but I don't have all day to look thru a thousand pages of posts. As for removing the valves every time you draft, that defeats the purpose of having valves. I don't want to have to shut down pumping in order to hook up on draft.

[CaptOldTimer]

Originally posted by arhaney
Captoldtimer, yes it may be posted before, but I don't have all day to look thru a thousand pages of posts. As for removing the valves every time you draft, that defeats the purpose of having valves. I don't want to have to shut down pumping in order to hook up on draft.

You are probably right. What do I know.

I was just offering some good sound advice that I learned some 40 years ago when I first starting driving fire pumpers and was taught about drafting and pumper operation. You can and will get air leaks through attached valves to the steamer intake!

[arhaney]

Sorry, Captoldtimer just having a ****er of a day today.
We were using 2.5 hard suction to nurse off of the tanker, but after changing to 1.75 handlines we can't supply enough water. Being a Vol. Fire Dept, we almost always don't have enough people on the fire ground. Our goal is to reduce the manpower needed to hook up the 5" suction by using storz connectors and to eliminate going without water while hooking up the hard suction. Any suggstions?

[waterboy1]

We draft using our TFT with a 5 inch stortz. The trick is to make sure that you have the right stortz gaskets. It does make a difference.

[CaptOldTimer]

Originally posted by arhaney
Sorry, Captoldtimer just having a ****er of a day today.
We were using 2.5 hard suction to nurse off of the tanker, but after changing to 1.75 handlines we can't supply enough water. Being a Vol. Fire Dept, we almost always don't have enough people on the fire ground. Our goal is to reduce the manpower needed to hook up the 5" suction by using storz connectors and to eliminate going without water while hooking up the hard suction. Any suggstions?

If you are going to nurse, I have done this, I find that the scuction need to be tight with good gaskets and you should get an excellent feed from the mobile water supply vehicle. Be sure that the top vents are open, as sometimes damage can occur to the tank.

This may sound strange, but I have drafted throught the 2-1/2" intake using a 4" hard sleeve. You don't get everything the pump can pump, but you do get about 500 gpm. One thing is to be real sure that there isn't any air leaks. Air leaks can prevent a good draft.

It is our policy to remove any keystone or piston intake valves off the steamer intake before we connect a hard sleeve to draft.


Good luck.

[arhaney]

We've been drafting or nursing from a tanker for 15 years now and this is the first time we've had a problem. I like the idea of adapting the large suction hose to the aux. inlet, I'll give it a try. We have vents on all our tankers that stay open all of the time.

[arhaney]

Waterboy1, how hard is it to turn the storz connectors with the suction gasket in place? I talked with the good folkes at TFT today and he expressed that they are a good bit harder to connect. WE are looking at the BIV really closely at this time.

[waterboy1]

We carry stortz spanners on our pump panel, so when we attach our hard suction, we start it by hand, then click it into place with the spanner. Still a lot quicker than spinning threaded fittings. On our soft 5 inch we have the normal gaskets and do not need the spanners to connect, just by hand. Hope this helps