Fire Water Pump Hose... NPT and Industrial Pipe Thread the same? and NST?

zeuspaul · Aug 27, 2008

Oxygen Depletion: I have asked the qustion at every opportunity. I attend neighborhood fire safe meetings. Some of my neighbors are involved with various fire councils/boards. The answer is always the same. They say I am not to worry about oxygen depletion in brush fires.

I won't be *in* a brush fire...only near a brush fire. Perhaps 100 ft away. It will be intimidating. Our brush fires are better characterized as *fire storms*.

The brush mask I linked indicates it is for brush fires. Their description is the first time I have seen an indication of hazardous gas from a brush fire. They say they remove it but I don't know what it is. The local fire fighters tell me to protect against particulates.

Aluminized fire suit: Something else to research. The fire fighters have fire shelters (tents) which protect from radiant heat. Their situation would be different than mine. They may find themselves *in* a brush fire. I wil be *near* a brush fire. I have asked the question but don't have an answer yet. Basically how close can one be to a brush fire? 200 ft?? The local answer is get in the house when it gets too hot.

Longer term I'll have a little cave (maybe next year). Even my wife says she'll stick around if we have a cave. It would only be needed for an hour or less. The rest of the time it could double as a wine cellar.

Aluminized radiant heat protection sounds like it might be a good idea if it can be had used at a reasonable price.

Zeuspaul

aczlan · Aug 27, 2008

zeuspaul said:
Aluminized radiant heat protection sounds like it might be a good idea if it can be had used at a reasonable price

there are several sets of used Morning brand Aluminized "Proximity gear" that are going for under under $100.
see items:

120298453915
120298455572
20298460224

Aaron Z

seldridge279 · Oct 17, 2008

zeuspaul said:
I don't think I will get 100 gpm out of the Honda WH20 as I indicated before. I pulled some numbers off a pump graph. 100 gpm *feels* too high. I picked up the pump yesterday. Ill run some discharge tests to see what my real life gpm is. The chart shows about 25 gpm at 60 psi which is near the top end of the graph. There are losses in the hose and nozzle so maybe I'll get 20 gpm?

I paid about $645 for the pump. (it is difficult to find Honda pricing online....the main reason I post the price I paid) The list was somewhere around $730.

I paid $180 for the hose kit. I wanted something I could use right away. The 20 ft suction hose with strainer will be usefull. I am not impressed with 50 ft of cheap *blue* 2 inch discharge. I am going with the recs on this thread and will opt for 1.5 in forestry hose. If the losses aren't too big I may go for 1 inch forestry hose but I don't know how to find out? or a combo 1.5 inch and then 1 inch ala Hotwheels. 1.5 inch seems to be more standard.

I have been looking at nozzles. Schmism..who makes the nozzle you pictured? The handle might be nice to have if your at it for hours at a time.

Hotwheels may cost me some money. Now I am also looking at the Daveys pumps. A sprinkling system on one pump and a more powerful second fire hose pump sounds like a good idea. The second pump will have to be for next year assuming I survive this fire season. It's hard to tell when the fire season starts as it is almost all year.

I think I'll look at increasing the size of my water supply

Zeuspaul

Where did you get the WH-20? I'm looking at setting my place up with additional water supply (5000 gal) with pump and hoses as you have discussed. After the fires in 2007 and then having one just east of me 3 days ago I am somewhat paranoid about the fire issue. I have cleared from 200-400 feet around my house but I still want the option to fight fire if necessary.
A local source for hose, adapters, turnouts, proximity gear, other protective gear etc in San Deigo is Fire Etc. Check out their web site.

zeuspaul · Oct 18, 2008

Although I still like the Honda WH20 I'll probably upgrade to a pump with more dicharge at higher pressures. The WH20 will be used as a back-up or to pump water from a lower resevoir to the higher main 9000 gal water supply.

As per suggestions on this thread I will keep a little water running through the pump at all times. The plan (also suggested on this thread) is to have an outdoor sprinkler system and then leave one of the sprinklers on all the time to make sure the pump isn't damaged. I can't be everywhere at once so the full time sprinkler will be where I am not.

Also under consideration is thermo gel. One of my neighbors used the stuff before an evacuation. Then when he was allowed to return three days later he had a lot of trouble getting the stuff off. Also it is only good for a few hours in advance of the fire. If I hang around for a fire I'll be able to time its use better. I want to use it on and around the propane tank and some other selected areas. It only has a three year shelf life so I don't want too much of the stuff.

I got the WH20 at a local dealer, L & M Power Equipment in Fallbrook. At the time they told me it generally sells out during fire season as do their generators.

Higher Pressure Pumps under consideration
Primo Pumps - Davey Firefighter? Pumps.

The more I look at it the more I think you can protect your property from fire. I do plan on having some sort of fire shelter just in case things get out of control.

Zeuspaul

zeuspaul · May 22, 2010

Update, Phase I is done. It took me over a year but I now have a 7000 gallon resevoir. Now I am installing the pump, foam system, hydrants and the mister/sprinkler system.

The tank is 9.5 ft deep and 13 ft diameter. The walls are 12 inch concrete block. The deeper four feet has a 4 inch inner wall. All done with a mixer.

The pump has been upgraded to a Hale 18 hp capable of 100 gpm at 150 psi. The Honda WH20 will be used as a backup or as a transfer pump if I install more water.

Zeuspaul

charlz · May 22, 2010

Looks nice! Is Phase II the deck and cabana??

For reference on this thread I found this nice thread chart the other day that shows what threads are compatible:

Tampa Rubber and Gasket Co. Inc - THREAD DATA

Helped me figure out the NPSH 1" connectors on the old forestry hose I bought at auction the other day were OK to hook up to NPT on the female end but that I would need NPSH on the male/nozzle end.

zeuspaul · May 22, 2010

Thanks for the reply charlz. There was also some good info on sealing threads in your link. I didn't know stainless on stainless joints were a problem. I have been trying to figure out dissimilar metal issues when connecting to the pump. I am going from steel to brass to stainless (flex discharge) and back to brass. I am using a Bostik anti seize pipe compound.
http://www.bostik-us.com/files/tdsfiles/NSPipeComp.pdf

Another good source for thread info is JM Ellsworth Fire Equipment. Also a good source for adapters.
http://www.jmefireequipment.com/thread.pdf I purchased quick couplings for the two inch suction line and a few NH to IPT adapters there.

Tank Construction...

I was able to remove a little dirt with the box blade. Then most of the digging with an electric jack hammer and the front loader to move away the spoils. 5/8 vertical rebar in every hole. A Harbor Freight pipe bender ($70) mounted to the bucket was used to bend the rebar.

Zeuspaul

Nevada Willis · Jul 11, 2012

The two inch "blue" utility hose will provide some pretty good protection if used with the correct nozzle. The issue you will have is with the smaller gasoline pumps. All hose suffers friction loss and the smaller pumps have limited capacity, so the amount of hose (distance) you can use is limited to about 75 feet or so to maintain a really solid nozzle throw. We use a 1-1/2 inch 65 GPM combination straight stream - fog nozzle on a 2 inch to 1-1/2inch reducer on our 2 inch "blue" line for our large animal emergency response team. You can move enough water to bore a hole in hard ground with the nozzle while pumping from the tank or at draft. We used it one time to blast mud off a city road. The same setup is very useful around the ranch. Hope this info is helpful. Willis