What's On Your Engine Company #13 - Discharge Adaptors - Be Careful
By President Mark Davis
February 29, 2024
There is nothing worse than trying to dig through a milk crate of adaptors in a back compartment on a rainy night trying to find the 2-1/2" to 5" adaptor. We get that. However, if you choose to carry that adaptor connected to a 2-1/2" or 3" discharge then make sure everyone knows the flow limitations of that discharge. The adapter shown in this photo provides a number of options - awesome, no digging through a milk crate! However, just because the adaptor lets a 5-inch LDH line be connected to the 2-1/2" discharge does not mean we can expect the full-flow capability of the 5-inch LDH. Let's say this is a 1250 gpm pumper and their department carries 5-inch LDH supply line. There is a good chance that on the vast majority of fire incidents throughout the course of a year there never is an issue with flow when connecting the 5-inch LDH supply line to this discharge. But, that one night when they are trying to supply 1000 gpm up the road to the attack engine....well it doesn't work so well because of the flow limitation of the discharge. Remember, it is not really the adaptor's fault....it is the size of the discharge. With the right fittings we can put a 2-1/2" stacked tip nozzle on an 1-1/2" attack line....doesn't mean we will flow 2-1/2" type water.
The adaptor does not make this a high-flow discharge.