FireDos Review

Proportioning foam or gel products for fire protection can be challenging but Thermo Technologies, LLC, a North Dakota-based company, offers fire departments two innovative proportioning systems, called FireDos, to make this job easier and accurate.

FireDos is a proportioning system that can deliver just gel or handle both gel and Class A foam.  FireDos units can either be retrofitted to existing fire apparatus or can be specified to fit new apparatus.

According to Wayne Hepper, the FireDos Product Manager, the system is water-powered, using the apparatus' water flow and requires no outside power. 

The gel-only FireDos system can be retrofitted onto an existing fire apparatus, and is extremely effective for gel proportioning.  Hepper explains the importance of this saying, "You have to make sure that your proportioning is very accurate because with the gel, you'll get a completely different product at 1 1/2% than you will at 2 1/2%."

The system maintains its high proportioning accuracy regardless of flow or pressure, and Hepper says that whether a fire department is flowing the gel through 50' of hose or 5,000' of hose, the system will produce consistent proportioning.

Percentages on the gel-only proportioner can be set at 2%, 1 1/2%, or 1% to change the viscosity of the gel for different applications.

Gel has proven to be a very effective tool in fighting fires in the wildland urban interface.  Hepper says that the advantage of using gel in this type of setting is that firefighters can apply it to a home and then relocate to a safer area.  The wildfire will burn through and the gel will protect the homes.

The second FireDos system can both proportion gel and Class A Foam, and it is better suited to a fire department that is designing a new fire apparatus and wants to include a proportioning system in their specifications. 

The Chino Valley Independent Fire District is one fire department that recently included a FireDos system in the construction of their new fire truck. 

Wayne Hepper says of the combination system, "This unit take the place of any other foam system and gives you the option of being able to proportion gel."

The system features two pumps, one for Class A foam and one for gel.  The Class A foam pump can continuously adjust foam from .1% to 1%.  Because gel proportions heavier, the unit's gel pump is slightly bigger and can proportion between .3% and 3%.

This model of the FireDos system features one water motor, one transmission system and the two pumps, along with a unique disconnect clutch.

Thermo Technologies' FireDos products are manufactured in Frankfurt, Germany, and were designed with the help of Region 5 of the US Forest Service, who now has them installed in several of their fire apparatus.

For more information on FireDos visit www.FireDos.info, and for additional information on the other products offered by Thermo Technologies, including Thermo-Gel and Thermo-Foam, visit www.ThermoTechonologies.info.

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