Hose testing is one of the main services offered by Waterway, Inc. Established in 1989, Waterway is now substantially the largest fire-hose testing company in the USA. Through its network of Co-ops across the country, Waterway tests millions of feet of fire hose for thousands of fire departments, factories, military bases and plants throughout the USA.
NFPA 1962 2018 regulates the procedures for testing fire hose, at Waterway we make sure that we are up to date on all regulations regarding these procedures. For instance in Chapter 4 Section 1.2 it states "Hose that is in service shall be service tested as specified in Section 4.8 at least annually".
The benefits of outsourcing fire-hose testing are:
- Professional, highly skilled, fully trained Fire Department hose testing personnel who do this 'every day'.
- Modern state of the art equipment which uses annually calibrated gauges (virtually NO fire departments have their gauges re-calibrated annually, rendering the 'in house' test invalid per NFPA)
- Crews are capable of testing more hose, more quickly than 'in house'
- Provide independent, third party test records.
- Reduce liability for fire chiefs.
- Removes the burden of testing from over-pressed volunteer fire-fighters who already have sufficient drills and training obligations.
- It's safer. Professional third party testers know what they are doing. 'In house' testing can give rise to serious injury.
The reason Waterway is the optimal choice for a fire department, factory, plant or government facility:
- We are the largest and most experienced operation of its kind in the USA testing literally millions of feet for thousands of fire departments throughout the Eastern Seaboard, South, Texas and Mid-West States through our 14 owner operator franchisees.
- Each location is owned and operated by a local fireman.
- Because of the nature of our Co-op system, our testing services are local so fire departments can get quicker response than from any other national testing service provider.
- On average, We can test twice as much footage of fire- hose as anyone else in a day. This is important when fire departments want their apparatus out of service for as short a time as possible.
- We are ISO 9001 certified--and the only company in the field to be so. This guarantees excellence of customer service and the highest operating standards, which are audited annually.
- Our network means that new ideas and systems are communicated immediately to each other.
- We provide on line test results for 24/7 fire department accesses.