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Buying Emergency Equipment On Ebay
Purchasing equipment to be used for Firefighting, Rescue, EMS, or Law Enforcement can be very tricky. You may search for Firefighting Boots and find a great deal but when they arrive you find out that they are not NFPA certified. There are many question you should ask and certain bits of information you should know ahead of time before purchasing equipment your life or the lives of others may depend on.
Know the rules: Most departments whether its a volunteer fire department or a city police agency will have a set of guidelines that must be met if you plan on buying your own equipment. It is very easy to get excited when you find an item that you have wanted to get to help you do your job but if you buy it and your department tells you that you cannot use it then you have wasted your money. Another issue is legality. Is it legal for you to own or use this item? Emergency warning equipment such as lights and sirens are great tools when used in a legal and responsible manner and Ebay has amazing deals on these commonly expensive purchases. Be sure to find out if the item you are purchasing is legal to use in your state. For instance, in the state of Vermont fire departments use red lights while police use blue. Volunteer firefighters can get a permit to use red lights and a siren on their personal vehicles. This is not the case in New York. In New York the police use red as well as the fire departments. Volunteers use blue lights. So if you lived in Vermont and bought an item that is blue thinking if they can do it there I can do it here you are wrong! In fact if you use that item you can be arrested!
Know what your looking for: Many organizations follow national standards. Fire/EMS departments use NFPA, businesses use OSHA, etc.... Find out if your department requires you to purchase an item that has been approved for such an organization. For instance, if you are a firefighter and you want to purchase a new helmet your department is probably going to require you have a NFPA approved helmet. Boots, hoods, and gloves are often the ones that create the most problems because many companies make nearly identical items where one is OSHA approved and the other is NFPA approved. This difference is very critical when making a purchase as the OSHA standard equipment lacks a moisture barrier and is not designed to be used in the way the NFPA equipment is.
Know the price of the item if you bought it new: While Ebay is generally much cheaper than purchasing outside, some sellers may actually mark items up because people don't investigate how much an item is actually worth. It is a good idea to know this because you want to get the most for your money, right?
Always ask questions: It is a good idea to create a good correspondence between yourself and the seller. There are many times when the seller can help you out with finding exactly what you are looking for. This is also important so you can find out more details on the item you are looking at. Not everyone writes down every detail about the item for sale which means you may be buying something that you believe is one thing when its something very different.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS READ THE ENTIRE DESCRIPTION!!!: This is EXTREMELY important. I cannot tell you how many times I thought I found an amazing deal on something only to find the seller was being very deceitful by writing a description and hiding the real details where most people don't look. You dont want to spend $200.00 on the box of the item you thought you were buying.
Lightbars: Lightbars's have been around for a long time and you need figure out what it is you plan on using the lightbar for. Halogen bars are fairly reliable and are generally much more affordable than your other options. The downfall to halogen is the drain on your electrical system. The more lights the bigger the drain. While a two rotator mini bar is not going to tax the system, a full size 6 rotator is going to put a very large strain on the system. Also you need to think about your vehicle, measure the roof so you can get an idea of how it will fit. You will look pretty foolish with a lightbar that sticks out 6 inches on either side and I have seen this before! Strobes are the next step up. They are much brighter, usually around 2,000,000 candle power. They also are a little more technical and require a power supply. They are more expensive but provide a lot of warning power. They are not as reliable as halogen but under general use they will last a very long time. Last but certainly not least is LED. Led lighting is the latest in emergency warning technology. Light output is comparable to strobe if not brighter! The newest generation of LED (Generation III) is bright, has the newer optics to create off axis warning, and is usually guaranteed for 100,000 hours.
Other Lighting: Halogen, Strobes, and LED's have found their way into other types of lighting as well. Auxillary warning, usually deck, dash, and grill lighting, has become so advanced it really isn't even necessary to use a lightbar. Strobes and LED's can be hidden everywhere in cars. Halogen for auxillary warning is not a very wise decision because it really doesn't work except for amber or clear lights. Even flashlights have made the leap to LED. Police Duty lights now last much longer with a more pure beam. LED drains less battery power than halogen just like with vehicle warning systems. There are many types of LED flashlights out there, Luxeon bulb flashlights utilize the newer LED technology and you can usually find one that fits your budget, task, and personal preference on ebay. The higher the wattage on LED's the brighter.
Protective Equipment: When you are buying equipment that your life may depend on you really need to invest as much time as possible. Items such as bunker gear or body armor are expensive and require you to know a lot about them before you can make the right purchase. You need to be very careful buying used bunker gear and body armor because both items have a lifespan. Body armor should not be more than 2-3 years old, kevlar and other materials especially the spectra blend deteriorate over time. Many of you I am sure saw the huge recall in body armor last year because of the rapid deterioration of the bulletproof material. Bunker gear is very similar. You may find a great deal on gear that is only 5 years old but you need to ask what condition the gear is in. Questions like: Was this gear used? Was it a busy department or a slow department? Why is the gear being sold? What kind of conditions was this gear used in? These questions work well for most emergency equipment and can save you a lot of headaches if asked before you bid.
Common Searches:
The Deal of a Lifetime
With the proper research and knowledge Ebay is one of the best places to purchase equipment. You can get new items at used prices and used items at very low prices. I hope this guide will help you to make smart purchases and allow you to buy the items to help you protect your community as well as yourself. Remember, the items you buy may not only save your life it may help to save someone elses.
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