Element: New type of fire extinguisher - must have in every car
 

Cross posted from OT:
https://rennlist.com/forums/off-topi...inguisher.html

I could see keeping one in each door pocket, and several around the house / shop.

If you think these are expensive, consider a 10lb ABC class is $80+ and a 13lb Halon is over $600. If this does as advertised, it will handily out perform both!

The video is hood open...with a small volume of fuel it would appear.

-never- open the hood with an engine, much less fuel fire, unless you have say, a halligan tool handy. You wont like gluing your molten clothing to your body.

I have had vehicle fire response training..so not entirely out my arse. Seat and dash fires are hard to douse with water, I wonder how useful this could be for those (once the power is cut),,,they're just hard to aim at. This looks easy to do that.

Looks useful for garage, or other uses where you wont be inviting flames onto yourself, to get to the flames. I like how long it lasts!

That is very intriguing. The form factor is great. Never having had to put out a fire of any kind (knock on wood) the only question I would have is would you be able to get close enough with these? Seems like a conventional extinguisher has a much longer range that you can hit the fire with and and then walk it in as it starts to extinguish.

Oh and btw, these are not expensive at all. In fact I was surprised how affordable they are.

So, honest question: What SHOULD you do with some sort of engine fire in your car? With this, or any small vehicle fire extinguisher? If you can't put it out, I'm not too worried about fires anywhere else...

Looks good, was going to get another Halguard, need to re-think that now.
Do you think this new type would be approved for the Track?

As for putting out engine fires, I'd start with hood closed, spray under the car, fight it from below, this new type should be good for that.
Just MO, I'm not a firefighter, but have seen demos on how to do it., main issue is we panic, and pop the hood to see whats going on and WOSH now you added more O2!!!

Dave K

If you have a bonnet fire, a LONG bar to bend up the edge of the hood, and drown it with mountains of water. Ive seen the normal joe track day kid leave on a helicopter doing this to 'save it' Lost the car, probly lots of his chest and arm skin too. Helmet saved his face, but still lost a bunch of hair (visor was up). An electrical fire is easier to put out by snuffing it, no vapor pool to light back up.

https://www.firerescue1.com/fire-att...artment-fires/

Opening the hood is pulling the flame front right towards you via the airflow of opening the hood, a new flame exit, and a nice oxygen source...or grab the saw, cut a square out, same..drown it.

This would work well to starve a materials fire, but a true fuel/liquid (vapor) fire will flare back up once it gets O2 again..this isnt cooling it.

Ask Van how good dousing a liquid/vapor fire is with a stack of extinguishers.


This product might be really good at something else. Anything HOT that you with with a dry chem unit, is junk. Maybe this wont destroy parts that way too.

Seems worth having in the trunk.

Holy sh!t; if doing all of that, I'd just let it burn. That completely destroys the car anyway.

I would agree - don't open the hood - too risky!
However there are options, and not too expensive to implement if you are going to install a good extinguisher anyway (e.g. Halon, CO2, Halotron).

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-system-2.html

Still installed - never used - but ready if it is ever needed...

Alan

Best thing you can do is make sure your fuel system lines are refreshed every 15 years. Same goes for seals around the o-rings on the injectors as well.

Don't forget the PS pressure line too. That is easily a top contender for 928s going up in smoke.

Mitigate the risk as much as possible so you don't have to worry about it. I personally still run with 2 10# dry chem extinguishers in my cars at all times, just in case I or somebody else may need it.

Next thing I want to do is install a halon system in the 81 with 2 ports in the engine bay and one in place of a CO test port to put out a cat fire should that ever happen.

Have you ever seen the mess dry chem extinguishers leave behind? - you are basically putting the fire out* but wrecking the car. These are fine for use on someone else's car - for the 928 get something much better

*Maybe - they don't actually work so great if you can't hit the source of the fire

That is what I posted about, don't forget that a fully plumbed system is a one trick pony. For maximum flexibility a hybrid of engine bay plumbing & a quick attachment method to a portable extinguisher with a flexible nozzle lets you attack fires in the car interior, CE panel, at the battery, under the car or in others' cars. Cat fires aren't at all likely in cars that have fuel cutoff systems in case a plug isn't firing (e.g. the 928 ignition monitoring system - for the years so equipped). If you also plumb a little halon to the air intake box you can use the large air pump under the hood to get plenty of halon directly into the cats via the big pipes (you'd have to use the starter).

Halon => big fire almost instantly out. Stunningly effective - just hard to believe! and no residue, safe for electronics

Alan

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...44b6229835.jpg
We did not open the hood until the fire was out. The foam you see was to put out the fire under the car as the airbox had melted and was a lump of burning plastic.

That's very cool! And I can envision several places I'd put one.

However, I've had a couple of fires that I'm not convinced that I would have wanted to be that close to.....and I've used Halon enough to know that it will always be the first thing I'd grab, if available.

Ya think?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...5f72823800.jpg

:p

Exactly! :thumbup: But..:mad:

Randy - What did it take to clean all that up?

Really my point is - if you are going to buy a Halon/Halotron/CO2 extinguisher anyway - adding the plumbing to the engine compartment is cheap - even if not not super easy.

The engine bay/bulkhead install part is easy - the hard part is getting to the drivers footwell. I created a new pass through and sealed it well in & out from behind the drivers side wheel liner in the fender area. But I wonder if the existing grommet under the wiper motor could be used - it would be tight - but it's in a good location for this. If I were doing it again - I'd try that.

In a more minimal case (I considered this first) - provide a hose from the grill area into the engine compartment, e.g. maybe go from the grill into the fender then re-enter the engine compartment as a jet /nozzle mounted flush on the fender wall somewhere behind the radiator (maybe even one per side). Ensure you can engage your extinguisher nozzle into the hose(s) end. Now you'd need a gas extinguisher (Halon/CO2 etc) for this - it wouldn't work for dry powder (would just clog up). But this is relatively easy to implement.

Alan