Hi Guys

When you operate a dry powder Fire Extinguisher, is it an 'all or nothing' thing where all the Powder comes out when you press the lever

Or can it be operated in Short Bursts as required

 

Controlled discharge I thought??

 

Short bursts as required unless it is an automatically or remote activated system in which case it will discharge fully.
Be aware though that it is like hitting a bag of flour with a cricket bat, crap goes everywhere.
If you use it on an engine fire, shut the engine off first; if the powder is ingested into the engine it will react with the fluids and turn to acid.
Bad acid.

 

PASS.

Pull pin

Aim at base of fire

Squeeze the lever

Sweep from side to side.

Use small burst.


You working on the fuel system?

 

they can be controlled in bursts or full discharge via the grip handle as required,

powder extinguishers are being phased out due to the irritant issue on discharge, they can cause breathing issues due to the powder and chemicals within ,

i would go for a carbon dioxide extinguisher if you thinking of getting one,

i had to use a powder one once when i was welding on my car, the small fire got put out without issue, the cleanup took days......

BB

 

A few mates had been at a car parts sale where people turn up and sell stuff. One mate purchased an old fire extinguisher.... and when they were driving home at a 100km on the back road in an RX7 the dude who purchased the extinguisher sitting in the back thought it would be funny to give the extinguisher a short burst..... Well it was a powder job and did not stop. The inside of the car was instantly white out, zero visibility.

They were lucky that they were on a straight piece of road and the driver just keeped the car straight and braked. Then everyone piled out covered from head to toe in powder.
The dump *** who did the deed thought it was a CO2 extinguisher. I have to say the powder got in to every thing. Stereo was stuffed, the air vents, full, the car was a mess.... took my mate hours and hours to clean it up and he never got it all.
Things we do in our 20's after a few beers!

 

CO2 is useless if you are outside, it just blows away and has no cooling effect.
I did an advanced fire fighting course a couple of years ago and there was no mention of phasing out DP extinguishers then?

Read this.
Other fire services are available.

https://surreyfire.co.uk/types-of-fire-extinguisher/

 

Hi Steve/Duke/Brake Buster/Rescue119/Brinny

Thanks for all your input guys, I'm hoping that I'll never have to use it but if you drive an XJS having a Fire Extinguisher is almost not an option that I would like to consider!

 

A better option for classic car owners is a Halotron extinguisher. It's a clean-agent extinguisher, meaning it puts the fire out by chemically inhibiting the combustion process and without making a huge mess that's potentially more devastating than a small fire. Its similar to the Halon units carried aboard commercial aircraft but its a little heavier and more environmentally friendly. The concept is similar tho, you don't want an extinguisher that could get into the electronics or switchgear and bring down the whole airplane despite putting out a small fire (exemplified by the RX7 story above). One more problem with dry chemical is its relatively inert as long as it remains dry, but if it gets wet (say the fire dept shows up and puts some water on it), it turns corrosive and can damage metals, particularly plated finishes on some of your NOS or freshly restored metal parts. It'd be a shame to put out a $500 wiring harness fire only to have to spend thousands more repairing collateral damage from the powder, not to mention the hours and hours of cleaning.

But you have to know how to use Halotron on a car fire. Buy at least a 2.5lb cylinder, 5 would be better and order one with a short length of hose attached rather than just a fixed nozzle. In the event of an engine fire, don't open the hood all the way or try to aim at the base of the fire. Rather instead, just pop the hood latch, stick the end of the hose far under the hood and empty the whole cylinder into the engine bay, then close it back up. The gas will flood the engine compartment and put out the fire. Then call the fire department before you open the hood in case the source of the ignition is still live/hot as you want them there before you let the extinguishing agent out and fresh oxygen back in. Now here's where you'll really wish you had a Halotron over a dry powder type. In the event of an under dash fire, stick the hose up under the dash and empty the whole cylinder, then if you can, close the doors/windows and call the fire department. If you had dry powder, chances are slim that you could ever spray it directly on the source of an under dash fire or that enough powder would find its way to the burning components. Rather most of it would be diverted right back in your face. Instead, Halotron gas would permeate the entire void and extinguish the fire with no collateral damage.

Halotron is not cheap so I understand not everyone will choose to carry one. Dry powder type would be better than nothing tho.

 

Hi pdupler

That was very interesting but I guess dry powder would be better than having to watch your Car burn down to the ground

 

CO2 extinguishers aren't supposed to cool but displace all oxygen and like that starve the fire...

 

Hi Guys

Just found some Halotron Fire Extinguishers on ebay £150!

 

Then why do you get frost on the discharge nozzle?

 

When you fire the extinguisher, you allow the gas to escape through the nozzle, and as it flows out it expands rapidly, doing work on the surrounding atmosphere in the process. As it does work its internal energy decreases, so it becomes colder.

 

Hi Guys

In the event of an Engine Fire what do you think would happen if you used Freezing Cold Co2 for putting out that Fire, on an Engine which is usually even too Hot to touch!

Cracked Block maybe?

I don't know but maybe someone else does

Also I was looking at a Fire Extinguisher Test on YouTube from 'The King of Random' and they Tested a Chemical Fire Extinguisher but I couldn't manage to get the name although it did the best job in putting out an Oil Fire

 

Exactly this.

 

Hi Daim

So what would be your Weapon of choice for putting out an Engine Fire on an XJS V12

Co2 or Dry Powder?

 

On a ship, we generally have CO2 flooding but not all the time; you can have high expansion foam or similar equivalents.
CO2 flooding will only work if you shut off all ventilation and close the compartment down; this means stopping all fans and closing fire flaps so that the gas remains within the compartment.
You cannot do this on a car so the CO2 will not be guaranteed to work; it may give initial flame knock down but if you still have heat, fuel and oxygen it will reignite.
Ask yourself this; what sort of extinguishing system do race cars have?
If you are not sure, get both but use the CO2 first otherwise it will blow the dry powder away.

 

Hi Steve

That makes sense so Cheers for that, although the way things are going I doubt if I will be taking the Car out at all this year

But it is what it is, so I'll just have to see how things go

 

Bear in mind the added complication with dry powder extinguishers is that when operated once, even if only a tiny amount is used, powder will be behind the ‘seat of the valve’ in the head of the extinguisher & the remainder of the pressurising nitrogen/dry air in the extinguisher is extremely likely to leak away over a few hours, maybe a little while longer. This means that whilst the extinguisher could still contain 95%+ of the original amount of powder, there will be no pressure left in the extinguisher to expel the powder & therefore the extinguisher will not work.

It is much more unusual for the above to happen with CO2 or foam type extinguishers.

Halon or BCF fire extinguishers were much more suitable for car fires (no mess/residue) but they’ve not been available for 20 years or so as the ‘vapourising liquid’ was an Ozone Depletion Agent. Old Halon/BCF small extinguishers are still often seen attached to the bulkheads of commercial passenger aircraft.

Rgds.

A.