Which fire extinguisher to buy?

[bigblock]

GC8 said:

.......My car has a split chamber 4 litre AFFF system (two nozzles under the bonnet pointing at likely sources and one in the cockpit pointing at my lower body/legs - the 4th is capped but would point at the co-driver if appropriate), along with two hand-held AFFF extinguishers mounted within reach of the driving seat, along with an electrical cut-out. All of that is designed/intended to save me and if I need saving then bks to the car! To put out the sort of fires that we are talking about here I have a 4 kilogramme powder extinguisher secured in the boot, along with the other kit I mentioned: and THATS intended to put out vehicle fires: mine or yours...

That's a lot of fire extiguishers in one vehicle.

What do you drive, a fire engine ?

[adeholder23]

I know this post is long time dead but what about www.f-e-v.co.uk my friend has a plumbed in system in his E30 and its awesome, I am getting a handheld for my MX5 next month.

[grumpy52]

Dry powder (Minnox) if used properly will knock a fire down very quickly , the cause of the fire then needs to be eliminated, a cut off for electrics and fuel would be very useful and can be added so to be unobtrusive and is also a good anti theft device.
Fire caused by a heat source is normally handled by water based extinguishers (foam).
.

[marshal_alan]

speaking as a motorsport marshal, fitting a externally activated electric cut off should be done, get out of car, pull the cable/press button and then think about dealing with the fire or running like fxxx. I have seen race cars wrecked because the driver didnt kill the electrics and have seen mates dive through the flames to hit the cutoff after using a 10kg powder on a fuel fire but as the electrics were still pumping fuel the fire had plenty of nice petrol to burn. Powder does have its issues as previously explained but ask the question; would you rather have something that can be rebuilt or a total wreck?? powder kills fire pretty fast but ideally you want foam to cool the area. that is why in dealing with a race car fire one of us will take a powder and my mate will take a foam. also on the road you wont have a friendly marshal every couple of hundred yards like at the track, if you are lucky you might get fire bridage within 5 minutes but lets be honest, your vehicle will be a blazing wreck in that time. even a 1kg powder might just stop a small fire becoming a big fire, if you can hit the seat of a small fire with a 1kg powder it might even kill it

[hman]

Firetrace

Fogmaker

halon hand held

I fire test lots of kit and these are the ones that work well.

[Slidingpillar]

hman said:

Firetrace

Fogmaker

halon hand held

I fire test lots of kit and these are the ones that work well.

Halon is not, and has been not legal for many years. Works nicely though, I'll not dispute that. I would have preferred to carry an AFFF one in the vintage car, but all the ones I could find were too big. So I carry a dry powder one and hope if I need to use it, I remember to give it a good shake first to un-clump the lumps dry powder goes into.

[bobfett]

Slidingpillar said:

Halon is not, and has been not legal for many years. Works nicely though, I'll not dispute that. I would have preferred to carry an AFFF one in the vintage car, but all the ones I could find were too big. So I carry a dry powder one and hope if I need to use it, I remember to give it a good shake first to un-clump the lumps dry powder goes into.

http://www.firesafetystore.co.uk/fire-extinguishers/afff-foam-fire-extinguishers/ ?

[Slidingpillar]

Well that certainly calls for a session with the tape measure although the available space is pretty small. A Super Sports Aero Morgan is surprisingly narrow and when I looked into the issue before, the currently fitted dry powder extinguisher was the only one that fitted.

[hman]

Slidingpillar said:

hman said:

Firetrace

Fogmaker

halon hand held

I fire test lots of kit and these are the ones that work well.

Halon is not, and has been not legal for many years. Works nicely though, I'll not dispute that. I would have preferred to carry an AFFF one in the vintage car, but all the ones I could find were too big. So I carry a dry powder one and hope if I need to use it, I remember to give it a good shake first to un-clump the lumps dry powder goes into.

I still have one - because it works and there's no such thing as the halon police.

[Fiscracer]

I would use a gas extinguisher rather than foam, especially if it is a fibreglass car. Foam meets racing regs; gas puts the fire out. Sparco, SPA and Lifeline all do them but personally I would use FEV - a British family business and they supply half the F1 teams and WTCC

Search F-E-V, they're near Littlehampton

[Riley Blue]

Why not give the link? http://www.f-e-v.co.uk

[hman]

a proper plumbed in watermist system is the best though - I've tested these and they work much better than foam, powder or gas (halon is good - see above).

Watermist extinguishes the fire by evaporation and steam conversion, it blocks radiant heat through inert and cooled atmosphere, then once the fire is extinguished it cools the metal surfaces to prevent re-ignition.

Fogmaker is a good system (and is fitted to a huge amount of high value vehicles) http://fogmaker.com/