Recommend a fire extinguisher?

rickc

Adventurer
phatman's point is very important. Most people have never used a fire extinguisher. They are easy to use but screwing around with one in an emergency (panic!) is not a good time to find out how. As he notes, they empty fast so you need to aim accurately for most effect.

If you have an old one kicking around, make a fire and put it out!
 

Binder Lou

Observer
I had a fellow Scout owner recommend the Fireade 2000 extinguisher. They can be found at www.fireadesource.com. The demos on the site are impressive. It keeps the fire from restarting once out and leaves no powder mess. Has anyone had any experience with these?
 

luk4mud

Explorer
You guys are hard core! I never had to use an extinguisher until I bought my Jeep- used one twice in 3 years now. The little Walmart $15 special has put out an engine compartment fire (not mine) both times.
 

R_Lefebvre

Expedition Leader
I carry around a 10lb, can't remember if it's ABC or BC. It's a basic unit bought at an industrial supply store. Anyway, I was helping to work a car rally, running the start of a spectator stage which was plowed into a field with grandstands. One of the course opening cars ran the stage and came back around to the start line to run again, and when he stopped, I saw fire underneath. The real safety/recovery crew was too busy playing First Responder SuperStar! for the crowd (parked in front of the grandstands with lights on instead of actually sitting where the cars were) so I grabbed my bottle from the back of the truck. I was surprised by how much it had grown in the few seconds it took to run to my truck.

Turns out it was a transmission oil fire. I attacked it from underneath without opening the hood. First squirt didn't quite get it so I hit it again and finished it.

That's something to think about with some of the gaseous extinguishers. Sometimes you want to hit them from the bottom, instead of opening the hood, and I'm not sure how well the halon ones would work like this.
 

Antichrist

Expedition Leader
Halon, etc, will not damage things like dry chemical will. However, dry chemical will be much better at keeping flamable liquids from reigniting.
The only real use for a small underseat extinguisher would be to allow you to get to your real extinguisher if you were blocked by a small fire. Min size should be 5lb. Better yet 10lb, or two 5lb.
Very important to use the extinguisher once or twice in a controlled environment, then get it recharged. You don't want to be trying to sort out how it works while your car is burning.
 

Zaphod

Adventurer
HalGard HG250R. The cheapest price I have found has been at Summit Racing.

Very cool, but I'm :Wow1: at the prices! Still, this is not something you really want to skimp on.

I do have a question, though. I'm going to assume (yeah, I know) that Haltron is a derivative/version/kind of Halon. Wasn't halon banned or somesuch because of the nasty gasses that are produced when it puts out a fire?

Back in the old days (1990's) when I was in the Navy, they trained us that if our main-space Halon systems were ever tripped, that the spaces where the halon killed the fire would afterwards be filled with cyanide gas, and that ventilation prior to entry was critical.

I'm assuming (if I did it once, why not twice?) that this is NOT the case with this stuff...
 

lowenbrau

Explorer
further more, a very short fire can total a vehicle.
I've thought about an under hood/ under body halon/co2 system in plus an ABC in case it keeps going. maybe even tap into my co2 tank. cheap to refill and can hit it if there is any smoke what so ever. what do you guys think?

For what its worth a one lb chemical fire extigusher will also write off a vehicle, even if there is no fire. Insurance companies do not like to repair vecicles that have had corrosive chemicals on the wiring when the wiring controlls things like ABS and airbags. As a result even a BJ40 that has no need for electricity will be written off as a matter of course.

I do like the idea of somehow using your co2 tank. I wonder about concerns of suffocation, though, if there is a leak into the cab, displacing all the o2.
 

Photog

Explorer
For an ABC or a BC extinguisher, which one is the best (say 5 lbs). Some of the valves are just bits of cheap plastic.
 

R_Lefebvre

Expedition Leader
For an ABC or a BC extinguisher, which one is the best (say 5 lbs). Some of the valves are just bits of cheap plastic.

Well, even the cheap plastic ones are going to work. I can't imagine anybody would sell one that doesn't work, too much liability in that. I've got a cheap one that probably has a plastic valve, and it worked just fine.

If you want something blingier... I guess just spend as much as you want.

The Halogen extinguishers, can they put out a fire from underneath? The fire that I put out, I specifically did NOT lift the hood, because I wasn't wearing fire gear, and I know it can make the fire worse, so I hit it from the bottom. The Halogen ones have an advantage of not being corrosive, but isn't it a big disadvantage when you're trying to put out a fire (which is often a liquid fire) and an engine bay that can't conatin gasses.
 

Zaphod

Adventurer
The Halogen extinguishers, can they put out a fire from underneath?

Are we talking Halogen or Halon? I ask because I know the latter is a fire-fighting agent, but I have no idea if the former is.

IF we are talking Halon, then the extinguisher SHOULD work from underneath because what Halon does is break the chemical reaction of the fire. The drawback as I remember it is that you really still need to deal with the heat while the Halon does it's thing. If you clear the Halon off too soon, and the heat is still near the fuel, then you can get a reflash.

Needless to say, if the extinguishers we're talking about use Halogen or if Haltron is something else altogether, then none of what I'm saying has any bearing here. It will be good to find out.
 

R_Lefebvre

Expedition Leader
Sorry, you're right, that should have said Halon. Yes, my understanding is that Halon basically just asphyxiates the fire. Displaces the oxygen, simple as that. The problem I've heard is that when trying to put out a fire in an engine bay, there is nothing to contain the Halon. It just falls out the bottom of the bay, and the fire could just reignite.
 

Photog

Explorer
Well, even the cheap plastic ones are going to work. I can't imagine anybody would sell one that doesn't work, too much liability in that. I've got a cheap one that probably has a plastic valve, and it worked just fine....

The original poster wants to mount it near his feet, under front seat, where the valve could be bumped with a boot. We all mount them in different places. Any of these places can receive an impact from moving gear in/out of vehicle, etc.

I know that the cheap-plastic valves will work, I just don't want it to go off, if I bumped it with a Pelican box, fishing rod, cooler, etc. If it must be "Bling" to be sturdy (like the Halguard), then so be it. Bling it is.

Back to my question: Other than the Halguard, what ABC or BC extinguishers are built as well as the Halguard seems to be built?
 

Zaphod

Adventurer
Sorry, you're right, that should have said Halon. Yes, my understanding is that Halon basically just asphyxiates the fire. Displaces the oxygen, simple as that. The problem I've heard is that when trying to put out a fire in an engine bay, there is nothing to contain the Halon. It just falls out the bottom of the bay, and the fire could just reignite.

Okay, good! I thought I had missed something new since firefighting school! :eek:

I was taight that Halon is not an asphyxiant like Carbon Dioxide, but rather an agent that broke the sides (rather than the points) of the Fire Triangle (some would say it broke the fourth point of the Fire Tetrahedron, but it's the same idea). In other words, Halon prevented the oxygen from binding to the item you want to put out (be it oil, paper, etc.) and therefore killing the fire.

Sadly, this highly-effective agent was banned by the usual suspects for the usual BS reasons, so apparently a whole new area of fire suppressing agents has been developed in the meantime. I can only assume they work in a similar fashion to Halon, or that they combine that ability with asphyxiant ability. Either way, I can only conclude that Haltron is one of these alternatives.

Since it's new (and since I have to run off to a meeting right now and therefore can't look it up), I'm not sure if Haltron needs to sit in a confined area to work. Somehow I doubt it because it's impossible to seal off an engine compartment in a car, and therefore it wouldn't make any sense to market it for automotive hand-held use.

Hopefully someone in the know will be able to educate us.

In the meantime, I'm off to my regularly-scheduled weekly waste of time. :sombrero:
 

ChrisInVT

Adventurer
I have a 5lb ABC dry chemical extinguisher in the cab of my truck, got it from Wal-Fart for about $30. I don't like the idea of dry chemical in my engine bay if I have to put out a fire, but I prefer that to a molten chunk of metal.

Only thing I've ever worried about is the temperatures inside the cab. Like tonight for example, it's supposed to be about -30* out; but during the summer with the windows rolled up it can be well over 200* in the cab. Kinda makes me worry sometimes.
 

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