Anyone have a Foam extinguisher Fitted???

Got shown this on Youtube for automatic extinguishers and well the results are interesting.

Volkswagen Engine Fire test.mp4

There is a system we've just had fitted in one of our customers van's which uses a gas that starves the oxygen. It also has an led light system that tells you if the system discharges its self.




This one was fitted by VW aircooled works, And there on there website www.vwaircooledworks.co.uk at £198 delivered or £325 fitted.

Scott ;D

 

Interesting did a search and they all seem to be powder or gas for automatic extinguishers now everywhere


Glad i have a powder one

One thing i do know is if a powder one goes off clean it up as soon as goes corrosive and sets like concrete


£127 for fitting i want that job

 

That includes running a cable down to the front of the bus and fitting the LED display unit.

At the end of the day whats £325 for peace of mind knowing its installed correctly??? when most vans are topping £10k +

And it'll cost you more than that to have your engine removed and refitted after cleaning all of the powder off!!!
Scott.

 

Still only about a hours work to fit.
to be honest i would not bother with little light on the dash to tell me it had gone off i think you will know by the cloud of powder and the engine cutting out.


I have a powder firetec fitted but its no excuses for not maintaining you engine

 

The LED tells you if you've got full compression in the cylinder too, as they can extinguishers can drop pressure. So its not just for when it goes off.

And you won't get a cloud of powder as its gas, although it will stall the engine with it! ;D

 

the ones that work by starving the area of oxygen are usually in confined areas like computer server cabinets etc, in my opinion in a van that has vents supplying fresh oxygen they are not going to be very effective, used to be a nice poisonus gas called halon that tended to kill people lol now novec is common as a replacement.

 

The second one in the video is Gas, And that has no problem, with one side completely open. Can't remember what gas it was. Its on the website.

 

by the way i stock and sell them at work
http://www.firetecpro.com/

 

In the interest of balance, I have some experience of fire systems and of demonstrations, and the way that any demo is carried out is always interesting. I have no affiliation, although I do have a Firetec foam system. It would be very interesting to see what our resident firefighters have to say as well!

Powder: Yes, it's effective but also corrosive and gets everywhere. As far as I understand, if this goes off in your engine bay, it will get in the engine and the engine will need to be rebuilt. I don't know how powder works on a fuel fire and this test is on a simple flame on a cold lump of metal, not with fuel being sprayed from a damaged pipe onto a hot engine / exhaust. This is where the firefighter's actual experience will be interesting.

Gas: Gas starves the fire of oxygen, but does nothing to prevent reignition as it does not cool the fire / components, not does it coat them. The same applies as above - what about fuel spraying onto a hot engine / exhaust? The gas will disipate from the engine bay quite quickly and then what prevents reignition, especially if you open the engine bay and let air in.

Foam: I can see that in the demonstration, the fire isn't put out. I'm not really sure how representative that is, but on the youtube link below, there is a Firetec system and the jet from the system seems to be rather stronger than that in the Firetrace demo video. Unfortunately, there is no video on the Firetec web site to look at to compare demonstration scenarios. I do know that the foam used is designed to prevent re-ignition as it forms a film over unburnt fuel, so I would expect it to be able to prevent re-ignition. Firefighters use foam to tackle fuel fires, so it must be some use. The bone of contention seems to be that the foam system does not provide good enough coverage.

water based system test fire(FIRETEC)

Some comments from Dog would be good here, in the light of the importance of the subject.

 

anyhooo each to their own, just remember if you have a foam one or a powder one it's not advisable to mix them should you have a fire, they work in slightly different ways, i have a firetec foam in the engine and a large foam i carry in the van, i also have a small powder behind my seat that is there incase i get a small dash fire - overkill yes but best be safe than sorry.

 

dog is a firefighter he'll be along sometime to give his input - i'm rusty on it, it's been 13 years since i went on a weeks firefighting course at british aerospace, i'm only up on the server gas ones now.

 

Not sure on the gas one i have only seen them used in sealed spaces i know that the video shows it open on one side but in a bay you also have a big fan sucking air out of the engine bay maybe you could rig the light up to kill the engine as soon as it goes off to help.


I also went for one that has the tube as i did not like the idea of the ones with the glass bit bouncing around and tube can target areas where as the single point one will need quite a fire going to reach it


It is interesting that all the auto fire extinguishers i could find are powder or gas apart from firetec who do the foam

 

Scott you got PM !

 

We had fire training at work last week where we got to play with fire extinguishers on a bin fire fuelled on petrol. Having seen the powder one work it was amazing. In seconds it was out. The foam one was not as good and the foam does not foam as I thought it would. I've also had a foam one go off while fitting it and I was disappointed.

On a personal note I now regret selling my powder one or a foam having seen what I have.

An with regards to the engine rebuild, horses for courses. If it goes off when you have a fire an engine rebuild/clean is the least of your problems. If it goes off by accident, oh well. You know what you'll be doing that weekend

 

that test is absolute crap!!!!!!
the fire hasnt even taken hold, all that is burning is a small amount of exellerant on the fake engine. its not at all realistic. if all engine fires were that small, i'd have a much easier job!

 

But is that not the idea of having one, it deals with a fire before it get a chanch to take hold

 

i dunno matey? i know that foam is the preffered extinguishant on fuel fires - at least that's what they do with planes innit? but i hear what you're saying about the way these foam ones don't seem to "foam up" when they go off in an engine bay - i'm hoping never to find out - but that said it's a bit worrying as i got a foam one!