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Fire Extinguisher Basics..
There’s nothing worse than watching your investment burn to the ground in front of you with no chance of saving it. After being in the fire service for 32 years I can still see the look on people’s faces as they lose all they own. Since we all have a significant amount of money and sweat hours in or vehicles I thought that I’d write an article on fire extinguishers.
I’ll tell you up front not all of this is my writing, I’ve pirated it from many sources. When I worked for the city of St. Petersburg (think St. Pete Grand Prix) I ran the pit road fire suppression team for years, since it was an SCCA race in the mid 80s to the current Indycar and sports car format.
There are two main types of fire extinguishers: stored pressure and cartridge-operated. In stored pressure units, the expellant is stored in the same chamber as the firefighting agent itself. Depending on the agent used, different propellants are used. With dry chemical extinguishers, nitrogen is typically used; water and foam extinguishers typically use air. Stored pressure fire extinguishers are the most common type. Cartridge-operated extinguishers contain the expellant gas in a separate cartridge that is punctured prior to discharge, exposing the propellant to the extinguishing agent. This type is not as common, used primarily in areas such as industrial facilities, where they receive higher-than-average use. They have the advantage of simple and prompt recharge, allowing an operator to discharge the extinguisher, recharge it, and return to the fire in a reasonable amount of time. Unlike stored pressure types, these extinguishers use compressed carbon dioxide instead of nitrogen, although nitrogen cartridges are used on low temperature (-60 rated) models. Cartridge operated extinguishers are available in dry chemical and dry powder types in the U.S. and in water, wetting agent, foam, dry chemical (classes ABC and B.C.), and dry powder (class D) types in the rest of the world.
There is no official standard in the United States for the color of fire extinguishers, though they are typically red, except for class D extinguishers which are usually yellow, water and Class K wet chemical extinguishers which are usually silver, and water mist extinguishers which are usually white. Extinguishers are marked with pictograms depicting the types of fires that the extinguisher is approved to fight. In the past, extinguishers were marked with colored geometric symbols, and some extinguishers still use both symbols.
The types of fires and additional standards are described in NFPA 10: Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers, 2010 edition.
Fire extinguishing capacity is rated in accordance with ANSI/UL 711: Rating and Fire Testing of Fire Extinguishers. The ratings are described using numbers preceding the class letter, such as 1-A:10-B:C. The number preceding the A multiplied by 1.25 gives the equivalent extinguishing capability in gallons of water. The number preceding the B indicates the size of fire in square feet that an ordinary user should be able to extinguish. There is no additional rating for class C, as it only indicates that the extinguishing agent will not conduct electricity, and an extinguisher will never have a rating of just C.
FWIW, I much prefer an AFFF extinguisher over anything else, the halons work OK and don't leave a residue but if the object is still hot and their is fuel around it could easily reignite..and often does. The dry chem can work on everything electrical to fuel to magnesium (depending on the type) but are acidic in nature and will cause all sorts of problems with the electrics. While the AFFF can't be used on electrical fire (house current and above) it can be used on vehicle electrical and fuel fires. since it is mostly water the residue can easily be cleaned up and it has the advantage of covering a fuel fire and preventing re ignition.
For everyday use in my garage I keep and old school water extinguisher that you can fill up yourself and charge with an air compressor, except I add a product called Cold Fire..which basically breaks up the water droplets, lets the water soak into upholstery and it also has a positive effect on fuel fires.
Here's the fire extinguisher you are looking for, try to find the older ones with the schrader valve in them so you can fill them from a tire chuck, if you can't you will have to cobb together some adapters to "back fill" it through the nozzle end (it unscrews, just press the handle to open the valve and read the pressure gauge to see when it's full) You can find these extinguishers all over the place in surplus so don't buy a new one...say 25 bucks should do it and don't get the old ones with a riveted seam. I keep one within arm's length whenever I'm welding.
Link:http://www.amazon.com/Kidde-466403-Extinguisher-Gallon-Stainless/dp/B001ECQ5M0
and the additive
link:http://www.coldfiredirect.com/Cold-Fire/?gclid=Cj0KEQiA1eyiBRC-qI2VzKf0vaUBEiQAUiZ3xKtdpHRyiQq2SvIDJjF-MzyLiImhIDnvceKvKwj2zygaAkgW8P8HAQ#
You can also use AFFF in this extinguisher and although AFFF is expensive your local FD can probably let you have some residual out of an open container, you only need about 10-15% for the 2.5 gallon extinguisher..whatever that comes out to, so it's not much, we used to keep all of our extinguishers on pit road exactly like that.
This happens to be the system that I use, please note that it is not FIA compliant so check your rules before buying an extinguishing system. This has all the things that I like AFFF and is rechargeable by the operator.
http://augustamotorsports.biz/firecharger-2-3l-afff-racing-fire-bottle-extinguisher-system/
There’s nothing worse than watching your investment burn to the ground in front of you with no chance of saving it. After being in the fire service for 32 years I can still see the look on people’s faces as they lose all they own. Since we all have a significant amount of money and sweat hours in or vehicles I thought that I’d write an article on fire extinguishers.
I’ll tell you up front not all of this is my writing, I’ve pirated it from many sources. When I worked for the city of St. Petersburg (think St. Pete Grand Prix) I ran the pit road fire suppression team for years, since it was an SCCA race in the mid 80s to the current Indycar and sports car format.
There are two main types of fire extinguishers: stored pressure and cartridge-operated. In stored pressure units, the expellant is stored in the same chamber as the firefighting agent itself. Depending on the agent used, different propellants are used. With dry chemical extinguishers, nitrogen is typically used; water and foam extinguishers typically use air. Stored pressure fire extinguishers are the most common type. Cartridge-operated extinguishers contain the expellant gas in a separate cartridge that is punctured prior to discharge, exposing the propellant to the extinguishing agent. This type is not as common, used primarily in areas such as industrial facilities, where they receive higher-than-average use. They have the advantage of simple and prompt recharge, allowing an operator to discharge the extinguisher, recharge it, and return to the fire in a reasonable amount of time. Unlike stored pressure types, these extinguishers use compressed carbon dioxide instead of nitrogen, although nitrogen cartridges are used on low temperature (-60 rated) models. Cartridge operated extinguishers are available in dry chemical and dry powder types in the U.S. and in water, wetting agent, foam, dry chemical (classes ABC and B.C.), and dry powder (class D) types in the rest of the world.
There is no official standard in the United States for the color of fire extinguishers, though they are typically red, except for class D extinguishers which are usually yellow, water and Class K wet chemical extinguishers which are usually silver, and water mist extinguishers which are usually white. Extinguishers are marked with pictograms depicting the types of fires that the extinguisher is approved to fight. In the past, extinguishers were marked with colored geometric symbols, and some extinguishers still use both symbols.
The types of fires and additional standards are described in NFPA 10: Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers, 2010 edition.
Fire extinguishing capacity is rated in accordance with ANSI/UL 711: Rating and Fire Testing of Fire Extinguishers. The ratings are described using numbers preceding the class letter, such as 1-A:10-B:C. The number preceding the A multiplied by 1.25 gives the equivalent extinguishing capability in gallons of water. The number preceding the B indicates the size of fire in square feet that an ordinary user should be able to extinguish. There is no additional rating for class C, as it only indicates that the extinguishing agent will not conduct electricity, and an extinguisher will never have a rating of just C.
FWIW, I much prefer an AFFF extinguisher over anything else, the halons work OK and don't leave a residue but if the object is still hot and their is fuel around it could easily reignite..and often does. The dry chem can work on everything electrical to fuel to magnesium (depending on the type) but are acidic in nature and will cause all sorts of problems with the electrics. While the AFFF can't be used on electrical fire (house current and above) it can be used on vehicle electrical and fuel fires. since it is mostly water the residue can easily be cleaned up and it has the advantage of covering a fuel fire and preventing re ignition.
For everyday use in my garage I keep and old school water extinguisher that you can fill up yourself and charge with an air compressor, except I add a product called Cold Fire..which basically breaks up the water droplets, lets the water soak into upholstery and it also has a positive effect on fuel fires.
Here's the fire extinguisher you are looking for, try to find the older ones with the schrader valve in them so you can fill them from a tire chuck, if you can't you will have to cobb together some adapters to "back fill" it through the nozzle end (it unscrews, just press the handle to open the valve and read the pressure gauge to see when it's full) You can find these extinguishers all over the place in surplus so don't buy a new one...say 25 bucks should do it and don't get the old ones with a riveted seam. I keep one within arm's length whenever I'm welding.
Link:http://www.amazon.com/Kidde-466403-Extinguisher-Gallon-Stainless/dp/B001ECQ5M0
and the additive
link:http://www.coldfiredirect.com/Cold-Fire/?gclid=Cj0KEQiA1eyiBRC-qI2VzKf0vaUBEiQAUiZ3xKtdpHRyiQq2SvIDJjF-MzyLiImhIDnvceKvKwj2zygaAkgW8P8HAQ#
You can also use AFFF in this extinguisher and although AFFF is expensive your local FD can probably let you have some residual out of an open container, you only need about 10-15% for the 2.5 gallon extinguisher..whatever that comes out to, so it's not much, we used to keep all of our extinguishers on pit road exactly like that.
This happens to be the system that I use, please note that it is not FIA compliant so check your rules before buying an extinguishing system. This has all the things that I like AFFF and is rechargeable by the operator.
http://augustamotorsports.biz/firecharger-2-3l-afff-racing-fire-bottle-extinguisher-system/
