Hot Rods fire extinguishers

Hey these Element extinguishers really sound like the cat's meow, anyone got any experience or new info?

 

Also doesn't leave a sharp edge to abraid the inside of the hose.

 

Just changed all mine, all were hard and brittle

 

We had one of my students extremely nice 74 Cougar burn to the ground behind the high school auto shop when he came back from lunch with the car on fire because his cheap skate father had cut the power steering pressure hose in two where it had had a pin hole leak the day before and put a short piece of steel tubing in it with a pair of hose clamps. It isn't only fuel that causes a fire.

I'm going to have to check the Halon thing out as they will put out a fire just by shooting it under the engine compartment or though the grill most of the time.

 

I have several Halon fire extinguisher handy around in my shop , just in case.
Vic

 

Halon/Halotron is not designed for putting these fires out in open spaces and are primarily for electrical fires. I have a couple of good fire fighter friends who I asked about this exact thing. I just got my car done and while researching I came across this thread. They said Dry Chem, and carry 2 if you can, a larger one in the trunk and a smaller in the cab within arm's reach. They said they have seen to many car fires not put out by the small ones. Do what you want of course but I'm taking the word of guys who do this for a living. P.S. Element ones are a joke, do your research, I've seen them in person.

Side note they mentioned. Turn the bottle once in a while so the powder doesn't become a hard cake. And replace or have them inspected when needed. Proper maintenance as said on the car is also the biggest preventative measure. Could always buy new and rotate them from the car to the shop/garage. They will still work, just without the umph they had new (loose pressure).

 

I have to disagree on that one. Back in the 90's when they took all the Halon extinguishers out of places of business my boss gave me one that we had in the plant. I carried it in my daily driver truck and a couple of years later when my then work truck had an engine fire one shot of that Halon out in the open put the fire out. They don't have to spray directly on the fire, as the Halon cuts out the oxygen getting to the flames.

 

Just because it put the fire out doesn't mean that's its intended use or what it was designed use was for. I agree it can be used for that, but from the recommendations I've received from professionals, I'll stick with dry chem. I guess one could spend 300 on one instead of 20 bucks for a dry chem if you got deep pockets. I guess the bottom line is if you got 300 bucks to "burn" go with the Halon/Halotron ones, if you don't, then a 20 dollar one is best. I'd sure hate to use my Halon to put out a random strangers car, if they didn't pay for it.

 

I have two of these Elements, pricy but worth it!

Also, years ago I was involved in testing Halon fire extinguisher systems in armored vehicles. We fired bazooka rounds directly into the side of a M113 where the gas tank was, igniting the fuel which the Halon put out immediately. We had vacuum cylinders with solenoid valves that opened and sampled the interior air. Results? The Halon saved the M113 but the occupants did not make it.

 

Coolest one I own , frame down tube on the old cocktail shaker

 

Dry chem fire extinguishers work in two ways. Spraying sodium bicarbonate on a fire causes a reduction reaction that changes the bicarb into sodium carbonate and releases carbon dioxide. The carbonate helps to smother the fire like a blanket and the carbon dioxide further smothers it. Dry chem may be messy but very effective when sprayed at the base of a fire. Halon has its place but not out in the open where it can be blown away by the wind. Once it dissipates there is the risk of reignition because nothing is left behind that deters it.

I've had to use a dry chem when a distributor gear pin sheared off and the engine backfired through an Edelbrock Pro Flo, turning it into a flaming mess. One shot from the extinguisher and it was out. A tow, new pin, carb cleanup/rebuild and I was back on the road. Didn't even scorch the paint!

 

Right or wrong I have Halon fire extinguishers I get from Speedway inside several of my cars. Expensive but handy when needed.

 

Dry powder extinguisher is what a car needs, halon for electrical fires inside.

 

The SPECIALTY VEHICLE ASSOCIATON OF BRITISH COLUMBIA is lobbying for a high octane no ethanol fuel at the pumps. Fuel lines are not friends of ethanol.

 

Research PurpleK dry chemical , all of the liquid pipeline trucks I worked on had them . They will extinguish burning metals .

 

Interesting stuff! Same idea as bicarb but looks like double the effectiveness using potassium. My only concern would be this (quote from wikipedia):

From experience I can say that sodium bicarb is an easy cleanup. I can see where this stuff would be ideal for fighting a fire from the pov that is HAS to be out asap. Thanks for posting that!

 

Hello,

There was another earlier thread about the latest in fire suppressants. No more white snow all over everything and the fire goes out just as fast, if not faster. No fire, no residue for clean up like the common red cannisters we see everywhere… what is not to like? In comparing an all white burned out interior left overs plus a massive amount of white residue on the 671 SBC motor, of our 40 Willys accident, in comparison, it was an easy answer.

As our 40 Willys was wedged into the chain linked fence at Lion’s Dragstrip, it was on fire inside of the cab and spread to the motor. The nearby return road racers + some fast thinking spectators ran to the burning Willys Coupe with large red extinguishers. By the time it took for Atts Ono and I in the 58 Impala could go down the dragstrip to the burning Willys Coupe, there were multiple large red cans spread out over the ground next to the still burning race car.

The fire was intense and we both grabbed two more red cans spraying all we could. We all thought my brother was still inside. now, more racers, the emergency crew and others were using their own cans to spray on the fire. To no avail. I was told to go back to the area just past the finish line and that is where my brother was being put into the white Pontiac ambulance by our friend, Mr. Childers.

The author of the well written Lion's Dragstrip coffee table book told me in person that he was in the spectator stands as a young college kid with his friends watching our races all day. He was aghast at how much damage the fire did on that last run past where they were sitting in the stands and crashed just past their seats.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...us-artwork-automotive-related.1212188/page-14

Jnaki

So, with new technology being brought out recently, the Element Fire Extinguisher is now in our hands and garage.
@kabinenroller has a good looking set up, the built in clip is easy to pull out any time.

“My wife now knows what to do if she needs the Element Extinguisher in our garage, in case I am not around. But, for our fire zone insurance purposes, a regular white powder red cannister extinguisher was also mounted in the same area. (in So Cal and elsewhere, we are close to the brush. So, the insurance companies can raise insurance costs because of it) Not that we would ever use/need it.”

Emergency shut off center in the easy access corner of our garage.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ew-under-the-sun.1223197/page-4#post-14183741

Hope we never have to use any extinguisher in our garage or anywhere else. But, at least, the small flare size tube gives us some protection, without any white residue. There is also one in each of our daily drivers, too.

Note 2:

When we came back the next day and trailered the 40 Willys Coupe to Atts Ono’s house, the red primer stood out due to the whole interior being totally black with white all over everything. Plus, the motor was now coated in white residue. It did clean up after a bunch of detailed work. It was amazing that the stack of large red cans were used, but the fire had to just burn itself out around 11:30 pm. Everyone was gone, except for the security guards and Atts Ono doing the best he could. YRMV









Note: We also have ceiling fire sprinklers in the garage and whole house for back up. It all helps in the long run... We did have to upgrade the sprinkler heads when we moved in 20+ years ago. If we sold it today, perhaps the new occupants would have to upgrade, again. But, we are covered in the garage.