Had read about the firecharger system in one of my dad's street rod magazines and, needing one, checked it against NASA's CCR.. seems to be ok in terms of the rules, as per NASA's requirements on AFFF systems..

Just wanted to get opinions on this versus the Halon systems..

 

I don't trust it but then, I'm old. I've played with Halon and actually put out fires with it, so I know how it works.

AFFF stands for Aqueous Film-Forming Foam. The stuff comes out of the nozzle as a foam, sticks to surfaces, and is supposed to shut off the chemical reaction of "fire" by sealing it from O2 and taking heat out of the equation. That sounds fine if you are spraying it on pooled fuel but I'm not sure how it would work in the dynamic confines of a car interior.

Old.

K

 

Hey Kirk ...I trust it and have tested it ......as good if not better than Halon. I'm old too....

 

I have it in my racecar (thank Phil!)

I have yet to test it....keeping fingers crossed that I never will.

 

I currently use it in my race car. I choose it over Halon because of a bad experience with Halopn.

A friend of mine had to use 2 bottle of halon trying to extinguish a fire to no success. And a dry chemical put it out without no problem.

I don't know if AFFF works better or not, but I would not use Halon after that experience. If I encounter fire, I have more to worry other than if the extinguisher system will leave a mark on the car.

 

No question that some agents are better in some conditions. If had a fuel-fed engine compartment fire with the hood open, I'd perfer Purple K to Halon, too but my assumption is that we are talking on-board, driver's compartment protection in a unibody car.

K

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Knestis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">No question that some agents are better in some conditions. If had a fuel-fed engine compartment fire with the hood open, I'd perfer Purple K to Halon, too but my assumption is that we are talking on-board, driver's compartment protection in a unibody car.

K</TD></TR></TABLE>

that's the realm I was asking for.. of course the Firecharger system is 2 nozzle, of which one will be under the hood, but the primary concern is the driver's compartment..

it just seemed to me to be a reasonably priced alternative to a halon system($300)..

 

I've got one in the Del Sol, and will be putting others into the other cars. The Pros as I see them are:

1) As good if not more effective than Halon at supressing fires.

2) The unit can be serviced at the track (the refill kits are less than $100 and include the chemical, CO2 cartridge, and rupture disc. Just add water & go), which comes in VERY handy if you have one accidentally discharge (this can happen in the trailer if you don't put BOTH safety pins in while going down the road, or if someone's working in the cockpit and not careful).

3) The tree huggers will appreciate your efforts to protect the Ozone layer.


The only Con I can see is that it does leave quite a mess compared to Halon, but the conditions where car fires happen usually mean there's a pretty big mess anyway.

 

You're going fast....you're on fire...you release the Halon and start stopping...the fire goes out....then fire comes back before you can get stopped and get out.

Scott, who had that happen to a friend...I wouldn't have it.

 

seems that pegasus has the system the cheapest at $300 for the 2.3L system, but doesn't show them as in stock.. anyone heard of any place cheaper, or in stock?

 

Here is a very simple reason why a Halon (or any agent) system my not work. I will preface this by saying that no single agent wil be best in all situations. I will also let you know that I am a paid professional firefighter.

When you think about fire, you can say that it is made up of three sides or a fire triangle. The three are; fuel, heat, oxygen. To support combustion, once the fire has started, you add a fourth side named chemical chain reaction. This is now called the fire tetrahedron. If you deny the fire one or more of these things, the fire will go out. Notice that I said it will go out. I did not say it would stay out. BTW, solids don't burn. Period. Liquids and solids give off flammable vapors. It is actually the vapors that burn.

CO2 puts out fire by denying the fire oxygen. Once the CO2 disapates, if the conditions that allowed fire to start are still there, the fire will reignite. eg If gasoline is still dripping on the hot exhaust, fire could start again. You have fuel (gas), heat, oxygen all present.

Halon puts out fire by denying the fire oxygen & breaking the chemical chain reaction. Once the Halon disapates, if the conditions that allowed fire to start are still there, the fire will reignite.

AFFF puts out a fire by cooling (removing heat), denying oxygen & suppressing the production of flammable vapors (remove fuel). The classis use of AFFF is on a pool of flammable liquid. Cold water (removing heat) is mixed with the AFFF concentrate & gently sprayed onto the flammable liquid. The foam blanket now forms a barrier between the product & the open air (denies oxygen & suppresses the production of flammable vapors). Now, will it work on the verticle surfaces of a car? Actually, it will. Will it work better than Halon? Maybe, it would depend on the circumstances.

Here is another note about a Halon system. My 5lb system came with three nozzles. Should you use all three. I am only using two - engine & passenger compartment. IMHO, a 5lb system can't effectively support three nozzles. In other words, there isn't enough agent to effectively extingish the fire.

Hope that helps some of you decide on what type of system to get.

 

Pegasus does have over 30 of the 2.3 Firecharger systems in stock as of 12-15-04

http://www.pegasusautoracing.com

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mstewar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Had read about the firecharger system in one of my dad's street rod magazines and, needing one, checked it against NASA's CCR.. seems to be ok in terms of the rules, as per NASA's requirements on AFFF systems..

Just wanted to get opinions on this versus the Halon systems..

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just wanted to update this that I just purchased this system(err, got it for Christmas, but yeah)..

Ended up getting one from Apocalypse's dad (a 944 Cup guy), who is starting his own shop apparently.. He beat Pegasus' price by a good bit and had them in stock ready to ship.. If anyone else is looking to get this, I HIGHLY recommend contacting Dave at cup944@aol.com and inquiring..