Thread: Fire Extinguisher

Crazy, but somebody stole the fire extinguisher out of my Superleggera while it was at the dealer. They tossed in some other stuff, so I'm looking to pick up a replacement on my own.

Any recommended brands out there? I've heard lots of bad things about dry chemicals, but the cost of some of the Halon systems is about 300% more.

Tx

Kidde makes fire extinguishers around 20-35 dollars 2.5 lb ABC should be fine for a car.


high octane fuel or methanol you would need the Halon system. Halon is better but i would install it with an auto distribution system around 300 dollars.

I have three in my jeep. on each side attached to the roll bar are kidde auto fire ext.
under/infront of my front seat i have a 5 lbs first alert.

keep in mind that a 2.5 lb is only going to help on a very small fire. anything more serious, get the hell out and watch your baby burn, wihtout u in it

#1. Halon or the environmentally "nice" Halatron only.

#2. Hand held bottle, NOT fire system.

#3. 5lb bottle not 2.5lb.

Why?

#1. Halon and Halatron are the least corrosive. Dry chemical extingushers are particularly corrosive to aluminum. I have had the "privilege" of cleaning the aftermath of a halon deployment in one of our F430 Challenge cars and its corrosive enough. If its dry chemical, you're probably better off letting your car burn.

#2. A Fixed Fire suppression system in a road car is a handi cap.

The reason we use them in race cars is because the driver is 6 point belted in, needs to remove the steering, drop the window net and climb over the cage, all with a helmet and hans on (you can't look down). Also, there is an exteral remote trigger for corner marshals to hit incase the driver is unconcious. The negative is, the nozzles are fixed and may not be aimed at the exact point of ignition.

The positive of a hand held bottle in a street car is: you are gonna get out of the car way faster than in a race car, and you can aim the extinguisher exactly where you want to.

#3. Now as for bottle weight. 2.5 lbs is just enough to fool you into thinking you are saving your car, but when the smoke dies down, you see the flames rise again and you squeeze that handle and nothings left, you're probably going to cry.

FYI, before anyone asks, they don't equip exotics with a larger bottle because they take up more interior room, and the 2.5 makes the consumer "feel" like they are prepared.

The End.

We have a Halon in our race cars as well, recommend it but not for your street car. I would get a 5lb and mount in somewhere easy to get to. If you really wanted to be super safe. Mount a fixed system with all nozzles in the engine bay. Put the E switch right on your dash. Then have a extinguisher in the car. Worst case engine ignites, grab the 5lbs and hit the E switch then save what you can while the on board system is going off.