New Fire Extinguisher

[dig255]

I see placing them under water will not stop it from working, it's nice to know it will work on a underwater fire
Ordered 2

[JWA]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

I'm really liking this concept, especially to carry in my Bronco. With all the bouncing around off-road, the agent in a standard fire extinguisher tends to compact in the bottom of the extinguisher, rendering the extinguisher more or less useless when it's most needed.

I wish the Element fire extinguisher holders (e.g. roll bar mount) were more reasonably priced.

Seems to me sometime quite a while ago one of the boating enthusiasts here mentioned the dry agent compaction and suggested from time-to-time turning the entire extinguisher upside down several times to loosen it all up. Heeding this advice my own did seem to be a lump stuck in the bottom, turning it upside down seemed to work well.

Even so in over 10 years of ownership its thankfully never been needed.

Looking at their website the accessories are quite spendy---not sure an improvised alternative couldn't be created working just as well but significantly less money.

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

(cough)...Group Buy...(cough)

Yeah this would be a huge benefit to most of us here, probably no small interest either----I'd be in for two myself.

[Wowbagger]

I am very skeptical about this, for a couple of reasons:
1) the demonstration video doesn't show the most important thing: actually putting out a fire. It would be easy to set up a bunch of paper, wood, rags and such in a fire pit and put it out, so why didn't they do that?
2) Mechanism of operation: our buddy the "fire triangle" tells us we need three things for fire: fuel, oxygen, and heat. You have to interrupt at least one of those to put a fire out. This doesn't magically make flammable things non-flammable, so it's not going after fuel. It would either a) have to decompose in heat in a highly endothermic reaction to absorb the heat, or b) decompose in heat to displace oxygen at the point of combustion (most likely mode of operation). They never really say what the mode of operation is, and they keep underscoring how it "doesn't displace oxygen" (which may be true in the sense that it doesn't displace all the oxygen everywhere, just at the point of combustion).


It also doesn't look like the discharge goes very far - maybe a meter or two. I don't want to be that close to a fire if I can help it (although in the typical concern for this board - a galley fire - you unfortunately will be that close). Even a little five pounder will throw many meters, so for putting out an engine bay fire or a campfire gone wrong I'd rather have the range. Maybe if you struck this and threw it into the fire it might work.


In short, I'd want to buy one and actually test it out on a real fire before i trusted my life to it - an emergency is no time to find out this is all smoke and no fire (extinguishing).

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by Wowbagger

I am very skeptical about this, for a couple of reasons:
1) the demonstration video doesn't show the most important thing: actually putting out a fire. It would be easy to set up a bunch of paper, wood, rags and such in a fire pit and put it out, so why didn't they do that?...

It also doesn't look like the discharge goes very far - ....

A number of additional videos here:

https://elementfire.com/pages/media

and I agree with your comment about the distance of the discharge.


Herb

[Wowbagger]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

A number of additional videos here:

https://elementfire.com/pages/media

and I agree with your comment about the distance of the discharge.


Herb

Thanks for the link - those videos are much better at showing the actual results.


There's also a technical PDF that describes more in detail. I'm not sure I am so warm and fuzzy about this: it's spraying potassium out into the file, with the result being potassium oxide - that's a pretty strong alkali and I'm not sure I'd want it around, but I guess after any fire you need to clean up, so maybe it's not any worse than a normal dry chemical extinguisher.

[1der]

One question I cannot seem to find an answer to:

These are single use? Once activated, they will continue to discharge until depleted?

[snomad]

yes. think of it like a road flare except it puts out fires.

[daveb]

All of these types of extinguishers mostly disrupt the chemical reaction that's considered the 4th leg of the old school 3 sided fire triangle to put the fire out. It's also how Halon & even the old carbon tetrachloride extinguishers work. If the claim that this new flare-type extinguisher helps to keep the fire at bay for 30 min after it fully deployed, that would be an advantage over other types of extinguishers.

What they leave behind is probably better than the powdery dry chemical but yes, I'd want to know what cleanup is necessary if I had to use one inside the van. The video also mentioned being able to breath in and around the vapor/gas but I'd research about what it does. In the smaller enclosed area the size of our vans I'd want to know if it would displace enough of the oxygen to cause asphyxiation and/or the health issues.


I saw a guy at Clear Lake State park lose his camper due to a stove fire. By the time he got to his extinguisher out it didn't do much. Something like this might have saved his vehicle.

[achop]

Seems it needs another accessory, a mount with integrated extension pole, to let you discharge from more than an arms-length away. Maybe with push-botton release, like umbrellas that unfold with a button push. Fabricators? Could do an awesome business amongst RVers.

If I weren't going to be without a stable address for the next few months, I might offer to arrange a group buy. Portable, handy, effective, not destroying the interior of house or van with the discharge, and not needing replace/recharge every 3 years is worth the $$ to me.

[Twoxentrix]

After viewing the first video jwintersteller provided, I was also left with a couple question, but still very intrigued with the product. Decided to reach out Friday afternoon, but ended leaving a detailed voice mail - assumed they already closed for the weekend.
BroncoHauler - Liked your idea about Group Buy, so included that possibility in the message I left. I'll see on Monday if they are receptive.