fire extinguisher risk

[chuzzlewit]

As instructed by my boat insurance people, I fitted a 1kg automatic , Fireblitz, "clean" fire extinguisher over my diesel engine to replace the solid powder extinguisher. Looking by chance more closely at the nozzle, I saw that it was in fact sealed with a screw-on metal cap, rather like the cap that is unscrewed when you inflate a tyre. I read through the fitting instructions again. No mention of any cap.
Thank goodness for spectacles.

 

[davidwf]

Looing at the picture on their website I don't think the gas comes out of the valve where the type cap is, it comes out from the base of the glass thing ( Forgotten its name) and is then deflected all around when it hits the round disperser at the bottom / top in picture .

http://www.firemart.co.uk/1kg-automatic-clean-agent-fire-extinguisher

 

[prv]

Is it possible that the cap actually has very small, almost invisible holes in it? If it's one of their new high-tech "water mist" ones then I'd say this is highly likely. Alternatively, perhaps the cap is designed to pop off when the pressure is released - like the plastic strapping around liferafts which people sometimes erroneously remove.

Might be worth contacting them to ask? I think they're a fairly small company, when I emailed with a simple query the MD phoned me back for an in-depth discussion of what I needed and how best to use them.

Pete

 

[prv]

Looing at the picture on their website I don't think the gas comes out of the valve where the type cap is

Ah, right - thanks for the picture.

Yep, Chuzzlewit has just removed the dust cover from the gas filling port

The outlet is, as you say, under the yellowish capsule. My old AFFF one worked like that too, and you see the same capsules in the nozzles of building sprinkler systems. When the capsule melts or breaks, the extinguishing agent rushes out from the hole it was formerly blocking.

Pete

 

[chuzzlewit]

Thanks everybody: I shall now screw the cap back on!

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Lovely.
This site can be so helpful at times.