Fire Knockout - Anyone used one?

Tim Good

Tim Good

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Has anyone used or seen one of these:

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http://www.fire-knockout.co.uk/index.html

Seems to be a winner in terms of being activated only by flame, relatively low cost compared to other automatic fire systems, maintenance free, simple to install and mobile if you want to move it around the boat.... (i.e. engine bay normally or next to a heater / dehumidifier if boat is left in storage.

Discuss....
 
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Jegs said:
By the time the flames reach it, it may be somewhat late?
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Too late for what? To out the fire out or to prevent damage?

I think the latter is not of concern, you only want to hope it extinguishes the fire and prevents the boat from being a total loss. In a small space like an engine bay it looks as though it should cope well.

I called them and they said it has approval for marine use. Unsure what approval that is though :/
 
Looks good. What's the price?
But... I always start to worry when I see a business proposition which hasn't checked its SPAG.
 
Boats that have a fire extinguisher in the engine room tend to use a CO2 manual system or GTFE or Halotron extinguishers that are automatically triggered by smoke. Water (spray) cannot be used on oil or electrical fires and engine room fires tend to caused by electrical shorting. Powder destroys electrical wires. Thus Fire Knockout won't work on the most common problem - electrical fires and it's best to go with GTFE or Halotron.
 
I don't see why it wouldn't work. They give scant information on the website about how it works but going on what they have said I see no reason why it shouldn't work in an engine room. I suspect that restrictions on water are more to do with electrical safety rather than whether they would effectively put out a fire. I understand that water on hot oil can cause a flash of fire hence the chip-pan advice. My concern is that this device would take rather a long time to deploy and that a conventional automatic system would be more effective both in preventing damage and in controlling a fire before it got out of control.
 
jerrytug said:
its an spelling punctuation and,grammer. I just guessed that, a frazzled English teacher's labour-saving acronym probly..
Don't know about the fire thing, looks a bit tiny to me.
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Oooh, you are a tease.
Yes, it is or was standard GCSE-speak. And there's another FLA for your delectation.
 
KellysEye said:
Boats that have a fire extinguisher in the engine room tend to use a CO2 manual system or GTFE or Halotron extinguishers that are automatically triggered by smoke. Water (spray) cannot be used on oil or electrical fires and engine room fires tend to caused by electrical shorting. Powder destroys electrical wires. Thus Fire Knockout won't work on the most common problem - electrical fires and it's best to go with GTFE or Halotron.
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A sufficiently fine spray is effective against class B (flammable liquids) fires and is a technique used by the Fire Service in fighting them. The major hazard with water on a fire involving live electrical circuitry is to the operator; as this is an automatic device that is not relevant.
 
From what the website says, it appears to be a small foam extinguisher. I'd consider it a useful extra, but would hope to use a conventional extinguisher much earlier than this would activate as such flames could write off the hull even if it didn't immediately breach it. I've had a Halon auto go off in the engine box some years ago when a weld on the exhaust sheared - the resultant heat being suficient without any flame - we'd only just heard the change in exhaust note a few seconds before. The engine stopped due to inhalation of the Halon, no damage done but couldn't restart the engine due to lack of back pressure!

Rob.
 
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