Sea-fire Automatic fire extinguisher

Scubadoo said:
Remember to notify your boat insurance when the fire suppression system has been removed for service to prevent invaliditing your policy.
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Removing the fire suppression will not invalidate the entire policy.
It can only invalidate a relevant claim due to a engine bay fire.
 
I was fortunate that my engineer had a spare similar sized cylinder which was fitted whilst awaiting mine being serviced. I did inform insurers and certainly would not have used the boat without the extinguisher system being active.
Will be interesting to hear of current turn around time
cheers
Tetleys
 
Similar to the OP , i checked my sea-fire gauge just before Christmas ,the needle had moved close to but not onto the red zone.
As it is 15 years old i thought that i would get it serviced and i contacted my local seafire agent,I'm not in the UK so i can't go direct to seafire . They told me that the cylinders had a recommended service life of 10 years and that seafire now use NOVEC gas instead of FM200 and that it would be best to replace it.
Also there are 2 different series of cylinder, FG and FD . Only the FD series can be refilled and as luck would have it i have the FG one.
They are very expensive , I'm looking at the NFD225 and it's € 1700 compared to an automatic dry powder for the same volume at €105 .
I didn't realize that temp could effect the pressure gauge so i will check it again when lockdown lifts and i may leave it a bit longer to replace .
 
Fredd said:
Similar to the OP , i checked my sea-fire gauge just before Christmas ,the needle had moved close to but not onto the red zone.
As it is 15 years old i thought that i would get it serviced and i contacted my local seafire agent,I'm not in the UK so i can't go direct to seafire . They told me that the cylinders had a recommended service life of 10 years and that seafire now use NOVEC gas instead of FM200 and that it would be best to replace it.
Also there are 2 different series of cylinder, FG and FD . Only the FD series can be refilled and as luck would have it i have the FG one.
They are very expensive , I'm looking at the NFD225 and it's € 1700 compared to an automatic dry powder for the same volume at €105 .
I didn't realize that temp could effect the pressure gauge so i will check it again when lockdown lifts and i may leave it a bit longer to replace .
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The key difference with a gaseous drench fire extinguisher and dry powder is the the former will likely put the fire out ! Dry powder only works when it smothers the base of the fire, whereas gaseous drench HFC envelopes and pyrolises around the flame, instantly starving it of the oxygen it needs to continue. Reading the datasheet Novec works by removing the heat from the fire.

So the cost comparison between this stuff and Dry powder iis not a realistic one - a bit like comparing a modern fire engine with a 1910 hand drawn fire fire pump. That said it certainly ain't cheap !

I have also looked up the Novec as I had no theard of it before, and see it is a non HFC, and thus has very low Global Warming Potential, and hence is not subject to the F Gas phase down. The 3M blurb does not show an R number, but instead the ASHRAE number FK-5-1-12, but most of the numbers and letterings are trade marks, e.g. FM200 is a trademark for HFC227ea.

Detailed information about Novec here ...

https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/124688O/3m-novec-1230-fire-protection-fluid.pdf
 
Sea-fire gave me a quote of 450 +vat as long as my cylinder is ok,
I'm sending it down next week and we have an initial turn round of 3-4 weeks for the pressure test alone.
my extinguisher is a FD500m. on a targa 44, I would say that is a medium size. (mr rudge must have a big one).
I spoke to my insurance co, and they said; "yes that is fine it will not affect your insurance, (y)Unless you have a fire that could have been prevented with a fire extinguisher" o_O not sure how to take that :unsure: .
 
hullabaloo said:
Sea-fire gave me a quote of 450 +vat as long as my cylinder is ok,
I'm sending it down next week and we have an initial turn round of 3-4 weeks for the pressure test alone.
my extinguisher is a FD500m. on a targa 44, I would say that is a medium size. (mr rudge must have a big one).
I spoke to my insurance co, and they said; "yes that is fine it will not affect your insurance, (y)Unless you have a fire that could have been prevented with a fire extinguisher" o_O not sure how to take that :unsure: .
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You'd be better off asking your insurer to temporarily remove the fire extinguisher clause whilst it's being serviced. Otherwise, you're not properly covered.
 
hullabaloo said:
Sea-fire gave me a quote of 450 +vat as long as my cylinder is ok,
I'm sending it down next week and we have an initial turn round of 3-4 weeks for the pressure test alone.
my extinguisher is a FD500m. on a targa 44, I would say that is a medium size. (mr rudge must have a big one).
I spoke to my insurance co, and they said; "yes that is fine it will not affect your insurance, (y)Unless you have a fire that could have been prevented with a fire extinguisher" o_O not sure how to take that :unsure: .
Click to expand...
That’s good news ,I was going to invite you on ou beer and natter, now I definitely can knowing you can’t come.
 
two years ago my brother had is seafire fd400m, pressure tested and refilled for the extortionate expense of £28 by a local extinguisher company, it was done while he waited, try to find a local company.
 
fred247 said:
two years ago my brother had is seafire fd400m, pressure tested and refilled for the extortionate expense of £28 by a local extinguisher company, it was done while he waited, try to find a local company.
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That is just a topup. What we are talking about is fully emptying the cylinder & a full pressure test on the cylinder at a specialist company, then reassembly & re-filling with FM200.

Always going to cost a few hundred pounds.

Edit: needs doing every 10 years
 
I looked into this a few weeks back and Pete from fireguard services came and had a look ( good guy knows boats ) . I have an FD 300 in engine room and FD 200 in lazarette, it works out that its more expensive to test old cylinders and refill / dispose of old gas ( burn it !? )than to buy new replacements , BUT, i have dual station engine shut down indicators that are now obsolete and 1 green led is out on upper helm ! , so guess what . . . . . . . . i had to go and have a lie down :rolleyes:
 
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