engine room extinguisher - mid cabin

[BobCT]

I have the original Fire-Boy Halon unit in my mid cabin. I checked with the manufacturer and they told me that as long as it's within the specified weight (+/- an ounce or two) that it should be fine. I thought it would be a good idea to add an add'l unit as a back-up. If both go off, that's ok with me.

I picked up one while in Fla and it's physically the same size as the factory unit and rated for 125 cubic feet. Rough numbers in my head, it seems to me the mid cabin engine room is a lot bigger than that. 3'Hx12'Lx12'W = 432 cubic feet?

Todd, since your engine room is empty, can you post a ballpark cubic foot engine room measurement? I know my rough measurements are off but not by that much. Were the factory units undersized?

Bob

[Mike Kulp]

I would guess those measurements are pretty close you have to figure your engine room is full of equipment that take up volume ( engines, generator, fuel tanks ) also it may be the difference in the Halon itself. My insurance company would not reinsure me until I had my system certified and since it had the old Halon they would not service it so I installed a second unit.

[BobCT]

Mike... good point, it's not an empty room! The engines alone consume a lot of the space, I didn't even think of that. Insurance aside, Fire-boy told me to take the unit to a Post Office every year and get it weighed. Mine is either spot on or off an ounce which is well within spec. The weight is printed on the label.

The general concensus seems to be if it's full, it'll work regardless of the age. I'll let you know if that turns out to be true

Bob

[Big D]

This might help. They have a worksheet you can use to calculate the volume you should be choosing the correct size system for. Click on "Engine Room Volume Worksheet." One for complex or simple hulls.
http://www.fireboy-xintex.com/manuals.htm

[tsawyer]

I had mine serviced a year ago or so. The tank was fine but the guy seemed to think it should be bigger.

I assumed it was original equipment and that Trojan knew what they were doing. I did learn that if it goes off, I should not open the hatches so I don't add oxygen to the fire. I did buy several large extra extinguishers to use if the below deck system doesn't do it.

If i did have a fire, I wonder how how long I could wait before I open the hatch to see what's going on down there. I think it would be really hard to stand there knowing there could be fire down there with all the fuel etc and not open the hatch.

I damn sure hope I never need to deal with that!

Tom

[larryeddington]

Holy Molly I would not trust the post office, those crazy fools might confiscate as some kind of hazardous material as they did to Prowlerfish and I, and the package was just some old controls.

[yorklyn]

I'll measure it tomorrow Bob. I'll be down the shop in the morning.

Todd

[yorklyn]

Bob, sorry but I got sidetracked today. I will get you dimensions tomorrow.
Todd

[yorklyn]

11'4" beam across top of stringers by the rear exhaust ports, 11'2" beam accross top of stringers at the front of the gas tanks, 10'1" from stern to forward bulkhead, height at keel to underside of floor 43", height at upperside of main stringers 39", height at upper side of outermost stringer 31".

I would feel comfortable using 11x10x3= 330. Round up to 350 for safety then subtract tanks and engines.

[BobCT]

Todd,

Thanks for that, my off the cuff measurements weren't too far off. I'm going to check the original Halon and see if I can find a sq footage rating. The one is just bought is the same size and rated for 125 cubic feet.

Bob

[yorklyn]

I may have the origional sheet in my file, I'll check and let you know.

[aweimer]

I would feel comfortable using 11x10x3= 330. Round up to 350 for safety then subtract tanks and engines.

I don't have a system in my 1975, but did call and talk to a fireboy tech. You measure teh space and do this cacluation and buy the unit that size, do not remove volume for engines and tanks. That is what they said, but i guess they could be making a sale too. Just a comment.

Good luck.

[Big D]

I would feel comfortable using 11x10x3= 330. Round up to 350 for safety then subtract tanks and engines.

I don't have a system in my 1975, but did call and talk to a fireboy tech. You measure teh space and do this cacluation and buy the unit that size, do not remove volume for engines and tanks. That is what they said, but i guess they could be making a sale too. Just a comment.

Good luck.

Aaron, they are right in what they told you about the engines but not the tanks unless specs have changed or you want to include a better safety margin. You must NOT remove the engine volume from the equation per ABYC standards. The only volume you're allowed to remove from the equation is that of fixed tanks such as water, waste and fuel. This is clearly stated in their worksheet to calculate volume and is why I noted the link in my post earlier....if you want to adhere to ABYC standards, but what do they know?