ELEMENT Fire Extinguisher

[tvjake2]

Anyone bought or used one of these fire extinguishers? They are certified in Italy, not US, but seem to work fairly well. The size is the really cool thing.

https://www.elementfire.com/shop-s/103.htm

There is a long discussion about them on FerrarChat.


ELE-MNT-SRM-1.jpg

[72tpik5]

As a 308 owner I know how prone our cars are to fire. Old hoses and ethanol rich fuel are a bad combination making carrying a fire extinguisher a must. Unfortunately traditional fire extinguishers are , large, heavy, and pressurized capsules that are not easy to carry around.

Imagine if you will a fire extinguisher that is 80% smaller, 1/10th the weight, discharges for 5 times as long, makes no mess, and never expires. Element is this extinguisher. Using a technology developed for the space program in fixed installations Element is a hand held unit that fights fires by emitting a gas that interrupts the chain of combustion. This results in a totally clean extinguisher that does not rob oxygen and is totally safe and non-toxic.

They certainly sound like the ticket.

[DriftGirl]

I Talked with their reps at SEMA this year..and totally had the E31 in mind. It sounds like a very solid product and just whats needed in our cars. It's also not as "messy" as a normal unit.

I took pix, will post them when i get a free momnet today.

Good product tho

[dukegrad98]

I like the product a lot -- very unique. Somehow I see it being much more useful for a kitchen fire or a welding workshop fire than something like an engine fire, though. In a car, I like the idea of a suppression system that doesn't require me to do anything more than pull a ring or push a button -- having to exit the car, open the hood, and then stand that close to a flaming fuel-rich environment seems less than ideal compared to a remote nozzle under the hood. I'm not going to endanger myself to save something I can replace in a snap.

To be fair, though, I do not have an extinguisher in any of my vehicles. Going back to my kitchen analogy, virtually all cars are easier / cheaper / faster to replace than a home. Should I be so unfortunate as to see one of my cars burning, my only priority will be getting far enough away from it to watch the fire safely. If professionals can extinguish it such that anything is left, that's great -- and if not, it's insured. I do keep two large commercial (5lb or 10lb, I forget) extinguishers in both my barn and my workshop, as well as two large extinguishers at my office. My kitchens have small extinguishers in handy locations for a range or oven fire as the result of experience... A college friend discharged a traditional extinguisher in my apartment while he was cooking, and I will be the first to admit that it made a huge mess -- but the oven fire was quickly handled and no real damage occurred. We spent an hour or two cleaning it all up, and I think the housing dean charged us $25 for a refilled extinguisher.

Cheers, John