All the racer supply places still sell halon fire systems, and hand-held units,
today.
There is a new product out that is water-based and almost as equipment-friendly.
Much cheaper, but may not be suitable for hand-helds.


On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 06:58:52 GMT, Bruce L. Bergman
wrote:

|On 11 Jan 2004 09:48:36 -0800, jim rozen
|wrote:
|In article , Bruce L. Bergman
|says...
|
| Oh, and a VERY important note: Go get that Halon extinguisher you,
|um, "inherited"... serviced by a professional shop at least every 6
|years, even if you've never used it - they have found that the O-ring
|seals on the discharge nozzle crack from age and leak out the charge,
|so you need to get them replaced before your precious (and expensive)
|gas escapes. "Save the Ozone Layer" and all that bilge... ;-)
|
|OK, but I suspect that if I take it in for service, they cannot
|legally remove the halon and re-install it. So I've been simply
|weighing the extinguisher annually. Here I assume the pressure
|gage on the unit is worse than useless, as the vapor pressure at
|room temperature will be constant as long as there is any liquid
|in the tank.
|
| Balderdash! I The one I have in the office was just hydrotested and
|refilled 4/17/2003, and they didn't ask any questions at all... I
|even bought a new Halon for the Corvair a few years back, it was about
|$50 but they sold it to me. They are discouraging Halon use, and
|taxing it, but it isn't illegal yet...
|
| If you don't believe me, call a local shop and ask them
|"hypothetically" if they can service it for you. The only thing that
|would stop them is if the previous owner engraved their name on it.
|
| And Halon 1211 units have nitrogen for delivery pressurization over
|the liquid Halon contents that has a low vapor pressure, so the tare
|weight and cylinder pressure are both important.
|
|When it no longer meets the spec, I will replace it with either co2
|or dry powder.
|
| You never mentioned a brand or model number... The only thing I
|could see stopping them servicing it is if it is one of the
|Plastic-head "Disposable" units the size of an aerosol can and sold as
|a "kitchen extinguisher" that was made to be one time use only. In
|that case, if it's 1201 inside they can capture the Halon in their big
|tank and recycle it, and give you a credit for the contents. Unless
|you get the fire really early, and inside a confined space like an
|oven, one pound or less of Halon won't go very far.
|
| The important part is to find an extinguisher service facility in
|your area that is set up to work with Halon, they will usually also
|have their own hydrotest cell so they can do it all there.
|
| A lot of small shops and mobile services don't have the gear, they
|farm it out and mark up the prices to cover the shipping.
|
| If you are in Los Angeles, call Pioneer Fire Protection in Van Nuys,
|they do it all in-house and will take good care of your service needs.
|818/785-8571 I take quite a few odd units found at garage sales for
|them to refill, including CO2-cartridge style, Purple-K, Army WWII
|Surplus 2.5# CO2 - but that doesn't get me an exemption from any of
|the safety rules. I've had to scrap a few units for dumb stuff like
|the serial number on the belly band was illegible.
|
| -- Bruce --
|--
|Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
|Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
|5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
|Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

Rex in Fort Worth