Peter Parry wrote:
d wrote:

Rather a nice Aqueous Film Forming Foam extinguisher which would
originally have been quite expensive.

Thanks - sounds like you know what you're talking about :-)

Presumably the red capsule in the frame is designed to melt in a fire;
[...]
is it otherwise delicate and likely to redecorate my living room if
someone knocks it over on the table it's sitting on?

Depends how far it falls and what on to!

I was actually talking specifically about the red capsule. It makes me
slightly nervous just wedged in there between the vent and the frame;
I'm worried about it either coming out or breaking (or me popping it out
while playing with it, to be honest!)

No servicing is really required other than making sure it is all
clean,-

There's a bit of corrosion on the valve. I'm nervous of doing anything
to it in case I set it off :-) At least until I know how robustly the
capsule is seated, which I can't really find out without dislodging it.

pressure you can do it yourself but you might need to find
someone with some odd bits of pneumatics to find something to fit the
filler port.

I have a mate with an air compressor. He probably doesn't have a wide
range of odd fittings though. I suppose in extremis I could always go
and visit my grandad and reactivate the lathe in his shed[1].

I think in practice I'll just put it back where it came from. The only
problem I could forsee is internal corrosion causing the bottle to let
go one day; you suggest that's unlikely and certainly it looks in good
nick externally. Presumably in the event that that did happen (or it
went off for some other reason) the AFFF isn't going to damage anything
and could just be cleaned up?

Finally, what about mounting angle? Presumably it's meant to be mounted
upside down, hence the label and the head that will spray outwards in
all directions. On the boat, it's mounted horizontally on the deckhead
(ceiling, for the landlubbers :-) ). Would this mean that only half of
the foam would come out, or is there likely to be some kind of dip tube
inside? I could try to mount it vertically, but that would probably put
the head lower than what it was supposed to protect, and an engine in
the way.

Cheers,

Pete

[1] He's offered it to me a couple of times, and while I'd love to play
with it I don't actually have a need, and I certainly don't have the
space. I'll make sure it's hung onto when he passes on though.