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  #55   IP: 24.152.131.155
Old 05-23-2012, 09:17 PM
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ndutton ndutton is offline
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My $0.02

I searched online and found the installation instructions. Essentially this is the same as the old Halon systems with a different smothering gas and as I understand it, there are four things to consider:
  1. As you said, you have to find a place to mount it. I believe it should sense and smother the compartment where a fire is most likely to start, not where it may migrate to. To me this means high in the engine compartment. That is where the fuel is launched out of a closed system (carb) and where the likely ignition source exists. I'm not saying there aren't other places where fumes could collect and ignite but you have to go with the law of averages. You can't count on the system to extinguish a fire in an adjoining compartment. Some smothering agent may find its way there but probably not enough to be effective.
  2. The reason they advise against athwartships horizontal mounting is on one tack the dispersing head will be below the tank and they caution strongly to mount it with the head higher than the tank. I expect the smothering agent is a liquid inside the tank that vaporizes on pressure drop (activation) and they want to be sure you're dispensing vapor rather than liquid in the compartment. Since you say there is no space inside the engine compartment, could it be mounted outside the compartment with only the sensor and dispersing head inside? Maybe camouflage it with a cover of some sort?
  3. For a proper system you must wire the blower through the pressure switch on the unit. They use the switch for the indicator light but have instructions on how to wire the blower through it. Once the agent is dispensed you don't want the blower removing it and ventilating the space with fresh oxygen carrying air.
  4. You might want to take some compartment temperature measurements underway to see what the ambient temperature actually is. The gauge and compartment temps should be very different. Of course, avoid mounting the unit in the vicinity of or above the exhaust hot section. Heat rises.
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Neil
1977 Catalina 30
San Pedro, California
prior boats 1987 Westsail 32, 1970 Catalina 22
Had my hands in a few others
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