Re-certifying fire bottles?

[McRat]

I have a Halon and a Coldfire (aqueous foam) system.  One for the engine, one for the driver.

My normal fire guy won't cert either type.  He won't do anything dealing with racing.  (I probably shouldn't have mentioned they were for racing).

Any recommendations on a SoCal shop that will cert the bottles?

[McRat]

Side question:

If I have bottle that meet the minimum, do additional "redundant" bottles on board have to be certified?  ie - If the Halon is used primarily as an emergency engine kill in case of runaway, does it still need a cert?

For those that don't know, diesels can run even after you shut off all the fuel supply and power.  If the turbo seal fails, they will suck oil into the intake and burn the engine oil until something blows.  This is known as runaway, and while it's rare, it can happen.  There are no SCTA rules requiring an active kill system, but many sledpulling and drag organizations require it, as do companies that work in the oil fields.

[MAZDA1807]

I use a guy in El Monte, about 6 miles east of Pasadena. The name is Sheldon Fire Extinguisher Co. Fast service and pretty reasonable. I know they will do the halon but it's the cold fire you would have to ask them about. Address: 3931 Peck Rd. , El Monte, Ca. 91732. Phone #,(626)444-8595.

[MAZDA1807]

It's actually a couple of miles south from Mitch's custom fab.

[LSR Mike]

All bottles have to be certified, required or not. I have the same problem in Ohio, you say racing, and they say liability;won't touch them.
They will do an entire school system and Hospitals? I would think that's even more liability? Oh well I'm not a lawyer...

[McRat]

I use a guy in El Monte, about 6 miles east of Pasadena. The name is Sheldon Fire Extinguisher Co. Fast service and pretty reasonable. I know they will do the halon but it's the cold fire you would have to ask them about. Address: 3931 Peck Rd. , El Monte, Ca. 91732. Phone #,(626)444-8595.

Thanks!  I'll give him a shot.

[Bob Drury]

  Here is why many local fire extinguisher sales and repair shops balk"  First of all Cold Fire is not a fire extinguishant, IT IS A FIRE SUPRESSANT, BASICLY WATER BASED FOAM.  
   As far as Halon, they  normally use a different type of Halon (for restaraunts, etal) and to test the bottle they must empty them. They are usuallly not equiped to do this with the Halon we use and since new Halon cannot be produced in the U.S. they don't want to risk putting back something other than what the bottle states the ingrediants to be.
  Just to make matters worse, The largest player in the field (Safety Systems Inc.) is apparently under new ownership (now in Florida), and the guy I talked to became incensed when I mentioned SCTA  and went into a rant about Jim Deist, the SCTA rules and on and on.
  Then when I told him that all I wanted was to send him my bottles for recert he kept on going telling me that he wouldn't recertify any bottles that he hadn't sold...............   What a  a-- hole...................
 Bottom line: you can send the Cold Fires to Deist or I believe DJ, and as for the Halon, I have found that if you talk really nice to the local Fire Supressant guy, and can convince him that all you need is the weight certified and the gauge says full, you may get lucky.
  Incidently, Halon must be shipped as a "GAS" which costs more than shipping the Cold Fire..........
  One more thing, I urge everyone to add more than the required amount , keeping in mind that spares don't do any good in the trailer and weight is our friend.
  Also keep in mind that as long as the required bottles are recertified every two years, any extra's you have on board  don't need to be... just make sure that the required ones (cokpit and engine ) are current.                                   Bob

                                                                                      
                                                                                

[Glen]

Maybe DJ,Joe Timney and others could list places to have the fire bottles certified. It would be a good thing to have listed on this web site.

[wheelrdealer]

How recent did Safety Systems sell. Don and Don Jr. have always been great to work with. I had to pull both bottles last year. He shipped me two bottles to Wendover last Speedweek and they got there the very next day. The shipping was outragous but it was better than towing 2,600 mile home on Wednesday.

I can also comment on the fire bottles, even at 191 it takes about 25 seconds to get my car slow enough to stop. Add bailout time and it could be a long hot 35 seconds. I already have 20 lbs on the engine and driver with a 10 lbs auto system that sprays just the trunk where the cell and batteries are. I am thinking about adding another 10 lbs to the engine bay with the new turbo motor. Like it is said on this thread, weight does not matter so I would rather add something that may keep me from getting too toasty instead of another chuck of lead.

Just my 2 cents.

Bill

[Bob Drury]

  Bill, I don't know who I spoke with and for all I know maybe he had a bad day, but he sure seemed to be familiar with Jim Deist (who had died well before our conversation).
  All I can say is that he didn't appear to give a rats "patotie" about servicing the products that he sells, even though I had done business with them when they were in Indiana.

[Stainless1]

Try every local fire and safety outfit within 50 miles... I'll bet you will find one to cert the bottles.  The local guy I found to cert Max's bottles is a gearhead, drag races on the weekends.  He came over to listen when we started the bike.  I told him I had a couple of more to check, he asked if I could bring the car to the shop so all the guys could see it.   I took the car and a twelve pack, he checked and certed the bottles while the guys asked questions and took turns sitting in the car and taking pictures of each other with their phones.  The lakester bottles are due this year, a few of those guys might have a little trouble getting their picture in that one 

[MAZDA1807]

Bob, I've been in the automatic fire sprinkler business
For 9 years, and we have never had to dump a halon system to re-certify it. We check the weight and make sure the lines are clear of debris. The only time we must set it off is to make sure the data room is air tite and also for the fire marshall.
As far as the "foam agent", yes it is a fire suppressant, but 99.99% of the time it puts the fire out. Peter.

[Bob Drury]

  Peter, the problem is that the "local" shops are not willing to put their dated tag on a fire bottle if they have no idea what actually is in it.
  The same problem with the Cold Fire.  All the shops in the Portland-Vancouver area use a standard tag and they all say Fire Extinguisher along with the Codes (A, B, B,) and the inspection dates which they punch.
  Thats where I ran into problems with the Cold Fire.  They have no information which allows them to tag it as a Fire Extinguisher which means you have to send it back to Deist, etal.

[wheelrdealer]

Bob,

The Fire Bottle guys are out of North Fort Myers, FL  firebottleracing.com/ . I only have a Diest chute but not their fire systems.

I always had good luck with them. I have stopped by their shop and they have dropped what they were doing to take care of my bottles.

Bill

[Cajun Kid]

I am not sure, but I "think" Joe Timney can re cert Fire Fox bottles ?