Fire Extinguisher size

Hey all,

I am wondering what kind of fire extinguishers everyone keeps in their shops? I currently have a 2kg Halon extinguisher that im going to strap to my welding cart...

Should i keep a larger dry chem one around? How big?

I guess this all depends on what i use the shop for...well the "shop" is my garage...it has a couple jet skis in there...and i do tig welding.

Thanks all

How about CO2? The dry chem makes a mess.

I have a couple of co2's also. An old charged H20 extinguisher is nice for hot spots and wood that you may catch while welding, like trailer floors...Bob

Look at your local swapmeet for a pressurized water ext. Fill it with a garden hose and your air compressor. Very handy and cheap.
Roger

be careful with co2 in an enclosed area.

Be even more careful with Halon in enclosed areas. IIRC Halon is no longer available, but highly desired for computer installations. It may be worth more to someone else.

Many years ago a company decided to replace the CO2 units with halon. Everyone got the old CO2 units. Later on they found out the halon and diesel generators were a bad combo. I forget the exact reason. Now everyone got the halon units.

Diesel engines can run on halon!!!

Halon is a brominated CFC...it is combustable under high temp/pressure found in a diesel engine.

I have a couple of them, and like to keep them around for electrical fires (so i dont destroy everything like a drychem). I just remembered that I have a 2.5 gallon water extinguisher in the garage too!

Thanks for the info.

nK

as far as size. you can put out a small fire with a large extinguisher. i have a 2 lb. and 3 5 lb in my shop.

i have 2 1/2 gal waters for sale $25.00 plus the ride in omaha ne 68046

Halon...I worked for a company where an employee died due to exposure from Halon.

Self induced fooling around on the night shift but the guy is gone. He decided to fill his toxic exposure suit with the stuff for some reason, don't know if it had a closed face hood or not.

I tried an expired dry powder extinguisher outside once just to see what it would do, hold your breath with those.

A 2kg halon is way to small for any shop fires. Good for maybe putting out your PC after you overclocked it a little too much. Halon only removes the oxygen from the area and then only for a short time. I don't think your 2 kg halon unit poses much of a health threat. Halon and CO2 will not remove the heat from the fire nor will it prevent re-ignition. A large dry powder unit is a must for a garage. When applied properly so as to blanked the hot areas it can prevent re-ignition. I like the 2 gallons of water idea.

There were large halon units in many of the computer rooms I've been in. We were told if they went off to exit the room post-haste! If you don't breath in the halon you have about 2 minutes of oxygen in your lungs and blood. Less if you start screaming. After that you are dead weight. Unfortunately it was found out that in practice some people would start hyperventlating and colapse in about 20 sec. and rarely would bystanders re-enter the room to extracate them.

starbolin