"Halon" system question

Our '88 boat has an original Halon extinguisher mounted in the engine compartment, and there was also a System Ready indicator light mounted on the side of the engine bulkhead beside the large access door to the engine.
My surmise was that this was standard, but a friend with a sister ship has no such system nor any sign that one was ever installed.
Costly then, if it was an option. I did a quick search and if this bottle had not passed a recent inspection the replacement for a "Halon equivalent" bottle would be about $500.

A surveyor friend who is also an ABYC electrician tells me that the extinguisher system is not actually 'required' on a diesel aux boat, but that if it is there the light indicating that it is full/armed must also be there. OK so far. But then, current ABYC regs are that the light be mounted adjacent to the engine instruments at the helm position.
Easy to do for a power boat with their big dash board..... not very possible for a sailboat with a tiller or binnacle where the minimal engine controls are located somewhere near the side -- low down -- in the cockpit area.

After pondering what EY had in mind, it seems logical (?) that they wanted that light located where you might be tempted to open up the engine because you had just shut down due to seeing smoke or some similar indication that you had a major problem in the engine. Perhaps.
Further, if the extinguisher HAD discharged, you would certainly not want to allow a fresh breeze of oxygen into the area to reignite it. Matter of fact you should already have shut off the diesel valve at the tank (under a settee on our model of boat).

So now I have on hand the new light and cover plate with peel-&-stick adhesive. The light light itself takes only a 5/16" hole (about like the old light that had recently had the bulb fall apart from age).

So i could install it, perhaps where I removed the original round hour meter. Tidy, and true to the presumed factory thinking for location. But not "approved" by the ABYC. (sigh)

Plan B is to try to put the light actually near our engine cockpit panel. It might be possible to mount it on the surface on the left side of the new hinged clear cover plate. Surveyor sez she would pass this as a good faith effort to comply, realizing that the ABYC rule is really (and almost solely) focused on power boats. That installation would be difficult at best, and the escutcheon plate around the light is not really waterproofed around the little led bulb anyway.

****SO....... how is or was this done on your Ericson or Olson??


Did your boat come with a Halon bottle?
(I sort of presume that most of you with a gasoline engine like an A4 do have this in place already.)

Your thoughts? Comments?

As always, Thanks !

Loren

Loren Beach said:

Did your boat come with a Halon bottle?
(I sort of presume that most of you with a gasoline engine like an A4 do have this in place already.)

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Surely you jest. My '71 boat came with lifelines and a (sort of) blower. I think that was about it for safety equipment. So far, I've added a fire port. Peer through the clear plastic window and look for flames. If seen, poke a fire extinguisher nozzle in there!
https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Boat-Parts-Clear-Fire/dp/B00FZHATFO

I'm not sure that the engine poses a greater fire hazard than the battery compartment or the fuel tankage. I think I've read that most boat fires are electrical in nature. Of course, there's plenty of wiring in the engine compartment too.

Anyway, most of my work has been more in the nature of "defusing a bomb" than installing safety equipment. Replaced all the weird and rotten wiring. Added fuses and circuit breakers. Replaced the rotten engine room ducts and added terminal flanges to actually secure them to the engine compartment - something that the boat apparently never had. Oh, and when I bought the boat, the batteries were just sitting loose in the compartment behind the engine, right next to the fuel filter. :0

I have a Halon bottle over the engine compartment, apparently factory. No electronics. Has a spray head of typical office-building type--melts in heat to discharge?

No idea if it works or not.

Had a quick look at the specs:
Sensor melts at 175°F/ 80°C to discharge. Seems a little low? Maybe depends on how close to the engine it's mounted.
Even the smallest one would be pretty challenging to squeeze into my engine compartment.
Unless an automatic engine (and blower) shut-down relay is included (doubles cost of Xintex system) the agent may be sucked out the exhaust before it has a chance to put out a fire.

Halon gas is banned

Once upon a time Halon fire suppression systems were commonly installed in computer/server rooms. The downside was for any person in the room at the time of activation it may well have been their last breath as well, in fact many computer/server rooms had to have breathing apparatus (similar to that used by firefighters) installed on the outside of the room in case someone needed to enter the room after a Halon activation.

Halon fire suppression systems are no longer used after the ozone depleting gas was banned by the Montreal Protocol 1989 and then the EPA in 1994. But the gas is recycled. https://www.h3rcleanagents.com/support_faq_2.htm

Best thing to do is remove it and as my surveyor recommended to install a "fire port" to provide view of engine and hole to discharge a fire extinguisher through.

toddster said:

Surely you jest. My '71 boat came with lifelines and a (sort of) blower. I think that was about it for safety equipment. :0

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Same for 1980 30+. I thought the lifeline exits on either side of the boat were specifically for easier evacuation in the event of a fire. Ken

As noted, some boats have a "fire port" that will allow you to inject the nozzle of your extinguisher into the closed engine compartment. While this is a very cheap way to try to address the problem, note that the emergency had better be really 'real' because the dry powder in even a small bottle will create an unbelievable mess.
I have had to clean up after an extinguisher discharge in a boat interior, and it took weeks of effort.

Plan B might be to just remove the fire suppression system, but since it's there and does add some small measure of preparedness, I will keep it.
Or plan C -- perhaps best just to copy the factory indicator light installation, and plan on removing the halon bottle when we sell the boat someday, if a surveyor criticizes it.

Or, Plan D.... would be to put the little led green system indicator light into our new engine instrument panel with a little label by it. (Surveyor sez she would pass that, if doing a survey. Some compromise is going to be needed, one way or the other.)

The Devil is certainly in the Details, as they say!

Can somebody describe the likeliest scenario in which a diesel engine catches fire?

Christian Williams said:

Can somebody describe the likeliest scenario in which a diesel engine catches fire?

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My "SWAG" is that a fire might happen due to something wrong with one of the high-current wires in the engine bay.
(Electrical connection heat was the cause of a smoky fire in an 80's Newport 30 with the scary Universal Diesel wiring harness and its "trailer plugs"... the boat moors near me. The owner had to hire a pro to help rewire everything; quite a project. :0

As far as diesel fuel, it is not nearly as volatile as gasoline.
Given ignition heating and opportunity tho, I am sure it will burn.

Maybe if someone puts gasoline in insead of diesel! That would probably just be catastrophic engine failure with no fire. Electrical fires are way more likely.