Anti fire ball afo auto fire extinguisher

I have been looking for an automatic fire extinguisher for my van for
a bit now and wanted 1 I could remove easy when needed so I have fitted a AFO fire ball and it was very easy to fit I just used the frame it came with and hose clips got it off eBay £39.99 free delivery eBay number 322170312337
http://www.afofireball.com

That looks interesting Daz.

Can't help thinking of this....

Good idea Daz!

We think of two things when we hear Fireball  . . .

The theme tune at the end of this . . .



Or this . . .

I think of @Kiteman and his fiery balls!

Do we know at which temperature this thing activates?

Is it recommended to be installed in the engine bay of motor vehicles?

The engine bay of aircooled Kombis gets extremely hot and that heat is dissipated throughout the metal in the area - try touching the rear bumper after a reasonable drive. Surely attaching the metal frame of this device will naturally cause it to heat up considerably?

Sorry daz. I'm not convinced.

TimV wrote:

Do we know at which temperature this thing activates?

Is it recommended to be installed in the engine bay of motor vehicles?

The engine bay of aircooled Kombis gets extremely hot and that heat is dissipated throughout the metal in the area - try touching the rear bumper after a reasonable drive.  Surely attaching the metal frame of this device will naturally cause it to heat up considerably?

Sorry daz.  I'm not convinced.

if you engine bay is getting hot then you will probably have a sealing prob as it should only be sucking in cold air and heat should be under the tin ware and out from back of van . The fire ball needs flames to set it off . I am not the only 1 who has fitted 1 of the fire balls to an aircooled vw

Has there ever been an incidence of one going off inappropriately?

I'm only asking because I've not heard of this before on the VW scene and whilst I see the advantage I also see that it's untimely activation could wreck the engine of a vehicle.

Concerned about firing off early eh Tim?

It's a risk I am happy to take if my van sets on fire I will not be fixing it if the fire ball goes off I can fix it easy

dazdub wrote:

It's a risk I am happy to take if my van sets on fire I will not be fixing it if the fire ball goes off I can fix it easy

That's the pertinent point daz. YOU can fix your Kombi no issue and without cost to you. Others may not be able to and would end up spending masses of £ to sort it.

I'm not p*$$*ng on your fireball but just wanting to be realistic about the wider appeal of this.

If the fireball needs a naked flame to set I off then (IMO) it is unlikely to go off accidentally in the engine bay, at least not because of the temperature of the engine bay.

I believe the running temp of an aircooled engine is somewhere between 100 and 120 degrees C and most of this is dissipated through the tin wear and conducted away through the rear bodywork. Therefore the temperature in the engine bay should always be lower than the engine.

An average naked flame will burn at a temperature based on the fuel/air mix it has. The temperature of a simple candle flame (min fuel/air mix) is approx 1400 degrees C.

If your engine bay reached even half of this temp then things would start to melt or burn and you have a serious problem for which you will be grateful you had a fireball installed.

To put it into perspective, the flash point of petrol is 280 degrees C.

Whilst I was looking at Coolairvw home page, I saw  they were selling an alternative, here's a vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kswau1mGBE8

£185.00

dizzylizard wrote:

Whilst I was looking at Coolairvw home page, I saw  they were selling an alternative, here's a vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kswau1mGBE8

£185.00

That looks good, neat and easy to install too. It's clearly very effective, but the flames were there for quite a while before it activated which would concern me.

I like the fact that the install is quick and easy but like Tullulah I would be concerned at the fact that it took 10 seconds before it activated. In my mind I'm trying to work out if during that time there would be any significant damage to the engine.

One piece of advice I have for all, when travelling in your BraziBay, always have the engine lid unlocked so that should the worst happen, you can quickly get the lid up and use your onboard fire extinguisher. Obviously get everyone out and clear of the camper first.

As Fireman Sam says, "Get out, stay out, call the fire brigade out."

402270795869 ebay £14:99 free p&p