For most boats 2006 and earlier with fixed fire suppression, Sea Ray installed Halon 1301 systems. As most know Halon 1301 isn't manufactured anymore but there are recyclers which "can" refill the cylinders. If, however, you have been losing weight on your bottle when you are doing the annual/5-year recertifications you will probably find that the vendors will not refill the bottle (Seafire) because softgoods and parts are no longer available or being manufactured and leaks are assumed.
So, this brings us to having to replace the system. There are two chemistries now being used to replace the Halon 1301 - one is FK-5-1-12 (also known as Novec) and the other is HFC227ea.
The big issue for us is both of these replacements are not nearly as efficient in extinguishing fire consequently significantly more product is needed - the bottles are significantly larger (see the pic of my Halon bottle with the new HFC227ea bottle. Novec requires more and has a larger bottle than HFC227ea. There is an industry move to phase HFC227ea out and dedicate these systems to the Novec BTW.
I'm in the final stages of finishing the installation of a Seafire HFC227ea system on the boat. The system barely fit requiring reroute of electrical and oil systems and spacing the bottle further from the bulkhead. Here are some photos of the differences to prepare you for the inevitable -
Oh yea - in discussions with the company I'm using (Fire Ranger) they wanted to stay with Seafire as the pull cable and engine shutdown installations can be used as installed. Other system manufacturers require replacement of everything which would have taken the $5600 investment to well over $10K.
View attachment 136893
View attachment 136891
So, this brings us to having to replace the system. There are two chemistries now being used to replace the Halon 1301 - one is FK-5-1-12 (also known as Novec) and the other is HFC227ea.
The big issue for us is both of these replacements are not nearly as efficient in extinguishing fire consequently significantly more product is needed - the bottles are significantly larger (see the pic of my Halon bottle with the new HFC227ea bottle. Novec requires more and has a larger bottle than HFC227ea. There is an industry move to phase HFC227ea out and dedicate these systems to the Novec BTW.
I'm in the final stages of finishing the installation of a Seafire HFC227ea system on the boat. The system barely fit requiring reroute of electrical and oil systems and spacing the bottle further from the bulkhead. Here are some photos of the differences to prepare you for the inevitable -
Oh yea - in discussions with the company I'm using (Fire Ranger) they wanted to stay with Seafire as the pull cable and engine shutdown installations can be used as installed. Other system manufacturers require replacement of everything which would have taken the $5600 investment to well over $10K.
