Marioff water mist systems specialize in high-pressure water mist systems, such as the HI-FOG brand. These systems can be run mechanically, with gas, or with electricity, and have applications that range from local light hazard to total flood. For spaces where collateral damage is a concern, Marioff water mist systems are popular because they use 70 to 90 percent less water than traditional sprinkler systems. In this video, fire protection expert Lee Kaiser explains the features and applications of the Marioff water mist system. 

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Lee: "So now let's talk about some manufacturers. We're going to talk about three manufacturers that sell their water mist systems in the United States. One of them is Marioff. You may have heard that name before. They sell the HI-FOG brand of water mist system here in the U.S. They're high-pressure systems. So we've got different pressure delivery units, options for nozzles, and a bunch of different applications that we can use these for. Now, an important thing about Marioff is they produce a fairly fine spray of water, a high fog. So 100‑micron droplets, real fine. Does really well on hot, high challenge fire hazards.

Pressure Storage Units

Some of the pressure storage units, from left to right, this unit here is the smallest unit. It's called a MAU, or machinery-space accumulator unit. It's completely mechanically driven, no electrical connection needed. The red cylinder is a high-pressure nitrogen cylinder, and then the silver three cylinders are water containers, and so the nitrogen gets driven into the water containers and pushes it out in the stainless steel water mist tubing, into the nozzles, into the space. These are always typically total flood up to around 9,200 cubic feet of space.

Gas-Driver Power Units

Gas-driven power units, the one in the center, it uses nitrogen or maybe compressed air, depending on the application, to drive a piston pump, which is on the end here, this big silver tube. That piston pump is what develops the high pressure needed to send the water out to the water mist nozzles.

SprinKler Pump Units

And then the one all the way on the right, the SPU, or sprinkler pump unit, is electrically driven unit. Okay? And it has a number of motors, depending on the amount of flow required, driving positive displacement pumps which provides the pressure, so it's the highest pressure unit up there on the screen. Discharge pressures of around 2,300 psi and nozzle operating pressures at around 1,050 psi. So definitely a high-pressure system.

Marioff Nozzle Types

Marioff nozzles can be either open head, used for machinery spaces, some total flood applications, some local application uses for them. Sprinkler systems, they have available a sprinkler substitute with water mist. We can arrange those systems to be like a wet sprinkler system, dry, or pre-action. They can be pendant mount, meaning down from the ceiling, or sidewall mount.

An Alternative to Sprinklers

Now one of the most important things here is that last bullet point. Marioff water mist systems, as an alternative to building sprinklers, use 70 to 90 percent less water than regular sprinklers, so a big reduction in the amount of consumption of water, and that's why a lot of building owners choose those when they're really concerned about collateral damage from the sprinkler system.  

So some of the approvals for Marioff, the MAU units will protect up to 9200 cubic feet for these types of spaces, turbines, machinery spaces and special hazard machinery spaces. That's a little variant of the machinery space listing. GPUs can protect up to 9300 cubic feet and then the SPU is the big boy that can protect up to around 116,000 cubic feet, either total flood and then there's a number of local applications options with it too. For building sprinklers, they have an approval FM, factory mutual approval for light hazard occupancies, and then they have a UL listing for the actual sprinkler nozzles, and that allows them to protect either light hazard or ordinary hazard Group 1. Now they can protect higher challenge hazards and buildings; it's just, they start to use more and more water. So most buildings, typically the bulk of the space will be light hazard, and so you'd choose a water mist system for that in the first place, and then you'd still be able to use it for higher challenged spaces for rooms, individual rooms here and there."