quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
You can have your fire extinguisher recharged. Usually there is a local business that provides the service.
Here is a business in Northern VA:

https://proteksfire.com/fire-extinguishers/

Testing and recertifying them is more expensive than just replacing them

On the smaller ones that's true .

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

But then how would the fish cops be able to harass boaters and generate revenue?

If it was about public safety, they'd have new one's with them and compel you to purchase it on the spot. Then go about their business. But it's not, it's revenue generation pretending to be punitive. Good luck putting out the fire with your $100 ticket.

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For god's sake make sure the pin is secured.

This! Co-Worker was going to an emergency call when his cooked off in the back of his Explorer. He spent hours cleaning it and still had powder coming out of his vents for weeks afterwards.

Generally speaking extinguishers with plastic heads cannot be recharged/serviced and are just disposable. Ones with metal heads can.

Also the rule of thumb is, if the extinguisher doesn't have a hose, it's basically useless.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
If it shows fully charged, put it in your car/truck/van or in the house. Even if you only get a bit out of it if needed, it might be enough.

For god's sake make sure the pin is secured. I had a 5lb dry chem in the back of my SUV for years. One day while moving stuff around the pin must have gotten hooked on something and pulled out (likely the safety tie had broken prior). I moved one more thing and <POOF> I was surrounded in a cloud of yellow powder.

No... it is not fun to clean up
Yes.. it gets everywhere
and... you will find places you didn't know you had.

Yep.

Was a Security Patrol shift supervisor at a defense firm for a while some years back and had one of my security officers manage to set one off in his patrol vehicle. What a friggen mess, I think we had to send it off for a professional cleaning/detailing because that powder gets into EVERY crevice and space.

^^ We had a fire and someone used 14 of them to put it out. It made quite a mess.

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What do you do w/ the old one?

If its a cheap non rechargeable one, give it to your local fire department and they will use it for training.

My department uses them in demo's at elementary schools, preschools and business's and has several teachers/employees put out a flammable liquids fire with them.

And try not to use an ABC extinguisher on your vehicle engine fire which is really steam from a heater hose leak. One ruined engine. Use BC.

Yes that actually happened when we loaned a tour bus to a sports team. It started with some idiot put the ABC in by mistake. Then the team coach couldn't tell steam from smoke...

A long time ago I got pulled over by the boat cops. I freely admit I was speeding.
Anyway, the pair of boat cops boarded my small Bayliner I/O for a vessel inspection.
One of them had the ticket book out because they didn't see a fire extinguisher in plain sight.
I had mounted it in a quick release bracket under the dash in front of the driver.
I pulled the Halon fire extinguisher out from under the dash and handed it to the ticket book boat cop.
He started shaking the fire extinguisher up and down feeling for compacted dry chemical powder.
Then he proceeded on a five to ten minute rant about dry powder fire extinguishers being used in boats and how the dry chemical powder got compressed/packed from the constant pounding in boats.
When he finished with his rant, I politely informed him it was a Halon fire extinguisher and had no dry powder in it.
His partner started laughing at the guy that issued the rant.
They turned, got back into their boat, and as they motored away, told me to keep my speed down.
No ticket!

FWIW the cylinder itself's hydrostatic testing goes out of date. While I've never seen an extinguisher cylinder fail while being stored< I wouldn't want to be around when it happens.

About 4 years agoI took some CERT training when we did the fire extinguisher portion of the class, I brought my MIL's twenty years (28) 5lbs. unit.

It was in the green, you could hear the powder moving around when skaken so it wasn't caked. The fire chief said he'd have to rethink his recommendations on old chargers if it worked.

It worked like it was new. Out out a few small gas tires and fully discharged. There's vid of it out there somewhere. My SIL bought one at the exact same time and it's 32 years old but still fully charged and the powder moves.

I appreciate the tip about taking something like a dead-blow hammer and tapping on the base of an ABC extinguisher. I did my dad stuff for the day.