A few weeks ago, my daughter's car caught on fire, so we bought a small Kidde Auto/Marina fire extinguisher for her. I'm not experienced with fire extinguishers, but this one doesn't seem right to me. The pin is under no tension at all, and if you tip the extinguisher upside down, the pin simply falls out. To me, it should be somewhat hard to remove. If she puts this in her car, the pin will probably fall out, and you can imagine the rest.

Is this how it's supposed to work? Or is this a defective unit?

The little ones I have seen have a plastic pin with a sort of expanded, flared head that can be pushed into place, but which cannot be withdrawn without breaking the pin, which is what is intended. You break the pin to remove it.

It does not seem that the pin should be so easy to remove.

The pin should have a "keeper" usually a a plastic tab or finely beaded plastic string that breaks away. You don't want it to bump something and have it go off inside the vehicle.

Something like this - https://www.grainger.com/produ...er-Tamper-Seal-3YWF1

^^^^
Yup. I bought a 5lb Amerex for the kitchen a few months ago and when it arrived the tamper seal was broken from shipping (glad it didn't go off lol). Looking around on Amazon I bought a 100 pack for like $5-10 (can't remember). Called "pull-tite" seals or something.

Thanks, all. That's what I suspected.
Back to WalMart it goes!

not a problem for me at all
replaced the straight pin with this
.16 cents

Put the pin pack in. Slightly bend it at the end so it wont just fall out, but it will still be pretty easy to pull out. Done. No need to return.

This leads me to a recent story.

It was time to replace the fire extinguisher in the boat. So, Home Depot has these cute White Marine Fire Extinguishers. I pick on up and take it to the boat. To carry it and the usual load of crap from the truck down the slip to the boat, I place it carefully, still NIB, in a five gallon bucket. Wife shows up the next day and I have the bucket down in the cabin with all the stuff in it. She decides she needs to use the bucket to do some cleaning so she grabs the FE box by the end and picks it up. Now, mind you, the cabin is closed up and the AC is running - confined area. Turns out, that when I put the box in the bucket, I put it in there top side down. Well, when she picks it up, the box top opens, the FE comes sliding out of the box, that cheap-ass pin breaks, handle depresses, and she's now a fire fighter! Took her a second or two to realize what the thing was and what had just happened and to get it stopped. So, FE overspray everywhere but good that it was somewhat contained in the bucket. When I came back to the boat, boy did I hear about it! Could not help but laugh though! So, she got her wish, cleaned the whole inside of the boat, floor to ceiling that day and more thoroughly than she probably would have otherwise! So, be careful with those cheap plastic pins.

I just checked both of my FE's, and the safety pin is free to fall out of either. One FE is a First Alert of indeterminate age, the other a Kidde that I got as a result of the recent recall.

I put a rubber band on both pins, then to the handles. It's tight enough to keep them in place, but loose enough that it won't impede pulling them in case we need them.

Back when I was racing and required to carry a Type ABC in the car, I know the pin wouldn't fall out on its own, but I don't remember what retained it, since it was so many years ago. I guess things have changed.

By the way, has everybody received their replacement Kidde bottles? I remember a couple SF members had not, as of the last post some months back.

I'm not a firefighter but be aware that the small extinguishers are pretty limited in what they can do. Think of it as a .22 short revolver for concealed carry. As a high school shop teacher, I got involved in an under hood car fire in the student parking lot and drained a 10 pound unit and a part of a second 10 pound unit before the fire was extinguished. However a small unit is better than no unit. On the extinguisher you purchased, someone may have pulled the pin on it in the store and destroyed the one time use retainer. No it should not come out easily.

I'm pretty sure there was a recall on Kidde brand fire extinguishers, can't post the link.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/3710016234/p/1

Find the link here ^^^^^^^^^

Thanks ZS