[mrennie]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Neither do I... That's why I was thinking / wondering about just pulling the pin and giving it a short blast. Crazy? Useless?

In my experience, trying a dry chemical ABC even for a second will result in the valve leaking and soon the pressure is gone.

With a gas type (CO2 or Halon), I have used them for a quick blast (don't ask) and pressure is still at 90+% ten years later.

But ABCs are the problem, the powder gets packed and may not discharge when needed.

I used to work with a guy that would carry a rubber mallet when doing monthly extinguisher checks and would turn the extinguisher upside down and beat it to loosen the powder.

No idea if that works.

The one time I used an ABC dry powder for a real fire, the extinguisher I grabbed was probably 30 years old and when I pulled the pin nothing happened...at first...after squeezing the trigger and nothing happened, I had enough time to say "Holy F$%" and then it went off and saved the day.