[wbnapier]

Hello Greg,

I am unaware of anyone doing a refill and recharge at home independently. We had a list of local companies that would do it. Some had a mobile set up where others had a shop.

From my memory, a 2A10BC was $40 maybe?

We used them ourselves at the fire department all the time for small vehicle fires, vegetation fires, etc... where it wasn't worth getting the hoses out.

All of our departments and local businesses needed a licensed guy to do it and tag it. We needed the contractors to have skin in the game where their license stands behind the extinguisher working for a year.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by wbnapier

Hello Greg,

I am unaware of anyone doing a refill and recharge at home independently. .

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

[mgarblik]

I feel the dry chemical powder ABC extinguishers give people a false sense of security. I have had 2 situations where in a fire emergency, I pulled the pin and squeezed the trigger and absolutely NOTHING came out of a total of 4 fire extinguishers!! All 4 had a gauge with a needle showing they were fully charged. It's like they were all "novelty" fire extinguishers. In 2 other instances where they did actually work and put the fire out, everything touched by the dry powder is instantly ruined. So if you put your engine fire out with it, basically, you can save the castings and throw the rest of the engine away if it's a show car. The stuff is so corrosive, it instantly ruins the surface finish on everything.

For automotive and shop use, I am equipped with CO2, and Halon and Halitron extinguishers everywhere. I still have some dry chemical as back-up but do not depend on them. I would not trust one at all that is over 5 years old. The gauges on those little ones mean nothing in my experience.

The Element extinguishers look like a great idea but I would need about 10 of them to cover all my cars and little buildings. I need to bite the bullet and see if they would make me a better deal on a bunch of them. First saw them at the PRI show this past year.

[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.

[Elarson]

Originally Posted by mrennie

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.

Exactly!

As he alluded to in a previous post, Mike and I learned that lesson the hard way when the Boss Bird was on fire.

The main idea of the yearly service (done correctly) is to empty the powder out and fill it back in to make sure it's not a lump of concrete stuck in the bottom.

Whacking it with a rubber mallet might help, but as said, it can't be verified.

Eric