[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