I have a great camo wrap for mine.
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I am a great fan of fire safety equipment. I keep one in every automobile that I periodically drive, and there's even a mini one that attaches to my motorbike.
I have thought of bringing fire extinguishers as a present when going to housewarming parties. After all, who else is going to bring that as a present? And the best part is that if their housewarming gets too warm, then suddenly my present becomes immediately useful haha
Step 1: light a fire
Step 2: place fire extinguisher in the middle of the fire.
Step 3: retreat a safe distance.
When you hear the bang, the fire should be extinguished.
Or scattered.
Just want to point out.
Kidde does not have good running with extinguishers.
Get a badger or Amerex, and get it from an actual supplier, they’ll know the good ones and keep it serviced for you too.
That service part is key. It makes it essentially a one time purchase. You spend more upfront but then you only need them inspected and charged periodically.
Reuse reduce baby.
and get it from an actual supplier.
Unfortunately, that creates friction for [what I suspect is] the majority of folks who aren't used to shopping at places other than big-box department or grocery stores. I, for one, have no idea where any actual suppliers near me even are. I mean, sure, I could do a maps search for "fire extinguisher stores" or something, but even then I have no good way of knowing which ones are open to the public (as opposed to doing B2B stuff).
Buying a two-pack of First Alert extinguishers when I happen to notice it on sale at Costco is way less hassle. (Speaking of which, do you have opinions about that brand?)
Kidde and first alert are kinda on par with each other, why they are sold at the big box stores.
Anything with a metal head that’s serviceable, I have a strike first in my home, one of the cheaper “commercial” call them brands.
If you don’t know any, condos and stores have them, look at one of their service tags and give them a call, most shouldn’t have an issue making a sale and potentially repeat service business.
Fire code requires their service, so most commercial places should be following along, but that depends on also how much your FD and jurisdictions cares to enforce the rules.
Good work! (am firefighter) - a great chance to practice with the old one too! Reminds me I need to replace the one on my jeep.
Upvote because I respect firefighters. I don't respect cops. I don't care about our military.
But firefighters, and EMS/everyone in a hospital, are people I respect a lot.
Now, the people who set the pricing scheme for the medical industry can go fuck off into a volcano. It shouldn't BE an industry. You never hear people say "the firefighting industry". Which is good. I've never heard anyone badmouth the concept of fire fighters services.
A question: What's a firefighter's opinion on fire-smothering blankets?
I have not see them in use live in 20 years on this job. I personally would tinker with one screwing around if I had one but I would not go rely on one. Ansel systems, extinguishers, and good ole water are fine for now.
Though I hear there are trials for blankets to use at car fires even!
I was just thinking, I have a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and had to use a previous one once before. It made such a huge mess, ruining the food that wasn't on fire as well. So later on I found myself reluctant to use it. Which I guess is probably good in that I was more careful to avoid causing any fire in the first place, but still... And when my most recent previous extinguisher hit the expiration date and I replaced it, of course I tried out the old one, but it fizzled. So although the new one is better, I wonder if a simple smothering blanket might be a good additional option.
How should I practice exactly? Won’t the foam fuck up basically anything I spray it on?
weird question, do fire stations have old fire extinguishers that they throw out?
Take CERT classes. I dare you NOT to run out afterward and buy multiple fire extinguishers.
Awesome, congrats!
Costco and Sam's Club both sell 2-packs for the price most places charge for a single extinguisher.
Get a couple more - we keep one by the door of every room now.
I've had to use an extinguisher a few times in my life - fires are much harder to extinguish than most people realize, even with a good size extinguisher.
An extinguisher is only effective in the early stages of a fire, so having them close by makes a difference.

It’s very important to have fire extinguishers… I had to use mine yesterday! Lost a lot of good board games.
Luckily I caught the fire right when it started or I would have lost almost everything I own.
Oh shit! Glad you're safe. How did the fire start?
Really? I've always had 1 in the kitchen. Never had to use it but it's nice that it's right there, accessible.

Now you have, in our pantry corner.
The extinguishers I bought came with a little piece of plastic to mount them on the wall. So I did that. They stick out like a sore thumb, which I want. If there's a fire, I don't want anyone scratching their head saying "now where do we keep the fire extinguisher?"
Don't things catch fire in Australia? I mean I've never had a house fire myself but would always have an extinguisher in the house no matter where I lived.
What's the plan in the event of a fire?
Say it's an electrical fire. Gonna throw water on it?
bought mine 14 years ago, maybe i need to replace 🤔
You definitely need to at least recharge it and have it inspected if it hasent been in 14 years, if it's a serviceable one. Take it to your local fire department, they'll usually be able to tell you if it's serviceable and do the care needed to make sure it's still functional like recharging
Username does not check out >.>
Mine has "expired" in 2016 but the needle is still in the green zone. At times I spin the bottle around a bit and then put it back to keep it active.
get a new on, those gauges are wrong way too often for a piece of safety equipment
I ws trained in the use of extinguishers while in the Army. We used expired extinguishers from a maintenance company. They explained that they had to be maintained every 3 years, not because loss of pressure, but because seals and mechanisms could get stuck. Don't be in a sense of false security
As others said, replace it (service it if you can, doesn't hurt to have redundancy anyhow). Don't mess around with safety equipment, you want to be sure it works when you need it (and hope you never do), applies to everything from ppe to devices.
Many firehalls (at least the ones in Canada) will recharge your fire extinguisher for free if you bring it by.
Iirc, there are different types of fire extinguishers, and only some are rechargable. Good point though!
From the sound of it, as long as you can take it apart, it is in good condition, and the head and valve aren't made of plastic, you can refill the suppressing agent (water, foam, CO2 or powder) and repressurize it. If it doesn't leak, you should be good to go. Plastic working parts seem to indicate the disposable models. I guess take it in and see what they say -- one site said they may even refill a disposable if it's fairly new and holds up well to the process. I see there are some local guidelines that say you should replace anything after x years, regardless of condition, so results may vary.
For some reason this reminds me that I need to check the pressure in my tires. Got a used car a couple weeks ago and haven't done it yet.
I was looking at how much the class d ones go for ... yikes!
gonna wait on getting that electric car and home battery backup system
If they came with wall mounts, you might think like I did "I'm not sure I want to wall mount these."
But now I can say - it's great. It feels good to have them wall mounted in a prominent visible place.

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