When Should You Have Your Fire Extinguisher Inspected?
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably never been in a situation where you were required to put out a fire using a fire extinguisher. that said, you want to have complete confidence in your fire extinguishers so you know you’ll be protected in the event of a fire. Basic fire extinguisher care and maintenance requires three steps: a monthly fire extinguisher examination, an annual professional inspection and a 12-year hydrotest.
Step one: the monthly self-inspection for the monthly self inspection, you don’t need any special equipment or training – this is just a visual inspection. there are a number of things you should check out when performing a visual inspection of your fire extinguisher:
First, make sure your fire extinguishers are easy to see and access, and that everyone in your building knows how to operate them quickly and efficiently in the event of a fire. While doing this, make sure the instruction nameplate is clearly visible and facing outward. also, check the tag on the extinguisher – if it says it’s been more than a year since your last fire extinguisher inspection, call a fire protection company.
Check the physical condition of the extinguisher: make sure the pin is intact and is not held on by tape or wire, that there are no signs of obvious physical damage to the head, body or nozzle, such as dents, cracks, corrosion or leakage and that the nozzle isn’t clogged or blocked in any way.
Check to make sure the arrow on the pressure gauge is pointing toward the green zone. this indicates that the extinguisher is fully charged and will activate properly when used. since the fire extinguisher is usually sealed tight, the only times the arrow will ever dip down out of the green zone are after you’ve discharged the extinguisher or if it is leaking.
Finally, turn the extinguisher up and down about five times. The dry chemical inside the fire extinguisher tends to cake, so turning it around will help mix it up.
Step two: annual professional inspection this step is easy – just call a fire protection services company. they will come out and do basically the same thing that you do every month, but they write a new tag to say definitively whether your extinguishers are in good shape or not. this may seem unnecessary, but it is actually extremely important – if the the fire marshal visits your building and finds untagged extinguishers or extinguishers with expired tags, you could be in for some big fines
Step three: hydrotesting if your extinguisher has managed to make it 12 years without needing to be replaced, you need to have it hydrotested. A hydrotest involves charging the body of the fire extinguisher with water at test pressure. this will help expose any hidden cracks or weaknesses in the extinguisher body that need to be addressed.
