fire extinguisher

[Whiplash]

Do Fire Extinguishers have to be tested every year or not ?

[trymyluck]

Home or work????

I know at work we inspect once a month in house and get a 6 monthly inspection done by a contractor.

[Whiplash]

In the boat

[Kero]

Not as far as I know, but if it's a dry chemical type then you should give it a shake and see if the powder has settled/hardened at the bottom. I give mine a bash against a tree when I remember.

[BILLY THE KID]

Do Fire Extinguishers have to be tested every year or not ?

for the 30 odd dollars , i buy a new one every year

beats swimming through the bay if something goes wrong ;)

[Paul007]

I'm a heavy equipment operator. It is a part of my pre-start before I use any machine to check fire extinguisher. I check gauge.. (needle in green), General condition of extinguisher, body and handle operating lever, bracket. Check tag to ensure six month service is not due. There is a plastic tell tale tie that makes it that the pin can not be removed without breaking the the tie (it is easily broken. but it gives an indication if the pin has been removed and then replaced. If the tie is broken I treat the extinguisher as possibly discharged and needing to be replaced before the machine can be operated.
I do a modified check on the 1 kg fire extinguisher on my boat before each use. My understanding is that they are not cost effective to test, so I have decided that three years is a good operating period. So I replace mine every three years.
I always test the old one...used to give my young bloke a demo of my fire fighting skills when he was younger and interested in those sort of things.
I have never had one not work when I have tested the old one. I have considered extending the service life of them but I figure I don't want to have it that when I really need it it is too old.
I check that date .
There is no tie but the manufacturer has placed a piece of tape on the handle that holds it to the body of the extinguisher. It seems to be very resistant to deterioration. It is still giving me a good indication that the operating lever has not been moved and it is about 2 and 1/2 yrs old. That tape has lasted quite well. The rest of the checks I do on the boat extinguisher are pretty much the same as I do on the bulldozer/loader/excavator extinguisher. I just remembered that one of my earlier extinguishers had a plastic pin that was destroyed when the extinguisher was operated so it gave a positive indication of that. Just another way of doing the job I guess.

[yowie3]

Hi,
In Qld a boat over 5m is required to have a fire fighting device capable of extinguishing a fire that you may encounter in your vessel. If you have a fire extinguisher it must be serviced in accordance with the manufacturers guidleines and the Austalian Standards.

Have a look here.

http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/Safety/Firefighting-equipment.aspx

And here
http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/~/media/msqfiles/home/publications/marine-information-bulletins/pdf_mib_servicing_portable_fire_ext.pdf

Cheers

[Moonlighter]

Yowie has nailed it there nicely. The same rule applies to things like inflatable life jackets - they must be serviced in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations,

I recently picked up a 1kg model on special from the local (Germany based) supermarket for the princely sum of $10 that will go into my new boat.

This extinguisher meets Aust standards and its date of manufacture/test is stamped into the metal on the bottom edge. The brochure says re-test/certify in 5 years, and visual check on gauge and general condition every 6 months. So in my case that will be what I do and will thus meet the requirements of the law.

Cheers

ML

[cormorant]

Pressure pack ones are as good as farting on the fire. Buy a decent 1kg plus one with a decent nozzle and lear how to use it for different fires. They usually happen on other peoples boats and you help out.

5 years in a marine environment - good for compliance but UV and salt play havoc on em. They are designed for indoors storage near the stove in a kitchen.

[oldboot]

And don't forget the hornets.

They love to build in anything with a hole in it.

All my extinguishers have a piece of masking tape placed flat across the face of the nozzle.

Don't press the tape down the sides of the nossle & it will blow off when you pop the valve if you forget to tear it off.

If you have never fired off an extinguisher, it is worth doing at least once....... but give yourself some space.......1KG of white powder goes a long way when its your back lawn.

cheers

[AnthonyL]

Fisheries checked my boat at the boat ramp and said I needed to have the fire ext checked as the manufacture date was one year and one week.

I only bought the ext a few months before tho, so I just bought another one for $30 and will leave the "out of date" one in my car.

[PADDLES]

sorry for the off topic on extinguishers guys, but i'll back up moonlighter's comments re. inflateable lifejackets. my yachty mate's safety gear was inspected by the lads in blue a few weeks back. when he showed them his fancy inflateable pfd1's they asked him to produce a test certificate to prove they were "in test". luckily he had a couple of ancient "mae-west" style pfd1's lurking in the engine compartment and avoided a fine. so be warned guys, if you only have inflateables then you will need to be able to produce the certification for them as well if requested.

[Moonlighter]

Hi Anthony

I cant see how Fisheries could be right with that. Even they seem to get confused about the servicing requirements. By my reading the law is very clear: they have to be serviced in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations, so if that is every 5 years (as in my case) then every 5 years is it.

If there is no date stamped on the ext, them youre probably stuck with annually. Maybe that's what happened inyour case?

ML

[mitch92]

One other thing guys is how many people put them in a suitable place. I see so many people leave them in boxes in the kitchen, or hard to reach ares of the boat.

Personally, i'd get them tested or a new one each year. Also the ones with a plastic neck are normally not worth testing, better to buy a new one. The ones with a metal neck however are better for getting tested.