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Hold it upside down and whack it a few times on the bottom of the bottle with a rubber hammer.
That breaks up the bicarbonate soda particles that have condensed on the bottom of the bottle.
 
How long does one last?

I have one in my kitchen, which is now 20. The pressure indicator still shows in the green.

Do these have a life expectancy ?
It should have an inspection tag on it with dates. Powder type extinguishers should be checked and refilled periodically due to the powder settling and becoming a solid block. If yours is 20 years old without any attention it needs to be refilled or replaced. For CO2 extinguishers, if they have pressure and weigh as being full you're OK. Take them to your local fire station if in doubt.
 
I don't know the answer, but I can say with certainty that one that was about 12 years old worked just fine when we had a fire in our home a few years back. And thank goodness for having it too - saved us from having a disaster, limited the damage to one room.

They're not tremendously expensive though, so I wouldn't think twice about buying a replacement if age was a concern.
 
I think 2 years is the inspection cycle in a commercial setting however it's one of those things that is either good or bad and age is not a deal killer. You can have one a 3 years old that's bad or 30 years old and good.

I personally would keep the old on on hand but add a new one as well
 
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I discharge my little ones on the 4th every year.

Gives the kids some practice and gives me a reason to buy fresh ones.

The bigger one I do like has been discussed. If you turn it over and can hear the powder falling then your good to go as far as I know.
 
Keep one small dry for kitchen. As mentioned shake it good now and then. Also keep several of the large pressurized water ones. Now and then will empty and put in fresh water, just pressurize with the compressor. They can be a real home saver if something gets started and you are there to catch it. I use one of them as a sprayer for the roof and the tree's too. when I need to use moss killer on the roof one will make the job real easy. Same when it's time to spray the tree's. When done I just rinse, refill with water and it goes back to being for fire.
 
Yep. Same answer with the dry chemical ABC type. Drop it face up on a concrete floor from about one foot. Repeat about 5 times. Then drop it sideways from about the same distance five more times. Serious here. It most likely will not blow up. Then roll it around to re mix the caked dry chemical.

Then shake in a upright position. Then recheck the pressure gage. It still should read in the green range. You have just over hauled your own bottle. Old fire fighter trick. But ... the dry chemical bottles are a pain to clean up. Messy. Consider a larger CO2 type. No after mess from the extinguisher.

ALSO: HELPFUL HALLOWEEN HINT! ... Big CO2 bottles are the big gag with the older tricker treaters. Unscrew the cone end and poke just the hose out the crack in the open door. Hose off the big nasty kids. Much fun. Much noise. Much cloud of gas. Harmless. Do not use on the young kids. Scares them. :)
 
Good thread.

I fired an older small one today; the moss on a large fir tree near a slash burn was smoking....:oops: I had 3 fire extinguishers in the 2 seater so grabbed the oldest one and letter rip......:confused:

I got one little shot and the pressure was gone; still a bunch of powder inside..maybe the prostate was blocking the flow...:D

The gauge was in the green too..

I ended up filling a backpack sprayer full of plain water and that went up the 15 feet needed; and did the job.

Lesson learned; don't depend on an old Fire Extinguisher. :rolleyes:
 
Extinguishers are cheap insurance. Have two in the kitchen, two in our bedrooms, two in our laundry room and one in each vehicle. Can get small ones at Wal Mart for $10-15 and big ones are about $20. Keep an eye on the guage but replace every few years as a precaution. Think of it like cycling out carry ammo.
 
I should note that I keep my outdoor hoses hooked up unless freezing weather hits so that I can use them in a pinch if I had to.

I just finished installing a frost free faucet today on a water line I have running from the connection point to an inground irrigation line that I keep charged all winter. It is a 1 1/2 inch line feed by a 3/4 meter line with about 2,000 feet in the ground. I keep a 3/4 inch garden hose with a fire nozzle on a drained hose during freezing weather. I get about 85 psi on that line and can knock down any fire pretty quick. I only live about 3 miles from the fire station, but any jump I get on it will make a lot of difference.
 
Thanks for starting this thread, RicInOR. We bought a couple of dry type extinguishers 19 years ago when we moved into our house, put one in the kitchen and one in the garage, and promptly forgot about them. Haven't even looked at them since. Guess I'll pick up a couple of new ones next time I'm at Costco.
 
I think the life span of our commercial extinguishers at work is 6 years.

I usually turn them upside down and shake up the bicarb on the bottom each month.
You can feel it drop.

I bought some from depot this year for each house level, I need to get one for esach vehicle as well.
But I would say 3-5 years. I would turn them upside down every few months
 

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