|
Posted by Tom Horne on April 4, 2008, 5:35 pm
salty@dog.com wrote:
> wrote:
>
>> salty@dog.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have several small ABC Kiddie fire extinguishers. Most are mounted
>>>> near an exterior door. I have one in the kitchen, basement shop,
>>>> garage, and truck. The pressure dial shows the extinguisher has
>>>> pressure and should be periodically inspected. An open box of
>>>> baking soda near the stove is very effective for grease fires. The
>>>> thing to keep in mind is to have the extinguishers ready and easily
>>>> accessible. Hopefully, you won't ever have to use one.
>>> Here's another good tip: Every month or so, take each extinguisher off its
>>> bracket and shake it vigorously until you can hear the powder moving inside.
If
>>> they hand for long periods, the gauge will still say they are good, but the
>>> powder will haved settled itself into a solid lump and the extinguisher will
not
>>> work.
>>>
>>>
>> It takes a lot longer then a month for the chemical to compact to a non
>> flowing state. Follow the instructions on the label that contains the
>> listing mark. You only need to take it off of the hook once every six
>> months. You then simply invert it and wait for the powder to fall
>> loosely to the top of the cylinder. You can feel the powder drop. Do
>> not pound or shake! If the powder doesn't fall loose on it's own the
>> extinguisher should be serviced or replaced. Turn the extinguisher
>> right side up and put it back on the bracket.
>
> So, you are claiming that stirring up the powder more frequently to
> PREVENT it from caking is not as good as waiting to do it until after
> it already starts to settle and cake? Okay!
>
I'm saying that the powder will not cake in that short a time unless
there is something wrong with it. Some examples of the something wrong
are moisture in the cylinder, mixing of incompatible powders, or over
charging of the unit with too much chemical.
Shaking the extinguisher seems to make sense at the intuitive level but
it is not, in fact, best practice. By shaking the extinguisher you may
break up the caking into lumps that will plug the nozzle orifice during
use preventing the extinguisher from discharging at the point when you
need it most.
By doing as I've described you have an opportunity to detect a problem
with the extinguisher prior to a need arising. If you shake or bang the
extinguisher around you are more likely to conceal a defect then you are
to clear one.
I base this on three years of work as a fire extinguisher technician in
California were the fire code requires that all extinguishers be torn
down annually instead of at the National Fire Protection Association
recommended interval of six years. During that time I found many
extinguishers that had been rendered inoperative by an incompetent
service technician's work the previous year but I never found one
inoperative due to chemical caking except were the extinguisher had been
improperly charged with damp air rather then dry nitrogen and when
incompatible chemicals had been mixed. I serviced literally several
thousand extinguishers during that period. I have been involved in the
fire and rescue service in many capacities since that time. I've
personally inspected hundreds of fire extinguishers using the method
I've suggested. I've found two, that I can recall, were the powder
would not fall of it's own weight and both were in need of servicing. I
only did the follow up work on one of them and found that the
extinguisher had been improperly charged with incompatible chemicals.
On the other one the follow up was done by the Fire Marshall's office
because it involved a day care center. I never heard what the cause of
that one needing service was. I do know that during subsequent company
in service inspections of that premise that extinguisher behaved as it
should have with the powder falling loose of it's own weight.
It's just a suggestion sir. Do it however you like but you won't find
one manufacturers recommendation or one set of "labeled" maintenance
instructions that directs the shaking or striking of the extinguisher.
--
Tom Horne
Well we aren't no thin blue heroes but we aren't no blackguards to.
We're just working men and women most remarkable like you.
With apologies to the Kipling trust for the paraphrasing.
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap