Update on old Fire Extinguisher question
Tim Greif - West of Chicago
A few months ago, I posted a question regarding the issue of old fire extinguishers. Here's a link to that thread:
Fire Extinguisher Thread
I wondered if it's considered safe to assume they're still effective after many years of just sitting there. Mine is an old American Lafrance no longer made that was probably around 30 years old. I decided in the interest of safety to replace it. But someone had recommended that if I did that, I might want to test the old one and report back the results. I'm happy to report that it actuallyu worked just fine. I completely discharged it before tossing it in the trash. I was surprised that it created a rather significant white cloud in the neighborhood upon discharging. I had never performed any service on it, but I did shake it up a bit before discharging. This little exercise convinced me that you probably don't need to throw away your old fire extinguishers if they still show a pressure reading in the safe zone.
Just thought you might want to know.
