One of my buddies is the head maintance engineer at a local Hospital. He had pointed something out recently to the 4x4 club we are in. One of his dudties is t o ever six months pull EVERY dry chemical extingisher out of it's mount and turn it upside down and beat on it's bottom.
Ok it sounds stupid but here is why it's done. The powder in a dry chemical extingusher can become packed. If the extinguisher has this happen it will not function correctly.
Well packing happens much worse in a moving vehicle so he recomends doing this monthly.
Just thought I would pass this on!
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1959 22' Caravanner
1988 R20 454 Suburban.
Atlanta, GA
Your Buddy is absolutely correct!
in the fire service we shake our dry chems one to two times per week, but we are kind of anal. I flip my personal extinguishers whenever i think of it but usually about 1 time a month.
Great advice most people never think of extinguishers as needing regular maintenance.
Funny you should mention this....a while back, I had (and still do since I had them recharged) these extingishers on my boat....well, they were originals from 1964. I thought, you know, I need to test these (beer induced logic).
So I promptly pulled the pin and squeezed the handle to see if after almost 40 years, they still worked.......
They did and left a heck of a mess in the garage!
They sat for seasons at a time in the boat, over the months, but when in the boat, they would get shaken up.
Not as fun though as discharging an ansul system....even more messy!
Eric
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Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq and millions of others are by far the most popular with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form. -NY Times 1991
Originally posted by Silvertwinkie Funny you should mention this....a while back, I had (and still do since I had them recharged) these extingishers on my boat....well, they were originals from 1964. I thought, you know, I need to test these (beer induced logic).
So I promptly pulled the pin and squeezed the handle to see if after almost 40 years, they still worked.......
They did and left a heck of a mess in the garage!
They sat for seasons at a time in the boat, over the months, but when in the boat, they would get shaken up.
Not as fun though as discharging an ansul system....even more messy!
Eric
don't tell the Sky is falling crowd but I still have some Haylon extinguishers I keep around. Less mess and no maintaince. Had one of the little ones that was about the size of a haris spray that I kept next to the stove. That thing sure has put out a lot of grease fires from me and my roomies bad cooking when I was single
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1959 22' Caravanner
1988 R20 454 Suburban.
Atlanta, GA
Sounds like a roomie I "BOOTED" when he almost burned my house down with grease fire. Guess he figured he'd do one better and burn his parents kitchen to ashes, as he did 2 months later.
Originally posted by FireFighter why are you guys looking to switch from Dry Chem to foam?
I suspect for clean up. If I have a fire Dry chemical is my last resort. That stuff is major corrosive and that powder get's everywhere. I don't mean to sound like I would hesitate to use one if things were getting out of hand but I sure would look for another alterantve first.
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1959 22' Caravanner
1988 R20 454 Suburban.
Atlanta, GA
Clean-up and because my wife has asthma where the dust of a dry chemical can trigger an attack... something already likely under stress.
Some BC only extinguishers are just baking soda and aren't corrosive, but the ABC ones are.
Nothing beats water, especially soapy water, for an A class fire, so I usually use a Y connector on the water spigot, and hook up a garden hose, which is kept handy just outside the trailer.
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