This could save your life

[Bart Leetch]

I was advised by the people that service our fire extinguishers here at the apartment complexes not to ever purchase cheap plastic valved extinguishers because they will fail to hold pressure & about the time you need them they won't work. The person that told me this explained that as plastic breaks down it shrinks & he showed me some older plastic valved extinguishers that had leaked down & we examined them along side metal valved extinguishers & you could clearly see why they had leaked down.

[Richard Wolf]

Thanks for the heads up Bart.

Richard

[Bruce Page]

Bart, I change out my extinguishers every few years, but the pressure gage on them still always reads a full charge. I buy the KIDDE brand that has the UL stamp of approval. It seems to me that if your service people are telling the truth, Underwriters Lab would never allow their name on it. :confused:

[Bart Leetch]

Bruce I wonder if the Underwriters Lab are aware of this problem because it happens with age & may be something they have never seen or been made aware of maybe they spend to much time testing new products & not enough time testing old or aged products.

You & I have both seen how plastic ages because it is made from oil & will break down over time. Having a fire extinguisher like yours & being the smart person you are & trading it out every few years is a very wise thing to do.

I have an old one that failed. I had already replaced it & just put the old one in a closet & one day I noticed it had lost pressure but the safety band was still in place so I knew it had not been discharged & this is how I found out about plastic fire extinguisher valves when I showed it to our fire extinguisher service people & they explained what had happened. They told me they see this quite often & only recommend quality manufactured fire extinguishers with metal valves.

I always have to remind myself of the below statement.

One thing my Grandfather used to say was, "The book of what you don't know will always be bigger than the book of what you do know."

I figure this statement fit Underwriters Lab just as well as it does me or anyone else.