Fire Extinguisher Maintenance

Fire extinguishers should be serviced regularly to maintain their continuous availability. Absolute Fire Protection Ltd provide quality fire extinguisher service in accordance with BS 5306-3:2009.

If you think your fire extinguishers might be due for service, let us know. We will assess your existing equipment and provide a service quotation completely free of charge.

Why you should care

Fire extinguishers and blankets – just like any other fire protection equipment, should be subjected to a regular maintenance (see RRFSO article 17). It's obvious that the responsibility to appoint a competent individual or company to carry out such maintenance is of Responsible Person's.

The article, however, does not explain importance of such service. As the fire extinguishers age, they become more prone to faults. Poorly serviced extinguishers are very likely to fail just when they are needed the most – in fire emergency. Some of the reasons may be:

• wear and tear
  Extinguisers are usually quietly positioned on their brackets most of their existence. However, their long lifespan in combination with activities such as tampering, relocating, collisions with furniture or luggage, drops due to bracket failure or adverse weather conditions, can render them unusable or even dangerous.
• high pressure
  Every fire extinguisher contains pressure ranging from cca. 7 to 300 bar. This pressure constantly pushes outwards against the walls of the containing body, lining and insulation. It is not unusual for the pressure to slowly leak from the extinguisher, leaving it unusable.
• internal corrosion
  Extinguishing agents, many (if not most) of them being corrosive, are in constant contact with extinguisher's internal parts. The critical parts are usualy protected with corrosive-resistant paint, rubber or plastic lining, or are made of inoxydable alloys (e.g. stainless steel); nonetheless we still find many extinguishers with their linings bubbled or ruptured, with rusty pressurised cartridges or walls. Corroding extinguishers are especially unreliable and dangerous.

Fire blankets should be inspected at the time of extinguisher maintenance for any damaged, missing, incorrectly positioned or used units. It is oftentimes a case that the cloth is returned to its container after being used on fire – when, in fact, it should have been disposed instead.

Service schedule

Unless your fire risk assessment states otherwise, the fire extinguisher service should take place one year (±1 month) after a major extinguisher installation and annualy thereafter, until extinguishers become unserviceable. In short, fire extinguishers are usually serviced annually, preferably in the same month their installation took place.

Thoroughly serviced extinguishers should last indefinitely, except for carbon dioxide and primary sealed dry powder extinguishers, which must be overhauled after 10 years and completely destroyed after 20 years.