What are the Reasons Your Fire Extinguishers Need to be Serviced?

The maintenance or servicing of fire extinguishers is crucial because they play a vital part in putting fires out before they get out of hand and also protect your family, Fire Extinguishers Need to be Serviced business, staff, and visitors. Hence, it is recommended to get your extinguishers checked regularly to ensure their proper working condition, and in case the extinguishers don’t get serviced, they could result in disaster. Having your equipment serviced is extremely important. According to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, it is mandatory that fire extinguishers and other installed fire safety equipment are required to be installed and maintained following the manufacturers' instructions or relevant British Standard Code of Practice.

Here is a list of the top four reasons why your fire extinguishers need to be serviced regularly.

1. Internal Damage

There is a maximum chance of occurring of any damage to the fire extinguisher after using it over some time. Corrosion can occur inside the extinguishers (because of using aluminum or steel material), which is the foremost reason for weakening the integrity of the cylinder over time as well as causing the extinguisher to fail when operated.

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Apart from this, the discharge hose on the extinguisher is one more part where debris or insects can get blocked that can reduce the efficiency of the extinguisher when used. Even the O-rings on the hose can also deteriorate the functionality of the extinguisher.

2. Potential Leaks

If indirect leaks can occur from the fire extinguisher, then it could make the extinguisher useless. The best part is that modern fire extinguishers have pressure gauges that can help you check the potential gas leaks within extinguisher if it occurs. However, pressurized fire extinguishers sometimes fail to identify the leakage part. Therefore, it is advisable to check and get serviced the extinguisher if it has lost pressure or a faulty gauge (not applicable for CO2 extinguishers, which operate at very high pressure and have no gauges).

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3. Occurrence of Wear & Tear in Labels

Fire extinguishers experience general wear and tear over time even when they are not in use. This problem occurs, especially if the cylinders are installed outdoors in idle condition, fading, illegible maintenance, or in an active warehouse setting.

For this reason, make sure all the labels pasted on the extinguisher are readable as they contain important instructions. They are also useful for proper use (useful for anyone when he or she need it to fight a fire practically) and essential for the service technicians for a record of fire extinguisher maintenance, inspection or testing.

4. Negligence of Recharging

A fire extinguisher is advisable to recharge a fire extinguisher even it was discharged for a short burst or partially. This ensures fire cylinders are ready to use again in the future without giving you any trouble to operate.

There is a chance of leaking gas after using the extinguisher over time (a fire extinguisher pressure gauge shows there is enough gas in there), thus it is best to get the fire extinguisher serviced.

Over to You

If you are not sure when your fire extinguishers got serviced last time, or they have not been checked for long, then contact Variex.in or give us a call to schedule a visit to your place. Our team of experts is ready to help provide the highest quality service for all of your fire extinguisher needs. They also suggest which fire system is best for your business and ensure a quality installation.