How Often Do Fire Extinguishers Need to Be Serviced?

As a general rule, you should inspect your fire extinguishers yourself on a monthly basis. These monthly checks don’t need to be anything significant—just take a look and make sure the extinguisher is in good condition and that the gauge indicates that the canister is sufficiently pressurized for proper usage.

However, there are some more significant checks you should make that will require the assistance of a professional, including holistic fire extinguisher inspection and service in Lawrenceville, GA once a year and internal inspections once every six years by professionals.

Is my fire extinguisher still good to go?

Occasionally we have customers who wonder whether they’re still able to use the same fire extinguisher they’ve had for years and years, or if they need to replace it. This really depends on a variety of factors—there are some circumstances in which it does make more sense to replace the extinguisher than to have it serviced, especially if you suddenly find yourself needing to have your extinguisher serviced more than once a year by a professional team.

Here are some tips that will help you determine if your fire extinguisher is still operational and capable of being relied upon for use in any potential emergency scenario:

  • Date of manufacture: All fire extinguishers that have been designed for commercial use will have the manufacturing date of the extinguisher printed or stamped somewhere on the canister or the label. Look carefully for that date. There are some extinguishers that will need to be refurbished after five or six years. If the extinguisher is older than that and you don’t know when it was last inspected, you should call a professional to perform a fire extinguisher inspection in Lawrenceville, GA as soon as possible.
  • Annual inspections: As we already mentioned, it’s a good idea to perform a monthly check of your extinguishers yourself, as well as to arrange for annual inspections with professionals. There should be a tag on your extinguisher that indicates when the inspection was most recently performed. If you’re in a commercial facility, you should have whoever is in charge of building safety or maintenance keep track of fire extinguisher maintenance and inspections to make sure you’ve got that task covered reliably.
  • Internal maintenance requirements: The National Fire Protection Association mandates internal maintenance at particular intervals for fire extinguishers to make sure it works as needed if an emergency scenario occurs. If you have a carbon dioxide or wet chemical extinguisher, you should have it hydrotested every five years. If you have a dry chemical extinguisher, you should have it hydrotested every 12 years.

This should give you a good sense of the kind of maintenance you need to perform on your fire extinguishers and the intervals at which that maintenance must occur. If you have any questions about fire extinguisher maintenance or need to schedule an appointment for fire extinguisher inspection in Lawrenceville, GA, we encourage you to reach out to the team at AAA Fire Protection Resources, Inc. today.

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