Best Fire Extinguishers Reviewed & Rated for Quality

Thousands of people die every year in the house or office fires, and many more homes or buildings have been destroyed. Many of those could have been averted by early action. Fire is a tricky thing; once it has gotten going, it’s out of control, and often times even the fire department isn’t able to put it out. However, if you can get to it in time, it’s very possible to nip it in the bud. Having a fire extinguisher isn’t saying that you think you’re going to have a fire, it’s just being prepared for the possibility. If you never have cause to use it, all the better, but that’s not a reason not to have one. It’s simply a gamble that no one should ever take.

Car fires are a serious problem, whether they are sparked by an accident or a simple electrical issue. A car fire can rage, consuming the entire car and leaving it nothing but a ruined husk. People can sometimes be trapped inside them, too. Just like you need to stock a fire extinguisher in your home or office, it’s vital that you carry a fire extinguisher around in the trunk of your car, just in case a fire happens, and you aren’t prepared to deal with it.

Using a fire extinguisher is pretty straightforward. It has to be since the majority of people who are using a fire extinguisher are likely using it for the first time. The first thing you have to do is pull the pin out of the extinguisher. This pin is in place to make sure the extinguisher doesn’t go off at an inopportune time. It’s kind of like a safety for the extinguisher. Once the pin is gone, you want to aim the nozzle of the extinguisher at the base of the fire. There can be an instinct to aim at the center of the fire, but remember, the flames are always coming upwards, and the base of where the fire is is where you need to extinguish. Finally, once you’ve got it aimed, squeeze the handle to initiate the release. You want to let the whole extinguisher spray out as much as it can, generally going for a solid ten to twenty seconds. In that time, sweep the nozzle to cover as much of the fire as possible, but remember to aim at the base of the fire at all times.

Generally, fire extinguishers will spray one of two things. Either it will be a dry chemical or a wet clean agent. Each has different advantages and disadvantages. The clean agent is more expensive and advanced, so most fire extinguishers use that dry chemical. Either way, the basic idea is the same: the spray smothers the fire by preventing any oxygen from getting to the flames, preventing further combustion. That’s the purpose of the foam that you always see getting sprayed at the fire.

That depends on the type of extinguisher that you have. In many cases, no, after a fire extinguisher has been discharged, that’s that. Especially with the canister type extinguishers, but also with a number of the larger metal extinguishers, you just can’t ever use them again after spraying them once. A number of the extinguishers on this list, on the other hand, can be refilled. The process isn’t quite as simple as putting oil your car, though, since the material needs to be pressurized, so you’ll want to take the extinguisher to a professional to get it refilled and re-pressurized.

That depends on the extinguisher in question. Fortunately, extinguishers will generally display how long their lifespan is on their container. A typical lifespan of a fire extinguisher can last from anywhere from four to over ten years. To be honest, it’s not like the fire extinguisher suddenly stops working at that point, either. That’s just the point at which the extinguisher has deteriorated enough that it cannot be relied upon, and if there’s one thing that a fire extinguisher needs to be, it’s reliable.

Yes. Especially in a professional setting, fire extinguishers need to be inspected every year. If the extinguisher in question has a longer lifespan, then the internals should be checked as well, every six years. If you’ve got an extinguisher in your home, and you should, then, while there’s nobody enforcing you getting it inspected every year, it’s still a generally good idea.

The ability of the metal cylinder to maintain pressure is vital for a properly functioning fire extinguisher. That’s the point of the hydrostatic test. All of the chemicals are emptied out of the container, and it’s filled up with water, which is put under pressure. The metal has to withstand the pressure of the water for a minute, without having any evidence of the stress show. If there are any dents, bulges, or cracks, then the extinguisher has failed the test, and wouldn’t have functioned properly in the case of an emergency.

It’s easy to see why someone might be a bit reticent about using a fire extinguisher that looks like a can of bug spray. It doesn’t have the same safety-first attitude that a stand-up fire extinguisher has. And there’s some truth to that; a canister will never be able to take out a fire as big as a regular fire extinguisher will. That doesn’t mean that they’re useless, though; if you don’t have access to another fire extinguisher for any reason, the canister ones will still be helpful. They only become unsafe if they are allowed to overheat, like being left out in a hot, enclosed car.

The rating system seems pretty complex, but it’s relatively simple to break down:

A – Most types of fires that you’re likely to encounter, wood, paper, general trash, and most materials that are likely to catch on fire in a home.

B – Liquid-based fires, whether they be oil, gasoline, or even alcohol.

C – Electrical fires. This is a particularly important one because some things that will put out a regular fire will exacerbate an electrical one. Think about the difference between throwing water on a fireplace and on a computer.

D – Metal based fires. Quite rare in a non-industrial setting, so most extinguishers aren’t cleared for it.

K – The last rating, really for extinguishers that are specifically aimed at fires in industrial kitchens.

Each letter will be accompanied by a number; this number will indicate how much (in volume) of that type of fire the extinguisher can handle. The most versatile home extinguishers will be ABC certified since those are the fires they’re most likely to have to handle.

Classification really just refers to how much fire an extinguisher can put out. The higher the classification, the more fire the extinguisher is going to be able to handle. Generally, the higher classification extinguishers won’t be necessary for homes, simply because the fires that they’ll have to deal with won’t need that much power.

The gauge is to check the pressure of the extinguisher. The pressure is extremely important because, without pressure, the substance that is supposed to put out the fire won’t spray out at all. You generally won’t be able to do anything about a low-pressure extinguisher yourself, but check the gauge regularly, so that you know if there’s a problem you need to get the extinguisher looked at for.

Yes. The dry chemicals inside the extinguisher that put out the fire can interact with your property and damage it. However, that’s somewhat of a moot point. You’re not spraying a fire to save the stuff that’s already on fire; if it’s on fire, then it’s not coming out of this ordeal undamaged no matter what you do. You spray a fire to protect the things around it from also catching on fire. However, and especially in automobiles, there is some call for extinguisher spray that won’t damage the material that’s being sprayed at. That’s where the more expensive clean agent comes in; it smothers fire without (further) damaging the substance that’s on fire.