[Closed] Car fire extinguishers - test? How?

Check your yellow pages. There are guys that specialise in extinguisher testing/re-filling.
Usually annual checks so may be as cost effective just to buy a new one?
Alternatively, set your car alight and give it a try... 😀

if its a powder extinguisher (should have a Blue label if british made, tho if you got it from either lidl or Aldi then it wont have the UK colour coding)

Turn it upside down and listen for the fffffuuuuurrrumph1 noise as the power slides from one end to the other. They can become compacted and left for a while, and then when you come to use it the powder wont come out.

Dont rely on it to put much out, but it may give you a chance to get out. if you have an under bonnet fire, then dont open the bonnet all the way. stand in front of the car, and get someone else to pull the bonnet release, and immediatly spray the FE into the engine bay through the gap.

Oh and dont breath in the powder. its a VERY good laxative! dont ask how i know 😉

I wouldn't Want a dp one going off under my bonnet I'd rather let it burn tbh

...listen for the fffffuuuuurrrumph1 noise...

I've got the ones with the little pressure gauge on top.
As long as it stays in the green, I assume it will work when needed.

You wieght CO2, the weight should be stamped on the bottle and with powder the needle on the guage should be in the green zone. the annual checks do this and re tag them (I look after the fire extinguishers here at the hospital).
You only normaly need to replace the cartridge on a powder extingisher where as the CO2 have to be internal inspected as they are pressure vessels.

There's no gauge there. I'll give it a tap to loosen the powder up and replace when money starts coming.
I spoke to my Dad and he said I need a min. 1kg fire extinguisher for legal reasons back home. It means my 900gms one wouldn't be good enough for the local police. I'll get a larger one, 2kgs should be plenty enough.

Oh and dont breath in the powder. its a VERY good laxative! dont ask how i know

Having seen a the aftermath of a motorist who tried to extinguish a a car fire with a DP extinguisher make sure you know where the dry powder comes out of, absolutely covered in the stuff.

In rally cars, dry powder extinguishers tend to be mounted flat, longitudinally, so the forces of acceleration and braking force the powder to move around rather than stick in one place.

Aldi & Lidl have them in fairly regularly for around a tenner.

I've got mine mounted vertically, but then a Land Rover probably shakes up and down as much on a normal road as a rally car shakes backwards and forwards when it's racing.

I've seen a couple of car fires where extinguishers made bigger all difference apart from putting person using them in danger. I'd walk away its only a car...

Rally cars shouldn't be specced with powder these days, they should have foam, and mounting them flat doesn't make the powder "flow back and forth" it will simply settle in that position.
If you have a small powder extinguisher that doesn't have a pressue guage, replace it with one that does, and replace it every 5 years.

Rally cars shouldn't be specced with powder these days

Indeed they aren't, but plenty carry a dry powder extinguisher too. Apparently AFFF isn't that well trusted by some.

Indeed they aren't, but plenty carry a dry powder extinguisher too. Apparently AFFF isn't that well trusted by some.

you need what ever the MSA blue book says you need for discipline and year of the book - you can add to the mandatory requirements if you like - but that adds weight so upto you.

for road cars plumbed in remote trigger are not really appropriate.

Best to just replace the little jobs ever few years - last one i had was in date and weight and gauge and still did not go off as it should

for road cars plumbed in remote trigger are not really appropriate

Graphite is a good laxative?

tron - Member

Apparently AFFF isn't that well trusted by some.

Its good for cleaning the inside of your car as its basically washing up liquid....

Just have a bucket of water in the boot as standby in case of emergencies.

AFFF does its job. But for best knock down then dry powder is the thing. AFFF works best after the use of dry powder, and a cooling agent, or to cover a fuel spill.

Pardon my ignorance, but what on Earth is the AFFF you're talking about?

Aqueous film forming foam

We let off an old powder fire extinguisher that was a few year out of date...after a small pffftt, the only way we could get the powder out was to shake it up and down 🙁

Where I used to work there was a minor car fire in the car park, a shopper ran out with a dry powder extinguisher to help but was stood downwind of the car and managed to inhale some of the powder. He spent the next ten minutes coughing his guts up in the staff toilet whilst the ambulance came to get him, they implied he would be pretty ill for the next few days and that it would get worse before it got better...

Have to say unless the Mrs or pets were in danger I'd walk away from anything that I could'nt put out with a wet towel. Leave it to the "Grown Ups" to deal with.

Leave it to the "Grown Ups" to deal with.

thanks 😉

The common belief in the rally fraternity is that a plumbed in AFFF system will just about give you time to get out the car and "Run Away !!"

Crap seems to be the opinion. I 2000 seems more effective but is lots more expensive.

I had a go at extinguishing a Peugeot 206 engine bay fire with a 1kg BCF extinguisher. The Fire was not very advanced so i very carefully lifed the bonnet. A passing lady screamed " get away from it, it's going to blow up !!" which i found most helpful. Anyway, fully discharged the extinguisher towards base of the fire and then sat back to wait for the fire brigade !.

Seems like a minimum of 2kg is really needed.

Oh and yes i know BCF is no longer legal for environmental reasons but really, can a whole cars worth of plastics cause less polLution/Ozone loss than a few kg of BCF ?