On 09/09/14 08:07 pm, Stormin Mormon wrote:
About a year ago, I took two old disposable fire
extinguishers out of a couple trailers. Replace
them with Walmart Kidde units with the pressure
gauge. I'd heard enough horror stories of old dry
chem units that go bad, and there is no way to
test them. Tonight I was at a friend's house,
burning papers. I asked his permission to test
the two take out units.

First one I tried was a Fyr Fyter. The label says
it is model 210D, made in USA, 2002. Probably year
of manufacture. Made by Walter Kidde. I shook the
unit to free up the chemical. I pulled the yellow
safety device, and then pushed on the white button
with both thumbs. To my surprise, it discharged, a
range of about 6 to 8 feet, in still air. Gracious,
that was surprise. I didn't expect any discharge
at all.

The second unit also a Fyr Fyter, model 210D. This
one has paper tape over the button, and then a metal
piece under the paper. Date of the unit says 1991.
Entirely and totally to my surprise (and the guy
with me) this one discharged perfectly, like the
first one.

Admittedly these were both in church owned trailers,
and there might been some divine protection. But,
I'm astounded that two disposable units this old,
both worked.

Nice job, Walter Kidde!

I just checked our two Kidde dry-chemical extinguishers that have
pressure gauges -- both still in the green. It took a while to discover
that there is actually a use-by date on these things: they "must be
taken out of service" 12 years from the date of manufacture -- the
latter being 2003 in our case.

But maybe we'll just keep them and buy a couple of new ones as well.

Perce