If you want to go through the trouble of periodically removing your portables and shaking them, and it makes you comfortable, by all means go ahead. But also consider snapping the cheap plastic bracket open each month and having it break or potentially dropping the extinguisher during the shake.
And like a peanut butter slathered slice of bread, odds are pretty good it will land on the valve.
The portable extinguishers we see and commonly use are dry chemical, not dry powder.
Ansul
Amerex
Badger
Ansi
Kiddee
NFPA
USCG
Pick one
Not one of the above manufacturers or the NFPA, ANSI or the USCG (CFR's C46) have any standard or recommendation that portable dry chemical fire extinguishers need to be periodically “shaken” to prevent packing.
NFPA 10 standards for fire extinguisher maintenance are thorough and have no mention of shaking or packing.
That is myth.
The roots of the myth? I don’t know for sure but if I had to guess it comes from seldom publicly seen cartridge style extinguishers that were subject to tampering or poor maintenance (you Navy types no doubt have seen plenty of them).
If shaking was required it would be on the instructions printed on the side of the extinguisher.
37+ years of firefighting and not once did I ever grab a 20-30 pound extinguisher from a compartment and stop to give it a good shake before use.
It would be interesting to see someone shake a 125-300 pound wheeled dry chem extinguisher.
Amerex is one of few manufacturers to actually put something out about this.
__________________
Thanks,
Duane
2019 DRV MS 39DBRS3
2020 F-450
|