Fire Extinguisher Inspection Austin. When it comes to fire extinguishers, these are items that can often be easy to forget about until they end up being needed; however, the overall hope is that you will never have to actually use one. If this actually does end up happening, it’s important to be prepared in terms of knowing that your fire extinguisher is inspected, as well as knowing everything that you need to know about fire extinguishers themselves.
Depending on what kind of inspection is actually being performed, there are a few different requirements and recommendations regarding the time between inspections; however, you can expect to find a fire extinguisher inspection checklist for all of these options in order to ensure that everything is properly checked.
One method involves visual fire extinguisher inspections. OSHA mandates that employers are required to perform visual inspections on portable fire extinguishers at least once per month, which is also considered to be an acceptable benchmark for homeowners to follow as well. A visual inspection will help to ensure many different points, such as the extinguisher itself remaining present in its designated location, no damage has occurred to it, there are no obstructions blocking the extinguisher from either view or easy access, and the extinguisher being operational and fully charged. During a visual inspection, it’s important to look for a few important things, such as obvious signs of physical damage, reviewing the pressure gauge, ensuring that the pull pin isn’t missing, verifying the last professional inspection date, and both dating and initialing the back of the fire extinguisher inspection tag in order to log the monthly inspection.
Another method involves maintenance inspections, which should take place once per year. This type of inspection involves a more thorough examination and repair of all portable fire extinguishers as covered in NFPA 10(98), Sec. 4-4. These are inspections that should always be performed by a professional fire protection company, as they possess all of the proper training and tools that will help to ensure an optimal amount of compliance while, at the same time, recognizing and correcting any and all possibly hazardous situations. When an extinguisher passes its annual maintenance, a dated inspection tag will be attached to it in order to verify this. This tag will be good for one full year from the date that is listed on it. On the other hand, if the extinguisher does not pass the inspection, then it will need to be either repaired or replaced.
Fire Extinguisher Inspection Austin. One other method involves internal maintenance inspection, which should take place ever 5, 6, or 12 years depending on the type of extinguisher. This is a type of maintenance that should also be performed by a fire protection company, as it involves discharging an extinguisher as well as a total internal examination and recharging in order to ensure that all parts of the extinguisher itself are working properly. Additionally, fire extinguisher cylinders must periodically be hydrostatically tested to check their overall integrity and ability to safely contain the pressure that is used to expel the agent itself.