Posted By gham Off the top of my head i couldn't tell you but have you tried tendering the maintenance contract for your fire safety equipment recently. This would highlight any problems and asking someone to come round to survey for a quote will cost you nowt.

Posted By TBC As a general point if the extinguisher is still serviceable, not corroded and passes the pressure testing etc. I see no need to exchange it. OK standards do change with regard to design and specs etc, but you don't have to change all your existing extinguishers to bring them up to date immediately - you usually change them when they have reached their expiry date i.e. no longer serviceable. A lot of companies will obviously use whatever they can to push new sales. How old are the extinguishers? Some can last for over ten years depending on the conditions they are housed in.

Posted By garyh In cases like this I would ring the local fire brigade and ask the opinion of the station officer. They may even call in some time - in my experience they love to get out of the station on familiarisation visits etc.... Haning said that I am not so sure they still do things likje that since the advent of COMAH they seem to spend lots of time on practicising on site and off site exercises with higher tier sites..........

Posted By Frank Hallett Please be aware that the fire extinguishing trades made a real finacial killing by persuading everyone that BSEN3 was a legal srequirement and that the old-style BS3 was no longer legal! BSEN3 currently has no standing in UK law other than as a Standard - ergo, optional! It could be considered to be "Best Practice"; but even then cannot be enforced or presented as a legal minima [or maxima] although I suspect that some FSs will attempt to use it as a compliance standard when evaluating FRAs. Just ensure that your FRA is sufficiently comprehensive and that your extinguisher provision is determined by a party who is categorically independant of the extinguisher provider and servicer. If you decide to use the advice of the extinguisher provider/servicer; ensure that their insurance is suitable for them to provide this form of consultancy and get at least 3 competetive quotes. Frank Hallett

Posted By shaun mckeever I can support Frank (Hallet) on this. I have come across many organisations who have been 'misled' regarding the status of British Standards. Frank (Mcleod) follow this link and look at item 6 it may be helpful http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/79-1.htm Regards, Shaun

Posted By Max Bancroft Although not lehally enforceable, it is worthwhile checking what your insurance compay has put into the policy - I believe some of them insist that things like Fire Extinguishers meet the BS EN. But with the caveat that current ones which meet a previous BS are acceptable until they expire. So perhpas not so much a H&S issue as an insurance one - which is what makes this job so interesting!

Posted By Allen Higginson Check also your fire certificate (if you have one issued by the local FA) - it may state that certain procedures must be to the relevant standard (BS5839:1 (2002) for example).Best example of this being that I have had customers cutting their maintenance visits down to twice yearly because you are permitted to do so.However,if your service provider recommends quarterly inspections and you refuse then your system will no longer be maintained to BS 5839:1 (2002) Section 6. Although the BS is on the whole a series os standards and recommendations they are there for a reason, and a lot of enforcable regulations do make reference to it in the basis of their requirements.

Posted By Fred Pratley Jane, We had a similar problem some time ago. I found a solution by talking with our loss assessor (during one of their property inspections), and asked for a reccomendation on local companies, (word of mouth can be best) which he was happy to do. Regards Fred