Rank: Forum user 
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We have had a spate of failed extinguishers in our place.
Now had 5 inside 7 months! I never had that many in 13 years of FRS!
Can anyone share their failed extinguisher experiences? Without naming the company at the heart of this in public, but please send me a private message so we can compare notes maybe?
The company at fault in my case says they never have any faulty units!
I'm just REALLY unlucky then??
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I assume you means they've failed durind training sessions, as if you are having fires at 5 in 7 months, it not just the extinguishers that are failing!
Surely it depends on how many people use them for training in a given month and how they are serviced/refilled following training.
I have to say, it does seem to be a bit on the high side
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Few things to consider in any response - how many FE's do you have? I see plenty of failures but then we have over 3000.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Sorry if I have misunderstood - I thought you meant failed during annual inspection.
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Rank: Forum user
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I mean failing when they are required for a fire! (and 2 during training)
We do a lot of hot works and often have SMALL fires igniting in oil residues. It's a fairly common occurrence, and no we can't put other measures in place!
It's just part of the work.
The men are all trained in use, fire safety and fire prevention and we have strict RAMS covering the work.
The extinguishers are all stored correctly, maintained, inspected (by me) and from a mainstream , well know provider.
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Rank: Forum user
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Oh and we are now running at over 50% fail rate!
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Rank: Forum user
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We are serviced annually by chubb.Wouldnt know of any ones that would fail in an emergency as weve only ever needed to use one once.
A member of staffs car set on fire when they pulled up for work and they used 2 powder extinguishers on it!!
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Rank: Forum user
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I would suspect you have a bum service engineer. Talk with Chubb about who is (names please) doing the inspection (poor inspection - have lost pressure) OR who is refilling these extinguishers and failing to reassemble them properly.
Thinking, if you have a 'Store' of extinguishers that get issued to Hot Work jobs, then these will get used and refilled a lot [as opposed to the ones that sit on the office wall] Common factor is who is refilling and reassembling them. Of course you can't 'test' and extrinuisher.
Maybe go to a good local firm and watch the staff in their workshop. Chubb is a global multinational with systems but not much else.(my experience).
Regards
Peter
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Rank: Forum user
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Are you talking about dry powder extinguishers as these can be temperamental especially if carried on vehicles first, the vibration make the power solidify. Agitating the power can help to prevent this.
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Rank: Forum user
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firestar967 wrote:Are you talking about dry powder extinguishers as these can be temperamental especially if carried on vehicles first, the vibration make the power solidify. Agitating the power can help to prevent this. Understood, but it's not the powder that's the problem. It's just the complete lack of pressure on operating. Plus the extinguishers are removed from the vehicle and shaken when ever I inspect them.
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Rank: Forum user
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phow wrote:I would suspect you have a bum service engineer. Talk with Chubb about who is (names please) doing the inspection (poor inspection - have lost pressure) OR who is refilling these extinguishers and failing to reassemble them properly.
Thinking, if you have a 'Store' of extinguishers that get issued to Hot Work jobs, then these will get used and refilled a lot [as opposed to the ones that sit on the office wall] Common factor is who is refilling and reassembling them. Of course you can't 'test' and extrinuisher.
Maybe go to a good local firm and watch the staff in their workshop. Chubb is a global multinational with systems but not much else.(my experience).
Regards
Peter They don't do the refilling. It is all farmed out in bulk. The 'engineer' turns up, takes the empties and leaves 'full' ones in place. And the ones that go to site are therefore different ones every time.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Agreed that the failure rate is far too high. As an insurer, I often used to go to sites that had suffered a fire and where FEA had been used, I was never aware of anyone having an operation issue with them.
First of all I'd take a look at the work environment. Is it a hostile environment in terms of chemicals, salt or temperature extremes? Could the FEA be provided with covers or an easy access cabinet for protection.
Is there any possibility that staff are using the FEA and putting them back on the hook? When you say no pressure are you saying the extinguishment media is still in place but no gas pressure - I'm guessing you must be.
Once you've looked at your own operations then you need to go to the senior management of the FEA company and ask them to investigate. Could be a bad batch at their end and you've been unlucky in receiving your stock in that batch.
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Rank: Forum user
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stevie40 wrote:...
First of all I'd take a look at the work environment. Is it a hostile environment in terms of chemicals, salt or temperature extremes? Could the FEA be provided with covers or an easy access cabinet for protection.
Is there any possibility that staff are using the FEA and putting them back on the hook? When you say no pressure are you saying the extinguishment media is still in place but no gas pressure - I'm guessing you must be.
Once you've looked at your own operations then you need to go to the senior management of the FEA company and ask them to investigate. Could be a bad batch at their end and you've been unlucky in receiving your stock in that batch. The environment they are stored in and transported is not hostile. Properly fastened in carriage brackets in vehicles then stored in site cabins on site, then when required taken adjacent to the work position. (Which is a lot of the time indoors) The staff are all trained by me how to use properly and I have observed one operation on site by one man who complained about a faulty and he was using it correctly. I honestly rule out operator error or misuse (which was my initial suspicion) but the men all know what they are doing. The units are all inspected at least monthly by myself and the security tags all remain in place. And yes I do mean there is plenty of extinguishing medium (powder) but no compressed air.
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