Why You Need to Fire Extinguisher Testing Services

Most commercial buildings should always have different safety features to ensure no one gets hurt or fatally injured and prevent potential building damage. You can find several building safety features such as metal detectors in entrances and fire alarms. You should also note that building safety features need to be inspected regularly to ensure they perform when they need to.

Apart from inspecting building safety systems, they would also inspect safety apparatuses like the fire extinguishers. It is one part of the fire safety system that should work efficiently when a person needs to extinguish the flames right away. Usually, commercial building owners would get fire extinguisher pressure testing to know if they are still in the proper condition or if they need to be replaced. If you don’t know the importance of fire extinguisher testing services, you should know that it comes with several benefits.

Looking for Inconspicuous Damage

Fire extinguishers are not used most of the time, so they can gain underlying damage that could become detrimental when people need to use them. You would not want your fire extinguisher to fail when the fire slowly consumes your building’s floor. While you may think that the fire extinguisher does not have damage, you need to check closely because the damage is difficult to spot.

Examples of underlying fire extinguisher damage are corrosion to the steel or aluminium surface inside. When this type of issue happens, it can weaken the cylinder integrity over time, which you would not want to happen as even a small blunt force could put a dent on the surface. You need the fire extinguishers to look neat and in top condition at all times to ensure it does not fail when you use it.

Possible Hose Clogs

Since fire extinguishers stay unused for an extended period, the hose might get clogged by many things such as insects, dirt, dust, and other debris. You need to make sure the hoses stay unclogged all the time if you want them to extinguish the fire as quickly as possible. You may also think that the pressure from the cylinder will cause the hose to unclog itself when you use it.

That is where you are wrong because the clog could become clumped inside the hose that it prevents even the smallest pressure to exit. An excellent way to fix this is by contacting a fire extinguisher pressure testing service to see if there are any potential clogs inside the hose. They will also check the O-rings on the hose because it also deteriorates, further compromising the fire extinguisher.

Possible Leaks

One issue you would not want to have on your fire extinguisher is when it leaks. Even a tiny hole on the surface of it can slowly pour out the contents, making it unusable whenever you need to extinguish a fire. Whether the fire extinguisher’s contents are foam, chemical, or water-based, the hole should never exist on its surface.

Luckily, you can quickly check if there is a hole in it by checking the pressure gauges. Once you notice that the gauge is slowly dropping every day, you should not think twice about hiring fire extinguisher testing services because they will know the appropriate action to take. They can even find other issues that are causing the leaks.

Fire extinguishers are essential for any building, whether it is a residential or commercial one. As long as you hire a reliable fire extinguisher testing service, you will not have issues with your fire extinguishers for the days to come.