Brass Pyrene fire extinguisher

I want an old brass fire extinguisher that works for my bike. I see them on eBay. Can these old extinguishers be recharged?

Hi dr.

Google Images show Pyrene brass fire extinguishers clearly enough that you can read the instructions on the label. It appears that there is a plug at the top which would serve as the filling port since they are not pressurized. To use one, you turn the handle and use it like a pump. You might want to find something less dangerous than carbon tetrachloride as your fire fighting material.

Stan

Thanks Stan , I don't think they use the carbon tet to fill them anymore. I wonder if there is any substute besides that it could be filled with.

I worked for a fire protection equipment company in Honolulu in the early 1970's. Types of fires were classified A, B, C, and D. Class A fires are solid combustibles, best put out with water. B fires are combustible liquids, best smothered with carbon dioxide or dry powder like bicarbonate of soda. C fires are electrical, and have to be smothered with a non-conductive agent like CO2. D fires are burning metals which must be smothered with dry powder. We used to say that Class E fires were St. Elmo's fire, but it wasn't any funnier then than it is now.

Carbon tet on an electrical fire can produce phosgene gas, so it wouldn't be a good choice even if it were available. Plain water may be as good an extinguishing agent as you will be able to put in that kind of extinguisher. The pumping action that expels the agent isn't going to work with any dry powder. That's a shame, because the best extinguisher that size would be an ABC dry chemical one. (There's no reason it couldn't also be used on electrical fires, but they weren't sold that way in the 1970's.) My suggestion is that you fill that extinguisher with water and keep it out for its good looks. Then keep a small ABC (and D?) dry chemical extinguisher handy but out of sight.

You might be amused to hear that the way to service a dry chemical fire extinguisher is to turn it upside down and hit the bottom of it with a rubber mallet. Extremely cheap dry chemical extinguishers used to have a pressure dial but no little button you could push in to see if the tank pressure would push it back out. After whacking the bottom of such a unit with your rubber mallet, you tested the gauge by flicking it with your fingernail. If the needle quivered, it was good. The high tech back then was simply amazing.

Stan

Baking Soda would work , get it from a pool supply store.

The only purpose would be to put out a carb fire [which usually occurs in a gas station] . I stopped by the Harley dealer with part numbers for the mounting bracket last available in 1977 and it was obsolete. I knda knew that but sometimes they have ols stock for weird parts. Looks like I can fill it with water then. Oh well.

Those old soda-acid extinguishers were banned many years ago because after sitting for some time the soda would get hard so that it did not dissolve well. Chunks of hard soda would be expelled under pressure from the reaction, until one caught in the discharge and then the canister would blow up.