Fire Extingusher Heaven

[shrimply]

Well about a week ago I paid £33 for a 5kg fire extinguisher

My dad's just come home from work where he bumped into an old friend... servicing fire safety equipment.

So naturally the fact that there was now a fire extinguisher sitting in our living room came up. Apparently this guy, who owns a private fire safety firm has 50 that he needs to get rid of So £33 wasted so to speak.

However, he'll swap mine whenever its empty, no mention of cost but my dad is under the impression it'll be practically nothing. His firm was the one I was going to call when I needed mine refilled but I didn't really think they'd refill private cylinders and I certainly wasn't going to tell them I was removing the horn and fitting a regulator to them. Apparently it isn't a problem.

So good news for once, only thing it the guy seemed concerned that my fire extinguisher should be filled with the right kind of CO2, anyone shed any light on this.

My understanding was you got industrial grade and food grade and the fact that fire extinguishers were industrial grade was unimportant. Surely you'd never fill fire extinguisher with food grade CO2. Any thoughts.

 

[Geoff1991]

AFAIK, co2 is co2. Dont think there can be different types, right?

 

[shrimply]

There is different grades, BOC say they offer four.

* Industrial applications.
* Food.
* Medical applications.
* Electronics.

From what I've read is really not important for aquarium use, what concerns me is the comment that there is more than one type of Co2 that can be in a fire extinguisher. I'm presuming that my dad got his wires crossed here. But I can see how companies could add other chemicals to the CO2 for whatever reason.

 

[Geoff1991]

Never heard of that, people here that use fire extingushers just buy them off ebay without thinking twice AFAIK

 

[jmkgreen]

Likely to relate to purity and to what's inside the canister.

 

[tropic_john]

when you buy a f.e its filled with the co2 they use in fires. Ask your dads mate just to fill your f.e with the type used for f.e [i.e for using against fires.]

 

[shrimply]

when you buy a f.e its filled with the co2 they use in fires. Ask your dads mate just to fill your f.e with the type used for f.e [i.e for using against fires.]

What else is it going to be filled with???

And its all to do with purity, food grade is supposed to be purer, although there seems to be some debate about this and the general consensus is that industrial grade is safe for use in aquariums.

I imagine the man was concerned about me not using food grade in my aquarium and my dad just misunderstood, I've been searching the internet and can't find anything about different grade/purities/types being used in fire extinguishers.

So unless anyone else knows otherwise I'll go ahead as planned, very nice to know that I've got a supply of Co2 in the future though.

 

[Nick16]

yeah you have to be careful, get the correct co2 first and get it refilled correctly.

although as long you you get an FE you will be fine. just avoide the industrial stuff

 

[shrimply]

But surely fire extinguishers are filled with industrial Co2, why would they be filled with anything else. Sounds like you know what your talking about though, so if you want to correct me then it'd be great.

All I read online seems to come up with the answer that no one really knows, although these tend to be American sites. can't really find any info on the UK grades or restrictions. I'll keep searching.

I'm quite confident that my fire extinguisher won't cause problems, pretty sure other on here have used the same ebay supplier. Its more curiosity than anything else as to what grades are available, what's the grade that is in fire extinguishers and most importantly how much the purity varies between suppliers.

 

[Bobtastic]

Apparently this guy, who owns a private fire safety firm has 50 that he needs to get rid of So £33 wasted so to speak.

So... these 50 fe's he wants to get rid of? How much is he askin' for them and will he deliver??

 

[Nick16]

yeah i'd be up for some FE's for sure.

the industrial stuff isnt as pure i dont think. like the stuff used for co2 cannisters for paintball and airsift guns.

stick with FE's they will be fine.
why change?

 

[Spanerman]

yeah i'd be up for some FE's for sure.

the industrial stuff isnt as pure i dont think. like the stuff used for co2 cannisters for paintball and airsift guns.

stick with FE's they will be fine.
why change?

I think the paintball gas contains lubricants...........

 

[Nick16]

yeah i think so, so thats why you have to be careful.

 

[DBridges]

I think the paintball gas contains lubricants...........

I can state for a fact that paintball CO2 refills are done using exactly the same CO2 that both welders and restaurants use. I say this having been a paintball airsmith for several years in the past, and having done untold numbers of CO2 refills and reorders of big CO2 cylinders for the fill stations. We would often get our cylinders at the same time as the restaurant next door, and they came off the same welding supply truck and in the same sort of cylinder.

Also, there are no lubricants in either CO2 or compressed air used in paintball markers. Common lubricants for these are either light machine oil or lithium grease (depending on the marker) and I know that these are not included in either CO2 or compressed air, nor would they be required or desired.

I personally can't see that there would be much difference between CO2 sources; however, I could see there possibly being "purity" issues, i.e. perhaps one source might have slightly more traces of other compounds in their CO2. But I would imagine that this would be very minimal.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured I would share what I know from 10+ years of paintball and airsmithing experience.

David

 

[Geoff1991]

^ Yeah, the co2 bars/restaurants use usually isnt just co2

Usually 50/50 (50% co2 50% nitrogen) for stouts and ales

30/70 (30% co2 70% nitrogen) for dispensing ales and lagers.

and 60/40 (60% co2 40% nitrogen) for highly carbonated lagers and ciders

However some bars do just use 100% co2 which makes me think, co2 could infact be different depending on what its being used for