Everything people ask us.

Two different intervals apply. You or your staff must visually inspect every extinguisher monthly and keep a written record. A trained service company must carry out a full maintenance check annually and fit a new dated tag. On top of that, stored-pressure dry chemical units need an internal examination every six years, and hydrostatic testing every twelve.

An expired tag is one of the most commonly written fire code violations, because it is the easiest thing for an inspector to see from across a room. It can also give an insurer grounds to question a claim after a fire. If your tags have lapsed, call us — bringing a property back into compliance is routine work and is usually done in a single visit.

Most commercial extinguishers are designed to be recharged many times over and it is far cheaper than replacement. A unit is only replaced when the shell fails inspection or hydrostatic testing, when the valve is damaged beyond repair, or when it is a disposable model that was never rechargeable. We tell you which category a unit falls into before doing any work.

Extinguishers in the common areas of an apartment or condo building — hallways, laundry rooms, boiler rooms, parking garages — are treated as commercial equipment and need the same annual service and tagging. Units inside individual private residences are not covered by the same requirement, though the same monthly check is still worth doing.

For a typical restaurant, office or small commercial floor with under twenty units, expect us to be on site for around an hour. Larger properties are scheduled to suit you — we can work through a building floor by floor so nothing is disrupted, and we work Monday to Friday 9AM to 4PM and Saturday mornings.

It depends on the hazard, not the square footage. A 5 lb ABC unit is the common choice for offices and retail; kitchens, workshops and mechanical rooms usually need 10 lb or larger; and a commercial kitchen needs a Class K unit within 30 feet of the appliances regardless of what else is in the room. We walk the property and tell you what the code requires before quoting anything.

Yes. They are two separate requirements and they do two different jobs. The hood system knocks the fire down automatically; the Class K unit is for the person standing there afterwards, dealing with what is left. A kitchen with a hood system but no Class K unit will still be written up.

Recharging is almost always cheaper, and a commercial extinguisher shell can stay in service for decades if it passes its internal examinations and hydrostatic tests. Replacement makes sense when a shell fails testing, when a valve is damaged, or when you have disposable units that were never designed to be refilled.

Yes — we work with homeowners as well as businesses. For a house, an ABC unit in the kitchen and one on each additional floor covers most situations, and it is worth adding a Class K unit if you fry regularly. We will tell you where to mount them.

Stored-pressure dry chemical extinguishers — the standard ABC units — are tested every 12 years. CO2, water, water mist and wet chemical Class K units are tested every 5 years. Any cylinder with visible corrosion or damage, or that has been through a fire, needs testing straight away regardless of date.

Look for a stamp or label on the shell showing the test date and the testing facility, and check the manufacture date stamped on the cylinder or printed on the nameplate. If neither is legible the unit has to be treated as due. We survey and log this for every unit when we take on a property.

Yes. Cylinders due for testing come with us and loaner units go up in their place, so the property is never left without coverage and you are never out of compliance during the work. We schedule around your trading hours.

The cylinder is emptied, filled with water and pressurised to a test pressure well above its normal working pressure, then measured for permanent expansion, leaks and distortion. Water is used rather than air because water barely compresses — if the vessel does fail, it splits rather than exploding.

Every six months, by a trained service company, under NFPA 96 and NFPA 17A. The fusible links are replaced at each of those inspections, and the system gets a new dated certification tag. Chicago inspectors check the tag date, and an out-of-date tag is a straightforward violation.

UL 300 is the standard for wet chemical kitchen suppression, introduced because modern vegetable cooking oils burn hotter than the old dry chemical systems could handle. If your kitchen has a dry chemical hood system it is not UL 300 compliant, and most insurers now require the upgrade before they will renew.

Do not cook until it has been recharged and recertified. The cylinder is empty, the fusible links have gone, and the kitchen has no automatic protection at all. Call us and we will get the system back in service, replace the links and nozzles, and give you the paperwork your insurer will ask for.

Yes, and it is the most common reason a kitchen fails inspection. Nozzles are aimed at specific appliances in specific positions. Moving, adding or replacing an appliance means the system has to be re-engineered around the new layout. Tell us before the change and it is a planned visit rather than an emergency.

No — grease cleaning is a separate trade with its own licensing, and we do not offer it. We service the suppression system inside the hood. It is worth scheduling your cleaner first and our inspection afterwards, because cleaning is a common way for nozzles and links to get disturbed.

Annually as a full functional test under NFPA 72, with some components on their own shorter cycles — batteries and certain detectors are checked more often, and the panel should be visually checked far more frequently than once a year. Written records of every test have to be kept and produced on request.

A steady trouble buzzer usually means a fault, a low battery or a device off-line rather than a fire, but it does mean part of the system is not protecting you. Do not silence it and leave it. Call us with the message showing on the panel and we can usually tell you over the phone how urgent it is.

We install, inspect and service the system and verify the monitoring connection at each test. Monitoring itself is provided through a central station — talk to us about what your building needs and we will tell you what the connection requires.

Yes. Illinois requires working smoke alarms in dwelling units, and in condo and apartment buildings the in-unit devices are as much a part of life safety as the common-area system. They are also the ones most often missed, because they need access to occupied apartments. We help property managers plan a building sweep that covers both.

Monthly for 30 seconds, and annually for the full 90-minute rated duration, under NFPA 101. Both tests have to be recorded in writing and the records kept available for inspection. The monthly test is the building owner's responsibility; we carry out and document the annual discharge test.

Because the monthly 30-second test does not stress the battery. A degraded battery has no trouble lighting a lamp briefly but cannot sustain it for 90 minutes, which is exactly the situation you would need it in. Failing the annual test is normally a battery replacement rather than a new unit.

Yes, in the great majority of commercial occupancies exit signs must be continuously illuminated whenever the building is occupied, and must stay illuminated on battery when the power fails. A dark or partly dark exit sign is a straightforward violation and an easy one for an inspector to spot.

Usually, yes, and it is much cheaper. We replace batteries, lamps and LED heads where the housing and charging circuit are sound, and only recommend a new unit where the electronics have failed or the fitting is obsolete and parts are no longer available.

Monthly by you or your staff as a recorded visual check, and annually by a trained service company that fits a new dated tag. Stored-pressure dry chemical units also need an internal examination every six years and hydrostatic testing every twelve years; CO2, water and wet chemical units are hydrostatically tested every five.

The employer or property owner, under OSHA 1910.157 and NFPA 10 — not the service company. The checks must be recorded and the records kept available for inspection.

Every six years a stored-pressure dry chemical extinguisher must be emptied, opened, examined internally, recharged and resealed. It is separate from the annual service and separate from hydrostatic testing, and it is the requirement most often missed — a unit can carry a current annual tag and still be overdue for it.

There is no single expiry date, but a unit reaches the end of its life when it fails an internal examination or a hydrostatic test, when the valve or shell is damaged beyond repair, or when it is a disposable model that was never rechargeable. A well-maintained commercial extinguisher can stay in service for decades.

Class K means the unit is rated for cooking oils and animal fats. It uses a wet chemical agent that turns burning fat into a soap layer, smothering the fire and preventing reignition. A Class K extinguisher is required in commercial kitchens, within 30 feet of the cooking appliances, in addition to the hood suppression system.

It is not the right unit and it is not what the code requires in a commercial kitchen. Dry chemical does not cool cooking oil enough to stop it reigniting once the powder settles, which is exactly the failure Class K wet chemical was developed to solve. Commercial kitchens need a Class K unit.

Dry chemical covers more classes and is cheaper, but leaves a corrosive powder residue over everything in the room. CO2 leaves no residue at all, which makes it the right choice for server rooms, electrical closets and laboratories where cleanup would cost more than the fire.

It is set by travel distance and hazard, not floor area. Nobody may have to walk more than 75 feet to reach a unit for a Class A hazard, less for Class B, and no more than 30 feet from cooking appliances to a Class K unit. The route is measured as walked, so partition walls and racking change the answer.

Every six months by a trained service company, under NFPA 96 and NFPA 17A. Fusible links are replaced at each inspection and a new dated certification tag is fitted. The interval does not change with how much you cook.

UL 300 is the standard for wet chemical kitchen fire suppression. It replaced dry chemical systems, which could not reliably prevent reignition in the hotter vegetable cooking oils modern kitchens use. A dry chemical hood system is not UL 300 compliant and most insurers now require the upgrade.

Yes — they are separate requirements. The hood system suppresses the fire automatically; the Class K extinguisher is for staff dealing with what remains. It must be within 30 feet of the cooking appliances, with a sign at the pull station telling staff to fire the system first.

Yes. The suppression system is engineered around the exact appliance layout, so adding, moving or replacing equipment means the nozzles no longer cover what they were designed to cover. The system has to be re-engineered to the new layout before the change goes into service.

No. Grease cleaning is a separate licensed trade with its own schedule under NFPA 96. The suppression inspection covers the system — cylinder, nozzles, links, detection and shut-offs. Schedule your cleaner before the inspection, since cleaning frequently disturbs nozzles and links.

Current extinguisher tags with unobstructed access, a hood suppression certification dated within six months, lit and legible exit signs, working emergency lighting, clear egress routes, and the written records behind all of it — monthly extinguisher logs, annual service records, and alarm and emergency lighting test results.

Expired fire extinguisher tags, because the date is visible from across the room and needs no equipment to check. Missing monthly inspection logs and blocked or obstructed extinguishers follow close behind.

A violation notice sets a correction period, which varies with the severity of the item. Equipment items such as tags, hood certification and emergency lighting are usually cleared in a single service visit with dated documentation for the re-inspection.

Yes. Missing records are a finding in their own right — if a monthly inspection is not written down, it cannot be shown to have happened. OSHA 1910.157 requires the monthly extinguisher checks to be recorded and the records retained.