Expired Fire Exts OK to Have on Board?

They ve never objected whether I ve been boarded. As long as you have the required number of current bottles, it will be fine.

There were re-calls on some ole extinguishers. They would not work when needed.
The date codes cast on the bottle bottoms is a good guide not only for replacement, but to remove from the boat.

Some thoughts about this;
You can not walk home when a fire is on-board.
You do not have the time to fight fires with equipment that may not work.

Remove the old stuff and double up on new stuff.
Minimum passes the rules; Never enough fire suppression in hand when it happens to you.

What do you think Pilot??

But wait, There's more;
While your doubling up on hand held fire equipment, pick up one or two extinguishers for Lithium fires.
Also, a battery charging strong/fire-proof box if you have these devices on board.

Mix your fire agents;
Dry chemical is good but messy.
Halon or CO2 near the galley and breaker panels may help the aftermath.

Happy and safe cruising ☺

I have 6 dry chems on my personal 53 plus 3 elements which are not USCG approved but are clean agents. And of course a fixed system in each machinery space ( both split ER and the generator room).

in the 110, we now have 15 dry chems, 1 clean agent in the pilot house and 3 elements. Just rebuilt the fire pump and replaced both fire hoses… also have a fire mask since you can’t fight a fire if can’t see because of smoke.

yes lithium is a concern. I have a wireless temp sensor on the eFoil battery and we keep the ryobi power tool batteries in a fire bag stored in a metal tool box in the ER… also with a temp sensor.

Some USCG officers will give you grief for both expired flares and fire extinguishers. They feel that in the case of an emergency someone might grab one and expect them to work and they don't, and for good reason in a panic situation like that it could be life or death by grabbing a fire extinguisher and it doesn't work.

True, that’s why I keep expired flares and FEs in different locations from the current stuff.

we were boarded a few ago and as usual they had their own ideas on how things should be done. For instance, we zip tie the Y valve from the black water tank to either overboard pump or deck fitting but they said the thru hull should be the one that’s secure. Same end result obviously…. And they didn’t want to look at the flares because we were inland. Go figure.

Yep, what I was trying to express.
Always have more , fresh fire extinguishers.
You can not walk home when a fire is on-board.

Unless you are going to practice with them, what good is old stuff on board?

If you use zip ties with an integral serial numbered tag and this number is in the ships log, you are leagle.
In the log, when you pump off shore and re-attache a fresh tag, this is also recorded in the log.
The idea of a pad-lock on the sea-cock is obsurd.


I remember, on some boats, the black water pump had a electrical key-switch to enable it. This is leagle also. As long as the key is secure and a log is maintained.

Funny thing, every time we have been boarded, I have reminded the USCG lead that it doesn't mater where the black water discharge is, were 4 miles off shore.

The tags on our FEs don’t have a serial number just the month and year

I put a key switch for the overboard pump on my 53 and keep the key out obviously. I don’t have a sea cock since I put the discharge above WL

The month/year of mfg should be stamped or cast on the bottom of small (non-serviceable) hand held FEs.
If not, it's real old.
Larger bottles (serviceable) should have the DOT data near the top neck.

The FE tags (month/year) should be for last inspection.

In place of zip ties on black water sea cocks or Y valves, witch are not leagle, Ties with serial numbers are.
In my post #10, this is what I was referring to.

first fire system service in the 110 three years ago (boat fire systems had not been inspected for at least 3 years) we had a very small leak on the main sea fire bottle in the er… problem was that the bottle (pretty big) could not be repaired or even sent to sea fire for service because for whatever reason, it was not DOT stamped! No idea why that was or where it came from (US built boat) but it took almost a year to get a new one from Sea fire… surveyor never checked the DOT label, just noted the system was out of date

I was referring to hand held FEs in my post #12 with date codes on the bottom of the bottle.
Not necessarily DOT codes.
Dry chemical and some other non serviceable hand held FEs should be replaced every 5-6 years.

Lots of fixed, low pressure Halon12,13**, FE2** or FM2** bottles are not DOT stamped.
These bottles are weighed for inspection and usually not serviceable (but sometimes can be).
Thin skin bottles from FireBoy, SeaFire and others.

High pressure agents like CO2 are stamped with DOT info.
Heavy skin bottles.
Your Hatt probably had one (or two) of these.
My friend still keeps his CO2 systems up with yearly inspections for the CO2 bottles and all hand held units (variety of agents).
A few years ago, one of the CO2 bottles required hydro testing, Yes, Heavy..

I am afraid I raided this thread typing aweigh.
I hope the OP did get my hint to not count on the required minimum but to be well prepared with lots of fresh/current fire fighting agent..

I am guilty of poor typing skills, grammar and here poor understanding of an airplane hand held FE requirement.
So technically my comment in post #4 was only half correct but still very important for boats and planes.

On a boat, you can carry more. Keep them all fresh and current.

I've had extinguishers inspected and re-certed all over the U.S. It's amazing how different methods are employed. My favorite guy, Sergio in San Diego, took the portables off the boat, released the charge, removed the dry stuff, and weighed in fresh with a new gas charge. The worst inspection was a company on the East Coast where the guy came on board, looked at the pressure gauges, and then ripped off the tags and put fresh ones on. One thing I've noticed over the years, is that if a surveyor sees an expired inspection tag on a dry portable; he'll write it up and it must be rectified. If there are dry chemical portables on the boat with the pressure gauge reading good and there is no tag, it won't be written up. Same with Coast Guard boarding inspections. If it's a pleasure boat and has no tags, they're fine if the pressure is up. Buy a new extinguisher, and you're good to go, no inspection required.
The trouble is no external inspection will be enough to be sure they will work when needed. Dry chemical extinguishers can have the powder compacted into a solid lump after years of engine vibration and pounding and will only discharge gas, if anything. I used to dismount the dry chem extinguishers on the boats I ran once a month, checked the gauges, and gave them a violent shaking to be sure the dry chem hasn't vibrated into a solid lump during travel. It's also not a good idea to practice with a dry chem unit, because the powder can remain on the discharge valve and allow a slow leak. Consider a spent extinguisher as truly spent.
I also kept a larger CO2 extinguisher near the main entrance so that it can be accessed quickly from the doorway. The owner's weren't happy about the loss of storage, sometimes, but they adjusted once they thought about it.

The inspectors i see, all tip the dry chems upside down and bang on them with either a rubber hammer or the base of their hand several times to keep the powder from becoming a brick. I think more effective than shaking them.