Gator rider2, Thanks for the reply! This will give me some info to start with. "Time slips away". I let too many years pass w/o evaluating my extinguishers. IÂll hope to check all and upgrade as needed very soon. As an example, I have an old steel vs plastic CO2 General Extinguisher in the bedroomÂs closet, 5 pound class with a steel/plastic combo movable nozzle, no gauge and heavy heavy (25-30 Lbs). ThatÂs from the late 70s from what I can remember and probably needed hydro testing in the 80s. I do have other later small plastic extinguishers in the kitchen and boat. loger

Remember, fire is likely to start near the range. If your extinguisher is in the cabinet next to or under the fire, you won't want to open a door/drawer to get it. Better a bit of distance away from the fire so you can approach the fire at a safe distance. My big red one says stand back 8 feet. My little white one says stand back 6 feet. The little cheapie doesn't give a distance.

Not for me, but I'm sure I'm not "kewl" enough to be in their target market. I have a white, wall-mounted fire extinguisher in my kitchen. I got it at Home Depot. It's only about 10" tall and is pretty unobtrusive. I don't have a picture of my current kitchen but here's my previous house's kitchen - the extinguisher is below the microwave. I left that one for the new owners and got another one for this house. There's also a conventional red one by the back door (for any grill incidents, and the back deck is also where the smokers go to indulge; I need to get a mounting bracket for it for better visibility), and currently there's one on the porch where DH is working with an infrared paint remover. When we had a fireplace, a fire extinguisher about the size of a 2-liter soda bottle stayed in the kindling box, and a large one hung in the garage when we had one of those. I've been lucky enough that I've never had a major fire but I've had some little ones over the years (cooking fires, cigarettes, candles) that without a fire extinguisher could have become major fires. I want any idjit :-) who happens to be in my house to be able to grab the fire extinguisher without having to think "is this a fire extinguisher or what?" while the fire alarms are screaming and maybe they've been imbibing a bit or are half asleep. IMO a fire extinguisher is such an important piece of safety equipment that I don't really care if it's not beautiful, I would never stash it away in a closet or cabinet - I think it defeats the purpose to have it hidden away where you have to go hunting for it. However, white fire extinguishers are becoming widely available, as are residential ones in a brushed stainless finish (I guess to coordinate with those stainless steel kitchen appliances). First Alert makes a silver and black all-purpose extinguisher. "The only other thing that it reminds me of is an oversized seltzer bottle, and you could probably put out a residential fire with that too." Only if it's burning paper, wood, cloth or similar combustible material. Water spreads both oil/grease and electrical fires (and you can also electrocute yourself by putting water on an electrical fire, since water is a wonderful conductor of electricity). It's most sensible to have A-B-C extinguishers, which put out all three kinds of typical home fires, especially since a class C (electrical) fire can spread to become a class A (combustible materials), or a class A can come into contact with combustible liquids (class B).

That's the door out of the kitchen toward the rear hall of the house and about 10' from the range. We also had one in our rear hallway near the laundry. When my insurance inspector came he said that he could count on both hands how many people actually have fire extinguishers where they belong, but everyone says "yes" on the application. We also had heat and smoke detectors hardwired. It seemed like we had at least 10 in our house because they have to be in and immediately outside, every bedroom. And we had heat detectors in the kitchen and attic. Then, two houses back: This location, while better than nothing, really isn't too hot. ;-)