As promised, I set off my ancient fire bottle yesterday (outside, on the picnic table). My daughter videoed it, just for giggles. The Fire Marshall bottle was manufactured 5/89. Just in case it actually DID work, i wore protective clothing and eyeware. Here's what happened:
- With 40psi reading on the gauge, and obviosuly "something" sloshing around inside, i removed the safety pin with the bottle sitting upright on the table
- I squeezed the handle as hard as i could, but COULD NOT MOVE THE HANDLE. Had the bottle been activated by the cable, there is NO WAY it would have gone off. I would have ripped the handle/cable assembly off the car trying.
- I looked at the "fish hook" spring between the two parts of the handle. It was corroded badly. I thought this may have been preventing the spring from sliding through its hole, so i bent the spring out of the way, and attempted to activate the bottle again. Nope, i still couldn't do it no matter how hard i tried
- Almost as a lark, I grabbed the bottle by the handle, lifted it off the table, and reintroduced it to the table with some real force. POOF! The bottle finally activated and scared the shart out of me
- A huge plume of white extinguisher "stuff" aerated, i am guessing for about 10 seconds. I was surprised at the large volume of it, frankly
- As the white plume was finishing up, out came what looked like a lot of liquid water (bottle was on its side at this point,). I am guessing there were a couple of ounces in there
All to say, had I had the need for it in the car, it would not have been at my disposal. Again, for the price of a set of tires......
Cheers,
BT