Guides for the trade
Updated August 2026
The cadence questions, answered plainly — how the annual, 6-year, 12-year, and semi-annual dates are set — and the business of running a route. Free to read, nothing to sign up for.
Inspection cadence
How often do fire extinguishers need inspection?
The short answer has four parts under NFPA 10: the owner visual check, the annual maintenance, the 6-year internal exam, and the 5- or 12-year hydrostatic test.
The NFPA 10 inspection checklist for portable extinguishers
The itemized annual maintenance walk for portable fire extinguishers under NFPA 10 — what a technician checks, records, and tags on each unit, one by one.
Fire extinguisher 6-year maintenance requirements
What the 6-year internal examination covers for stored-pressure dry-chemical extinguishers under NFPA 10, and which agents run on a different clock.
Fire extinguisher hydrostatic testing: the 5- and 12-year cycles
How hydrostatic testing works for portable fire extinguishers, and why the interval is 5 years for some agents and 12 years for others under NFPA 10.
Kitchen hood suppression inspection frequency
How often pre-engineered kitchen hood fire suppression systems must be serviced under NFPA 96 and UL-300 — the semi-annual rule, explained plainly.
Exit and emergency light testing requirements
The testing schedule for emergency and exit lighting under NFPA 101 — the annual 90-minute test and the monthly function test, and who owns each.
Fire extinguisher service tags, explained
A fire extinguisher service tag is the dated, per-serial record of the last service. Here is what it records, and why a fire marshal reads it first.
What a fire marshal checks on an inspection
A plain walkthrough of what a fire marshal actually checks on inspection day, from extinguisher tags to exit lighting, so you can read the room too.
Fire extinguisher types and agents, explained
A field guide to portable extinguisher agents — ABC, BC, Purple-K, CO2, water, wet chemical, clean agent, foam, and halon — and why the agent sets the schedule.
The federal rule underneath NFPA 10: what OSHA 1910.157 requires
NFPA 10 is a private standard with no force until a state adopts it. A federal regulation states the extinguisher intervals outright, wherever OSHA reaches.
Hydrostatic test intervals by extinguisher type: 5 years or 12?
The pressure-test interval follows the agent and the shell, not a constant. Get it wrong and a unit reads as current for years after the test was owed.
Which NFPA 10 edition has your state adopted?
A standard has no force until a jurisdiction adopts it, and the editions on record run twelve years apart. Naming the edition is the whole answer.
What a fire extinguisher service tag must say, state by state
A service tag is a state-specific legal document. Two states were read in full, and their tags are not interchangeable. That tells you about the rest.
What does the colour of a fire extinguisher tag mean?
The popular answer is that the colour tells you the year. No rule read for this page says so, and the two state tag rules that were read disagree on colour.
The route business
How to start a fire extinguisher inspection business
A practical starter guide to a fire extinguisher inspection business: state licensing, route economics, and how to land your first steady customers.
Fire extinguisher inspection software: what to look for
How to choose fire extinguisher inspection software as an independent shop — the cadence engine, the offline route day, the proof record, and honest pricing.
How to price fire extinguisher inspections
How to price fire extinguisher inspections: per-asset versus per-site quoting, trip fees, and why the recurring route is worth more than any single visit.
Recharge vs. replace a fire extinguisher
When to recharge a fire extinguisher and when to replace it — what each costs, and how the agent and the shell’s age decide the call.
Building a recurring fire-inspection route
The renewal-book math behind a recurring fire-inspection route: annual contracts, due-date scheduling, and how a steady book compounds year over year.
By the work you do
The same cadence questions, framed for the shape of the route you run.
Fire extinguisher companies
Run your NFPA 10 route on a per-serial cadence engine, an offline route day, and billing on your own rails — every tag on the record, every date on file.
Kitchen suppression service
Service pre-engineered kitchen hood systems on the NFPA 96 / UL-300 semi-annual cadence — the checklist, proof photos, and a dated service record on file.
Fire equipment dealers
Onboard a portfolio of portable extinguishers and pre-engineered systems, then run the recurring-contract book — auto-rolling renewals and the revenue math.
Exit & emergency lights
Keep emergency and exit lighting on the NFPA 101 annual full-duration test — light-touch cadence, proof photos, a dated record, monthly tests customer-side.
Elsewhere on this site
- Who may service fire extinguishers in your state: all 51 jurisdictions, sourced
- The state requirement lookup: posture, agency, adopted edition and tag rule
- Sprinkler and alarm inspection frequencies, published as reference material
- The help centre
- Editorial standards: what counts as a source here, and what we do when we cannot read one