Kitemarks?

[jeddy]

I have noticed that some places are selling fire extinguishers with no kitemark, all they have on them is a Lloyds registered trademark on them.

are they compliant or did I miss something?

[TFEM]

jeddy-see a thread I have going under Q&A entitled "lorry extinguishers".
There is no legal requirement for fire extinguishers to be kitemarked and even when they are it seems that the quality of some makes is questionable. We cannot obviously quote names here but I do wonder at times how some of the crap I see out there manages to get a KM.
I will only sell KM units and then only the big named ones...it's only about £3/£4 per unit price difference but it means I can sleep at night. Sadly that £3/£4 is more important to some guys.

[AnthonyB]

The kitemark used to guarantee quality, but less than it used to -it seems they are less fussy as extinguishers that technically don't meet the requirements are still passed.

I've seen non kitemarked stuff from the late 70's of a better build quality than the current kitemarked stuff.

Kitemarking isn't obligatory, only CE marking and Pressure Equipment Directive compliance.

A kitemark is a sign that an extinguisher is more likely to be better than a non kitemarked version, but these days you have to take both kitemarking and country of origin into account.