BS 5306

[fireftrm]

Any sign of the 2009 revision yet?

[AnthonyB]

Yes - any time now.

The BSI had to give in to a certain manufacturer  & their group of companies demand to allow the use of contradictory colour coding on labels to allow the standard to be published.

100% approval from the technical membership is required to publish a standard and although most other manufacturers of Ecological foam etc had already changed their labels and started a supply service to relabel existing units there was still resistance from one corner & the minority view won just to get the standard out.

So you won't be able condemn a foam extinguisher with a green label under the auspices of BS5306-3

[fireftrm]

Thanks AB

[AnthonyB]

It's out!

Various minor amendments, notable for a 5 year life on plastic heads (that's the remaining S2000's and pre-94 Chubb stuff gone then, particularly the renovates still flying about in red) and also for requiring commissioning on installation to try and clamp down on internet sales (main reason) and stop users making a total balls up of assembling their extinguisher (official reason)

[kurnal]

Thanks for the update Anthony and your tongue in cheek (I trust) commentary. Should we be suspicious of the motivation behind the update to the standard do you think or should we welcome it as a good thing?

I fully accept that there is some rubbish on the market from which the public must be protected but is an update to the standard the best way of controlling this? Those that are involved in the supply and demand based only on price will not take any notice unless the enforcers- Trading standards, HM Customs, Fire Authorities and insurers become proactive?

[AnthonyB]

The BS is influenced by the major manufacturers as they sit on the committee via the trade bodies & they did indeed influence the standard by forcing the dropping of the requirement to reject extinguishers with incorrect colour coding namely the eco-foam extinguishers with about 25% green coding on the label & only 5% cream.

Joking aside, the commissioning requirement is welcome as I have come across some terrible examples of incorrectly or incompletely assembled internet supplied extinguishers, plus when eventually the user gets caught & is required to have them serviced, there is no information on weight to check against (except CO2) and age (not all non CO2 bodies manufactured in the past are stamped with manufacture date in the base ring).

The tongue in cheek bit does reflect that sections of the industry freely admit they are hurt by the price drops brought in by internet suppliers & anything to try and curtail them is welcome.

What the latest amendment doesn't do is filter out the low quality kit or deal with maintainers who don't requalify - some people servicing aren't aware of the 2000 or 2003 versions & I know one who doesn't know halon is illegal.