The Best Fire Extinguisher | Reviews by Wirecutter

Top pick

For your primary fire extinguishers (remember, one on each floor), we recommend the First Alert PRO5. It’s a UL-rated 3A 40B:C extinguisher, which exceeds the NFPA’s recommendation, yet the canister is the same size and weight as a smaller 2A 10B:C extinguisher. This model can effectively combat common fires ranging from burning wood and cloth to burning liquids. It can safely extinguish an electrical fire, as well. Equipped with a metal valve, the First Alert PRO5 is rechargeable, which offers more reliability and the potential for long-term cost savings. Although we found little to differentiate between this extinguisher and our Amerex runner-up, the First Alert model has a wider availability on the shelves of Ace Hardware and Lowe’s, so getting your hands on it should be a little easier.

It’s powerful with a manageable weight. As a 3A 40B:C extinguisher, its chemical agent is the equivalent of 3¾ gallons of water, and when used properly, it can extinguish an area of at least 40 square feet. (That’s substantial—imagine a fire 8 feet wide and 5 feet across). This size is beyond the minimum recommended by the NFPA (2A 10B:C), which has the equivalent of 2½ gallons of water and is effective against 10 square feet of fire. We found that in stepping up to the larger size, you get very little upgrade in weight or cost. First Alert’s 2A 10B:C model, the HOME2PRO costs roughly the same as the PRO5, their 3A 40B:C extinguisher. As for the weight, both sizes contain 5 pounds of chemical agent and weigh, in total, around 9 or 10 pounds. So even if costs change and there’s a little upcharge to get the PRO5, we think it’s worth it, given that the handling is the same for considerably more firefighting ability.

The PRO5 is a rechargeable extinguisher with a metal valve and handle. Such models offer reliability and the potential for cost benefits over disposable extinguishers with plastic valves and handles. We need to note, though, that the firefighting abilities are the same between the two styles. Guyette Fire Protection owner Wayne Guyette told us that “two and a half pounds of chemical is two and a half pounds of chemical,” and assistant fire marshal Joseph Keenan said that “the effectiveness of the extinguisher is in how it is used, not the material it is made of.”

But Firehouse Magazine’s Timothy Sendelbach told us that “rechargeable [extinguishers] are typically better quality,” and that “paying a little more for your safety is never a bad practice.” For a 3A 40B:C unit (the kind we’re recommending), the up-front costs between the two styles are just about the same, but for smaller models such as our supplemental pick, rechargeables cost about $15 to $20 more.

We also found that disposable extinguishers have a track record of reliability issues. Kidde, a major manufacturer of disposable extinguishers, issued a recall of around 40 million units in 2017 due to issues with discharge and nozzle detachment—and that was after it recalled 4.6 million extinguishers in 2015 and another 470,000 in 2005 due to issues with the plastic valve. For that 2005 recall, it’s unclear whether the units were disposable (the plastic valve suggests that they were), but either way, the recall points to the potential failures of an extinguisher with plastic in the valve assembly. For that reason, all of our picks have all-metal valves.

In addition to the problems that Kidde has had, First Alert, back in 2000, recalled 600,000 units of its disposable FE1A10G extinguisher. The Consumer Product Safety Commission notice doesn’t give specifics as to the faulty component. We couldn’t find any extinguisher recalls due to faulty canisters, so if we had to guess, we’d wager that this problem also involved the plastic valve.

Now, let’s break down the long-term costs. For a rechargeable fire extinguisher, Wayne Guyette recommends a professional inspection every six years or so, which is in accordance with NFPA 10: Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers. The cost for an inspection seems to be anywhere from $15 to $30 per extinguisher. A disposable extinguisher, on the other hand, does not need professional maintenance, but it does have a shelf life of only 12 years, at which point you should replace it. So staying with a strict accordance to the proper maintenance schedule, the 12-year costs of the two extinguisher types is about the same (replacement versus two inspections). Yet that equation applies only if you never use the extinguisher. If you successfully use one to put out a small fire, or if, as Guyette pointed out, an accidental discharge occurs, you would need to throw away and replace a disposable unit. For a rechargeable, you would only have to pay for a refill.

With this in mind, it’s important to know that once you’ve used an extinguisher at all, you need to either refill it or dispose of it. There is no going halfway with extinguishers—even one short burst forfeits an extinguisher’s effectiveness.

You can practice with it. Another benefit of a rechargeable extinguisher: It’s feasible to use one as part of a household training program, so that you and the people you live with can get a few test blasts in to see how it handles. As with all pieces of emergency equipment, the more familiar you are with how it works and feels in your hands, the better off you’ll be if you ever need to use it. Many employers offer extinguisher training, and it makes sense to do the same in your home, as well.

It’s easily available. A final upside of the PRO5 is that it is easily available on the shelves of Lowe’s, Walmart, Target, and Ace Hardware. We heard multiple accounts of shipping issues with fire extinguishers and even experienced one ourselves when an ordered extinguisher arrived in a box filled with a cloud of fire retardant.

The PRO5 comes with a small hanging bracket, but for a more secure hold, First Alert offers a sturdier bracket for about $15.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The chemical has the potential to corrode metal. As we mentioned above, the First Alert PRO5 uses monoammonium phosphate as an extinguishing agent. According to Pyro-Chem, a manufacturer of fire extinguishers, monoammonium phosphate “is slightly acidic in the presence of moisture resulting in mild corrosive properties.“ It’s for this reason that such extinguishers are not to be used on or around aircraft. As Don Burgard writes in Fine Homebuilding, “If you don’t clean up the mess immediately and moisture is present, the dust may corrode metal surfaces.” Knowing this fact is especially important in the kitchen, where a majority of fires start—and where a lot of metal appliances are typically present.

To address this problem, some manufacturers offer noncorrosive alternatives specifically for the kitchen (such as the Kidde 711A and the First Alert KFE2S5), but those are rated for only B and C flames (flammable liquids and electrical fires) and not A flames (wood, cloth, and paper), so they won’t be much help if the curtains catch fire. In the case of a kitchen fire, the experts we spoke to recommended sticking with an ABC extinguisher. If you do have a fire in the kitchen, do you really want to have to stop and think about what’s burning and which extinguisher you should reach for? In fact, UL consumer safety director John Drengenberg told us that “the best thing you can do [with a cooking fire] is to turn off the stove and put a lid on the pan.” Training coordinator, fire safety educator, and columnist Tom Kiurski said almost the exact same thing.