oooold 5# halon fire extinguisher, what to do?
 

Years, and years ago, probably 14 years ago, there was a group buy for a 5# halon extinguisher and a Brey Krause mount on the Rennlist email list. I have one and have had it sitting around for that long. It now shows a partial charge (gauge shows red, not yellow or green).

What should I do with the thing? I suspect it's not cheap to recharge them. I think there's doubt about how effective they would be in a auto fire anyway. Should I try to sell it to someone cheap? (I don't have the BK mount, just the extinguisher and the mount that it came with.

Um, use it on something?

:D

Not sure there's enough gas left in it to do anything. That's the problem. Needs a recharge.

Use it for training? My uncle used the gather all the kids once a year when it time to recharge the fire extinguishers. "Now here's how you use a fire extinguisher kids." wHOOSH!!! Then he'd take them to recharged.
Fond memories.

Take it out and shoot at it? ;)

If it were anything other than halon I would say fire it off. We dispose of our aircraft timex Firex's with the fire department, halon is hell on the ozone layer.

This!

R-12 is rated as a 1 for ozone depletion, the worst for any refrigerant.
Depending on the Halon, it could be 7 to 10 times worse for ozone depletion....
There are ways of disposing of this safely. You should be able to tell if there is liquid in the cylinder by shaking it.
There might not be much left in the cylinder.

Anyone got any idea what it would ruin to get it charged our if it's even possible for a regular Joe?

About 16 places in your neck of the woods probably can do it:

Where to Buy | Amerex FireAmerex Fire

We pay about 45 for a refill

I got one of those too, Steve. Tucked away with all my track stuff I no longer use. I have way too much stuff!

Some dude I went to high school with took a hit off one once. Not sure it got him high or not.

That's not too bad. I guess I'll keep it.
When I was in school they called that doing a whip-it, I think. I saw a kid do it 3 times from an AC R-12 freon can. First hit, he said nothing. Second hit he stood next to a rack and banged his head into it. He didn't remember that. Third hit he knocked everything off of a row of shelving on an aisle about 12-16' long, the aisle with the bottles of Fuel Injection and carb cleaners and that sort of thing. When he got to the end of the aisle he collapsed to the floor and lay there unconscious, drooling on the floor. Didn't seem like much fun to me.

A whip-it is a hit of nitrous oxide often from a can of whipped cream. Random chemicals injested like that I think they call huffing and is a good way to earn some brain damage.

you can't buy halon but you can get reclaimed agent from any fire extinguisher shop, get it recharged and at least put it in the kitchen. Might have to do a 12 year hydrostatic testm but its worth it. Great stuff.

Adjusted.