The Kidde are cheap - like four-to-one cheap. You can get the 2.5lb kitchen versions (BC) for like $15. I keep a half dozen of them all over the place and one in every vehicle. I certainly don't depend on them alone, but I'm not going to buy a dozen $100 extinguishers for my house and cars. Besides the half-dozen Kidde's, I have a couple of 10 lb units for a small residential house and garage, a 2.5 lb halguard unit, and a commercial quality ABC unit for my 4x4.

I have three 2.5 lb units in my 4x4 because I can install them to be accessible from various locations, and I can select the appropriate type for the need. There's lots of stuff I can imagine coming across on the trail that I'm not going to blow an expensive halguard unit for. The Amerex 2.5 gallon water cans with a schrader valve are even better because you can recharge them yourself, but they take up a lot of room.

 

Yes they are cheap. Like real cheap. When they leak down (not if) all those dozens of nice red paperweights will do a world of good. A good 50% of the time the internal suction tubes on those kiddies break off from vibration etc. All you get is the nitrogen coming out. So even with a full charge they are useless

The last thing on my mind when staring at a vehicle or house fire is the additional 30-40 dollars I spent on a piece of life/property saving equipment. I want it to work every single time. I'd much rather save my truck or my kitchen then squabble about a few dollars. But to each his own.

 

Another thing I use them for is training. Using the cheap jobs, I can do fire extinguisher training for my wife and kids on a regular basis, a couple times a year. We usually make a campfire size conflagration with some accelerant and practice pulling the pin, aiming the nozzle, pulling the trigger, and sweeping side to side. Not only do we get good practice that builds confidence for people that otherwise wouldn't have it, but we also get a good idea of how dependable the extinguishers actually are. In fact, I have a good idea of how dependable they are even after a partial discharge.

We do have higher quality, metal-valve extinguishers on-hand, but because of the low cost of Kidde, we have more extinguishers overall for closer placement, and a cost-effective training tool.

For a vehicle or house fire, you want a tool that works. It doesn't matter if it was inexpensive, as long as it works. But for training fires, and fires that aren't immediately damaging costly property, I prefer to have a cheap option. Like I wrote, my favorite are the Amerex 2.5 gal water cans, but when that's too big to have on hand, a disposable 2.5 lb bottle is nice to have.

 

Going the used one through a service company route seems like a no-brainer. I have a few of the Kiddies around and come to think of it, there may be one in my boat. If they are prone to failure due to vibraton, I would hate to see the conditon of the internal tubes on that one.

Regarding the wiring issue, I was afraid of my winch wiring for just that reason. I finally switched the setup around so that the solenoid pack is mounted under the hood which leaves me with only about 12 inches of unfused, constantly hot wire that I can easily check as opposed to 5 feet of wire snaking through the frame, body and bumper. People should always pay attention to how they add circuits. If you have a large gauge feed coming into your passenger compartment protected with a 30 amp fuse and you tap into it with say a 16 gauge wire to feed some small accessory, make sure you add an appropriately sized fuse at that point.

Of course, from the sound of many posts on this forum the loss of a vehicle to an uncontrolled fire may be a welcome event!

 

"I want to encourage people to invest in a quality rechargeanble fire extinguisher. A 2 1/2 pounder is ok if it's a small fire, but for the most part aren't suitable for anything other than a false sense of security.
In addition to a small one, spend the money on at minimum a 10 pounder also."
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Though I fought forest fire one summer, along with around 1000 men, on border between Montana and Idaho, I know next to nothing about fire extinguishers. But I do know enough about fires, that, over the past 40 years, I have had an extinguisher in my Rover---fortunately, not had need to use it. Many years ago, my dad's Chrysler had an engine fire, and Dad, after throwing as much dirt and sand from ground at it, as he could, in the excitement, he ran into a nearby home, after opening screen door (main door was open; it was a hot summer day) without knocking, and, from the kitchen, put water into a nearby container, ran out, and put out the fire. He said he briefly saw a big black man sitting there, but didn't take the time to say a word, and the poor guy was probably in shock over it all, so he said nothing either. Dad said it was a stupid thing for him to do, but he was not thinking correctly, in the excitement of the moment, with the fire raging----LOL!