Fire extinguishers can be in service as long as they are maintained according to the Singapore Fire Code and Singapore Standards 578. Due to this regulation, there are still blue and black fire extinguishers in the market.
Before the year 1999, fire extinguishers were made under the previous EN3 Standards. In the previous standards powder extinguishers were blue, and carbon dioxide extinguishers were black. If you have a blue or black fire extinguisher on your premise, it was manufactured more than 21 years ago.
When you have a mixture of extinguishers on your premises, it may cause confusion when you need to use the fire extinguishers. Our recommendation is to replace the old fire extinguishers with the new extinguishers.
Under Fire Code and Singapore Standard SS578:
All powder and water based fire extinguishers are to be sent for hydrostatic testing every 5 years and carbon dioxide fire extinguishers every 10 years. At this point of time, we will recommend if it is more economical to buy a new fire extinguisher or perform hydrostatic testing.