§ NFPA 10 Buyer's guide
Choosing fire extinguisher inspection software.
Seven things worth checking before you buy, the question to ask about each, and why the four NFPA 10 intervals are the feature that separates software built for this from software adapted to it.
Extinguisher compliance looks simple and is not. Four independent intervals run on every individual unit, two of them measured in years, and the hydrostatic cycle depends on what is inside the cylinder rather than anything about your building. Software that models one annual date will schedule half an estate wrongly and nobody will notice until an audit.
We build one of the products in this category, so read this as an informed argument rather than a neutral survey. The criteria are the ones we would apply if we were buying.
Does it track all four NFPA 10 intervals, per unit?
NFPA 10 sets four service intervals: a monthly visual inspection, an annual maintenance examination by a certified technician, a 6-year internal examination for stored-pressure units, and hydrostatic testing at 5 or 12 years depending on the extinguisher type. Those are four independent clocks running on every individual extinguisher, and the multi-year ones are exactly what a spreadsheet loses. Software that models a single annual date cannot represent this.
Ask: Show me one extinguisher with its next monthly, annual, 6-year and hydro dates all visible.
Does the hydro interval follow the cylinder, not the building?
Hydrostatic testing is 12 years for stored-pressure dry chemical units and 5 years for water, AFFF foam, CO2 and wet chemical. The interval belongs to the extinguisher type, so any mixed estate carries mixed due dates on the same wall. Software that applies one estate-wide cycle will schedule half your units wrongly.
Ask: Set two units, one dry chemical and one CO2, and show me the hydro dates it calculates.
Can in-house staff do the monthly check, and does it prove they did?
The monthly visual is the one your own team performs, and it is where compliance is actually won or lost. The annual and multi-year services are contractor events that mostly run on schedule; the monthly is a habit that decays. What matters is whether the record proves each check happened, per unit, with a date, a person and any defect found, rather than a tag someone initialled in the break room.
Ask: Show me the last twelve monthly checks for this specific extinguisher, with who did each one.
Does the record survive the extinguisher going for service?
The service tag is the traditional record and it has a structural flaw: it leaves with the unit. When an extinguisher goes away for its 6-year internal and comes back, or gets swapped for a loaner, the paper history walks out of the building. A record held against the asset identity rather than the physical tag does not.
Ask: What happens to the history when this unit is swapped for a replacement?
What does the AHJ or insurer actually see?
The question at inspection is never abstract. It is: show me the last annual maintenance for this extinguisher. If answering means finding a folder, filtering a spreadsheet, or emailing a contractor, the system has failed the only test that counts. A QR tag on the unit that resolves to its own history answers in seconds.
Ask: Hand me a phone. Scan that unit and show me its full service history.
Does it cover the rest of the estate, or only extinguishers?
Extinguishers rarely travel alone. The same building carries sprinkler systems on NFPA 25 frequencies, alarm devices on NFPA 72, and often emergency lighting and a generator under NFPA 110. Separate systems mean separate logins, separate schedules and separate audit answers. Ask whether one asset register holds all of it.
Ask: Can the same register hold my sprinkler risers and alarm devices with their own cycles?
Whose data is it, and can you export it?
Extinguisher histories accumulate over decades, across contractor changes and building sales. Export in an open format decides whether that history is yours or the vendor's. Ask what comes out and whether the photographs and certificates come with it.
Ask: Export everything now. What format, and does it include the evidence?
Build the schedule before you buy anything
Before evaluating vendors, it is worth seeing the full ITM calendar your building actually carries. Our free NFPA ITM schedule builder takes the systems on your site and returns every recurring task under NFPA 10, 25, 72, 110, 96 and 101, grouped by frequency, with who performs each one. No signup, and it runs in the browser.
Frequently asked questions
- What does fire extinguisher inspection software need to do for NFPA 10?
- Track four independent intervals on every individual unit: the monthly visual inspection, the annual maintenance examination, the 6-year internal examination for stored-pressure extinguishers, and hydrostatic testing at 5 or 12 years by type. It also needs to hold the record of each monthly check with a date and a person, keep that history attached to the asset rather than the physical tag, and produce it on demand when an AHJ or insurer asks about a specific extinguisher.
- How often do fire extinguishers need to be inspected?
- NFPA 10 sets a monthly visual inspection, which trained in-house staff can perform without certification, and an annual maintenance examination which requires a certified technician. Stored-pressure extinguishers subject to a 12-year hydrostatic test also get a 6-year internal examination. Hydrostatic testing is 12 years for stored-pressure dry chemical units and 5 years for water, AFFF and FFFP foam, CO2 and wet chemical types.
- Does OSHA require records of extinguisher inspections?
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.157(e) makes both the monthly visual inspection and the annual maintenance explicit employer duties for portable fire extinguishers. NFPA 10 does not require a written record of every monthly check beyond the tag, but without one you cannot prove the checks happened, and after an incident that proof is the first thing requested.
- Can our own staff do the monthly inspections?
- Yes. The monthly visual inspection is designed to be performed by trained building staff and needs no certification. The annual maintenance examination, the 6-year internal examination and hydrostatic testing all require a certified technician or licensed service company.
- Does this software make us compliant with NFPA 10?
- No. It makes the record defensible: complete, attributed, retained, and retrievable per unit. Whether the inspection was performed properly, and whether an extinguisher should have been condemned rather than passed, is a judgement for whoever carried it out. Treat any vendor claiming their product delivers compliance with caution.
Try it on one wall of extinguishers
Tag a handful of units, run the monthly check from a phone, and see whether the four intervals schedule themselves the way this guide describes. Fourteen days, no card.
Related: the NFPA 10 checklist, what the standards require of records, ITM schedule builder, fire inspection solution.
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