How Often Fire Extinguishers Must Be Inspected, Maintained and Hydro Tested

OSHA’s general-industry rule sets the floor: portable fire extinguishers provided for employee use must be visually inspected monthly, under 29 CFR 1910.157(e)(2).

NFPA 10 works on the same rhythm.

Its 2026-cycle draft requires extinguishers to be inspected at least once per calendar month, at intervals not exceeding 31 days.

The check can be done manually or by means of an electronic monitoring device or system.

The monthly tier is also the one that carries no certification requirement: NFPA 10’s draft says persons performing inspections are not required to be certified, while persons performing maintenance and recharging must be.

The fire code carves out an exception to that rhythm.

Under the 2024 International Fire Code, 30-day inspections are not required for dry-chemical or halogenated-agent portable extinguishers supervised by a listed and approved electronic monitoring device, and maintenance is allowed to move to once every 3 years.

The monitoring has to confirm the unit’s position, charge and access, and the code’s other conditions have to be met.

The monthly walk is where a fire extinguisher technician’s route starts — the quick pass that tells the tech whether a unit stays in service or comes down for the deeper tiers below.

The second tier is maintenance.

NFPA 10’s 2026-cycle draft requires extinguishers to be subjected to maintenance at intervals of not more than 1 year, at the time of hydrostatic test, or when specifically indicated by an inspection discrepancy or an electronic notification.

OSHA lines up behind it: employers must assure that workplace portable extinguishers get an annual maintenance check, and the rule notes that stored-pressure units do not require an internal examination at that check.

OSHA also requires the annual maintenance date to be recorded, with the record kept for one year after the last entry or the life of the shell, whichever is less.

The service leaves its mark on the unit: NFPA 10 requires a tag or label showing that maintenance was performed, identifying at minimum the month and year, the person performing the work, and the name and address of the agency performing it.

Who can perform the work is where the tiers split.

Under the 2024 International Fire Code, service personnel providing or conducting maintenance on portable fire extinguishers must hold a valid certificate issued by an approved governmental agency or other approved organization for the type of work performed.

States can pull the annual inspection itself into the certified rule.

North Carolina’s Office of State Fire Marshal interpreted in 2020, applying NFPA 10-2013 under the 2018 North Carolina Fire Code, that annual inspection and tagging of a portable extinguisher is maintenance and must be performed by certified personnel.

The third tier applies to stored-pressure units on a 12-year hydrostatic cycle, and OSHA and NFPA 10 word its scope differently.

OSHA requires stored-pressure dry chemical extinguishers that require a 12-year hydrostatic test to be emptied and subjected to applicable maintenance procedures every 6 years, under 29 CFR 1910.157(e)(4).

NFPA 10’s 2026-cycle draft applies its 6-year rule to stored-pressure extinguishers that require a 12-year hydrostatic test: every 6 years, they are emptied and given the applicable internal and external examination procedures, per the manufacturer’s service manual.

Both clocks restart at a recharge or a hydrostatic test, so a unit that comes in off-cycle for either one resets its own calendar.

Nonrechargeable (disposable) units sit outside this tier entirely.

NFPA 10 does not require a 6-year internal examination or a hydrostatic test for them; instead, they are removed from service at a maximum interval of 12 years from the date of manufacture.

An internal examination also changes what the unit wears.

NFPA 10 requires a verification-of-service collar around the neck of containers that have had maintenance including internal examination, with cartridge- or cylinder-operated and pump-tank types excepted.

Hydrostatic testing runs on the longest clocks in the schedule, and the interval depends on the extinguisher type and shell material.

OSHA’s Table L-1 puts these extinguisher types on 5-year intervals.

• Carbon dioxide.
• Stored-pressure water and AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam).
• Wetting agent and loaded stream.
• Dry chemical with stainless steel shells.

These types sit on 12-year intervals.

• Stored-pressure dry chemical with mild steel, brazed brass or aluminum shells.
• Dry chemical, cartridge or cylinder operated, with mild steel shells.
• Halon 1211 and Halon 1301.

NFPA 10’s 2026-cycle draft table keeps the same split: 5 years for water, foam, wet chemical, CO2 and stainless-steel dry chemical, and 12 years for mild-steel, brazed-brass and aluminum stored-pressure dry chemical and halogenated agents.

The draft adds a timing rule: the hydrostatic retest is conducted within the calendar year of the specified test interval.

Not every cylinder reaches its next stamp.

OSHA prohibits using air or gas pressure for hydrostatic testing, and shells or cylinders that fail the test must be removed from service.

The shortest interval in the schedule is not a calendar at all.

NFPA 10 requires all rechargeable extinguishers to be recharged after any use, or when the need is indicated by an inspection or servicing.

The 2026-cycle draft adds the verification steps: the amount of recharge agent is verified by weighing, and stored-pressure types get a leak test afterwards.

One hard stop applies: an extinguisher is never recharged without hydrostatic testing if it is beyond its specified hydrostatic test date.

While a unit is out for that work, OSHA requires the employer to provide alternate equivalent protection.

NFPA 10 adds that extinguishers removed from service must be immediately replaced with units suitable for the hazard being protected and of at least equal rating.

The table below gathers every interval in the schedule, with the authority behind each one.

NFPA listed the 2026 edition as the current edition of NFPA 10 as of October 2026.

Adoption lags the standard: Texas adopts NFPA 10-2018 in its extinguisher rules (28 TAC §34.507), so the interval that governs a job is the edition the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) enforces, not necessarily the newest one.

Build routes and shop schedules against the adopted edition and your employer’s procedures, and treat this table as the map of the clocks — not as the work instructions for any single job.

Career information, not licensing, legal, code, inspection, engineering or safety advice; confirm the intervals and the edition your AHJ has adopted with the state fire marshal, licensing agency or fire code office that governs your work.