Water cans

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So right around Paratus, these arrived in the mail:

I’m not an expert on fire extinguishers, but I know that, once in a while, the solution to something burning is to simply douche it with a lot of water. Yeah, yeah, it’s a different story for electric, chemical, and oil fires, but for the candle-left-too-close-to-drapes sort of conflagration some H20 is just fine.

What I did not know is that these types of fire extinguishers have a bit of DIY features in that they are reusable and rechargeable by any idiot with an air compressor. And, as it turns out, this idiot has an air compressor.

All these things are are giant pressurized super (duper) soakers. You unscrew the top, fill with liquid of your choice (more on that later), seal it up, and hook up a pump to the valve and pressurize. Easy peasy.

What this means is that you can re-use these things and refill/recharge them yourself. So, if like me you have a curious mind, you can play with one and see what kind of range and output you can expect and then just refill/reharge it to it’s ready state.

Now, of course you are supposed to fill this thing with water. (Or, as I read somewhere, water and a tiny bit of dish soap to increase the ‘wetness’ of the water). But…what if you’ve a more creative bent? Can I fill this thing with kerosene and use it to quickly prep a place for immolation? Or as an impromptu flamethrower? Can I fill it with water and food coloring and write hurriedly nasty messages in the snow on City Hall’s lawn? Can I fill it with urine and quickly run the hose into the vent of the car of someone I don’t like and make a statement? There is…potential.

In actuality though, these will get filled and charged, and then relegated to strategic locations around the house ‘just in case’. What makes them postworthy is that, naive fool I am, I had no idea they were rechargeable by the user. For a surivivalist who may need to use one of these someday its a handy thing to be able to reuse it by just filling it with tap water and charging it with a bicycle pump.

So, there you have it…the ultimate water gun.

ETA: Very useful link from the comments

46 thoughts on “Water cans”

  1. the flame thrower application has potential. Imagine a squad of jack booted thugs breaking down the front door only to be met by a wall of flame. IIRC the US military used the technique on bad guys holed up in tunnels in the Pacific islands during WWII. Turned out to be very effective.

  2. They’re lots of fun – I carry one when car camping, and use it for ensuring my campfire is dead…

  3. Longtime firefighter. Use water and a squirt of dish soap. The soap reduces the surface tension of the water and allows it to penetrate the fuel more effectively

  4. CZ, your post begs the question, “Where did you find them and what is the price.”

    I am no one’s expert on the matter (and I didn’t stay at Holiday Inn Express last night), but I have read numerous warnings in the past about trying to store petroleum products such as gasoline or diesel fuel in containers that were not designed for that purpose.

    Were you to put kerosene in these units, will the seals hold up?

    • Yes. They make antifreeze charge kits for them…I suppose you could use engine coolant as well

  6. Don’t forget that if you use… Other liquids in one, you may damage seals and valves and will likely contaminate later use with water.

  9. Maybe add some baking soda to the water. It should dissolve. When heated it will release CO2 and maybe smother some more of the flames.

  11. The guy that services the fire extinguishers at work says that kind got pulled out of all the schools years ago after kids discovered that they are really just giant super soakers. I pick them up once in a while at pawn shops or yard sales. You can still buy all the seals if it turns out they leak. Also nice to break a couple out on a hot summer day with the kids too…

  12. I’m very interested in more info. How much air pressure are we talking about? What’s the ideal fluid/air ratio? Too much fluid and you run out of push before it’s empty, too much air and you’re wasting volume for fluid. Can they stand freezing without busting a seam? Are we talking a directed stream, or a dispersed spray, and is that adjustable?
    As for flammables, there’s a reason you NEVER grease an oxygen tank fitting. For simple air + flammable, I’d be inclined to less volatile fluids. I recall tossing matches into a bucket of diesel. Never did ignite the bucket (we used diesel as a release agent on concrete forms). Kerosene is more volatile, but not that much. I’d likely stay away from gas, unless you’re using detergent to make napalm. Even then, I think I’ll leave those fun-n-games to the pro’s.

    • They are smooth ore nozzles, so they put out a solid stream of fluid.

      I have seen a couple where the smooth ore nozzle has been cut off and a spray nozzle hose clamped in place.

      In that configuration they are the shizznit for halting a spreading grass fire until your crew can get handling going.

      • There’s no need to cut the nozzle on these extinguishers off. Cover a quarter to a half of the nozzle tip with the thumb of the hand holding the nozzle. Doing this will give you an adjustable fan pattern.

  13. In the Draft Dodgers’ Yacht Club we call them water cannons. More than one has been found to contain liquor rather than water on long patrols.

    • Webstraunt is a very common online store for small businesses like restaurants and such. Company I work for has been buying from them for a while now. If you have a vendors number the prices are reduced.

  16. We keep one by the fireplace in the event a chimney fire occurs – it also works well for wood burning stoves. Water works great to put out a fire in the chimney or flue due to creosote buildup – close the doors (if you have them) and spray some water on the hot coals – the resultant steam will put out the chimney fire better than a regular extinguisher and the cleanup is a lot easier than dry chem.. Water is quite often the only thing that will cool and put out a Class A fire.

  17. There’s a “backpack” carry system for them, too.
    2.5 gallons of vodka tonic ain’t gonna carry itself. 😉

  18. https://www.thefirestore.com/mobile/store/product.aspx/productId/10646/Amerex-2-5-Gallon-Pressurized-Water-Extinguisher/

    Commonly available. Soap will increase potency for class A fires. Can Add class B firefighting foam for petroleum, there are caveats.

    Add anti freeze for winter. Can still freeze at some point. They make special fire extinguisher antifreeze but RV stuff should be fine for most applications. If using in emergency I’m more worried about the house than the tiny toxic gas possibly.

    CZ will need to add to monthly check list, to check pressure. Or at least until you know you can trust them.

  20. Mind if you have hard water. We tested one in the smaller hanger and it did not work. The company that takes care of our fire systems (both the sprinkler overhead and the hand held) in the hangers came and took it apart. He found a lot of calcium build up that plugged something. They took all of them away and replaced them with different new units that did not use water.

  22. I’m not an engineer, but do know you need Oxygen, fuel, and heat to create combustion. I realize that extreme times will require extreme measures, but taking a FLAMMABLE LIQUID and putting it in a vessel pressurized with AIR qualifies as creating a firebomb in my book. I wouldn’t want to be ANYWHERE NEAR one of these things if it was hit by a round! Storing something like this anywhere on your property “for future use” is stupidity with a capital STUPID!

    That being said, these things are GREAT for class Alpha fires, and are user-rechargeable. I use a “Rodenator” to rid my property of gophers. These can start fires if the gopher tunnel egresses into weeds. One of these extinguishers rides my cart along with the Rodenator. If I need to use it, I just take it back to the barn, refill it, and re-pressurize it. Then, back on the cart it goes.

    • mixing propane and air makes the ‘rodenator’ a fire bomb, which is why it causes fires

    • Most liquid fuels have to atomize (mist) with enough surface area and oxygen start to burn(lit matches into a cup of gasoline won’t burn but vapors will). This is why “oxydizers” are considered very hazardous (Tesla’s too)

  24. Definitely Old Skool. Back when I was a kid those were all that was available and commonly found in every house. Typically filled with H20 but could also be filled with bicarbonate of soda and water mix or practically anything you wanted. Have not seen them in many years. Many were found found made of copper. And the ones I’m thinking of had round screw on handles with the hose coming out the top of the tank and not the screw in pressure valve. Ok, I’m old, you will be with enough time, and luck.

    • The ones with bicarb were ‘Soda-Acid’ units – they looked similar, but did not have valves. They had water/bicarb and a small vial of acid which would mix with the bicarb when it was inverted pressurizing the tank and squiring the water out. AFAIK they are not only not available, but are not legal fire extinguishers… Kind of like the carbon tetrachloride extinguishers…

      • Well the carbon tet has better uses that fire extinguishing nowadays anyway. And back in the day. My understanding is they were often found empty when needed because of the usefulness of the contents.

        n

  25. Water x little bit of veggie oil x capsaicin ( boiled hot peppers and super hot sauce strained the seeds ) 2.5g of pepper spray.

  26. Had 4 of them,great for water fights,easy to fill and charge(never went over 110psi). If you have had to clean up a dry chem use you will appreciate them but still prefer CO2 /nitrogen-both smother(remove oxygen) and cool a fire and no clean up. Still remember first use of extingusher-idiot drove his burning car into the gas station (next to the pumps) I put it out and got yelled at for “wasting” a extingusher.

  27. Ahhh yes… I have one of these from my mis-spent youth. We used to drive the streets of Dayton Ohio spraying the pimps and hookers.
    Now days that would get you shot.

  28. Funny.
    Dad had one of these from when he was in college.
    They’d have water fights and he’d go recharge it with water and air at the gas station’s bike pump.

    Hadn’t thought about it for a while, now I’m thinking I need a couple.

  30. We use these at work to hit wasp nest from a good distance away. 8 oz. Of dawn and fill the rest with water. Knocks them down and kills them.

  31. I saw a suggestion years ago to buy a new garden sprayer and replace the wand with a kitchen sink sprayer. The idea was to fill it with soapy water and keep it handy for fire watch when welding. It’s not a real fire extinguisher, but avoids the dry chemical mess for small stuff.

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