How many times have any of you with plumbed fire-systems pulled on that little red handle? I never have. But I was working near it on something else the other day and hit it accidentally. The handle just popped off. No drama, no warning, nothing... just plop and the "T" hit the floor. Maybe I could have gotten enough grip on the lower part with the brass insert but maybe not in the heat of battle. This metal one painted red will not suffer that fate.

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Now, I'm big on preventative maintenance. PM is good and saves lives. I installed that SPA Design system in 2000 so it's been in the car for 11 years and I suppose I should have checked it every few years. But frankly, it never occurred to me that if I needed to pull the fire handle for real, that it would come off in my hand.

So, in case any of you have taken that part for granted... don't.

I had a fire system that didn't deploy. My car burned. That sucked.
I was too cheap to test a used system after I installed it.

That really does suck. But you bring up a good point. At $300 per refill I won't blow it off into the atmosphere, but I'll bet my local fire extinguisher pros can discharge and refill it.... gotta check that out. The 2.5lb bottle between the seats is just a fart in the wind if the fire is big and I forgot to use the electrical cutoff switch... not uncommon when the adrenaline is flowing.