Best fire extinguisher for garage?

[Turbo]

Rallying, when I did recovery I had to carry 2 dry powder and 2 foam extinguishers, I was told the vibration of driving could pack the dry powder down so it didn't work properly, so on arrival at my post I would invert the dry powder extinguishers to make sure the powder wasn't packed down, not sure if it was an "old wives tale", maybe @The_Yellow_Ardvark can advise?.

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One of the first things do when I arrive on post is check the contents gauge on the foam one and invert the powder one with my ear against the side to make sure I can hear the contents running freely through it.
Sometimes you hear a thud because the contents have settled and caked a bit in the bottom. Inverting it a few times gets it running free again.

I was taught to do that back when I started marshalling but in more recent training it's not mentioned. I guess they are afraid someone will hurt themselves lifting up a 10kg extinguisher!

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Rallying, when I did recovery I had to carry 2 dry powder and 2 foam extinguishers, I was told the vibration of driving could pack the dry powder down so it didn't work properly, so on arrival at my post I would invert the dry powder extinguishers to make sure the powder wasn't packed down, not sure if it was an "old wives tale", maybe @The_Yellow_Ardvark can advise?.

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No it is not.
It is good practice.
On the service it is part the job to test for compaction

 

[addjunkie]

No it is not.
It is good practice.
On the service it is part the job to test for compaction

Compaction in powder extinguishers was common on ships when I was at sea, think the constant vibration made it worse. On the gas cartridge type the gas path was supposed to fluidise the powder, never looked inside a stored pressure one.

Back in the early 90s when I was working for Chubb we build some dry powder systems to be fitted on some gas tankers built at Appledore, a fixed tank set up with long hose reels. They definitely had a powder fluidising set up inside.