Self-Candling Extinguisher

How often do you actually use your fire extinguisher? Hopefully never. So how do you know it'll function in an emergency? Oh, sure, there's a pressure gauge—but are you really willing to trust your home and the lives of your children to some cheap imported piece of junk? Won't you feel like a dope when you go to grab the extinguisher, and find that the contents had leaked slowly over the years, but a rusty valve spring had prevented the gauge from indicating that fact?

Really, the only way to be sure is to have a look inside. We could make the extinguisher transparent, but it wouldn't be obvious exactly what a full extinguisher was supposed to look like as opposed to an empty one. Instead, we make the extinguisher *translucent*, like an egg. And much like the process of “candling” an egg, we can shine a bright light through the extinguisher to check its contents.

At the base of the extinguisher is a built-in lantern. When switched on, the light shines through the extinguisher. A molded plastic reference window near the bottom (designed to have similar optical properties to a properly charged extinguisher) indicates the color your extinguisher should be. If your extinguisher isn't the right color, throw it away and buy a new one.

It's better than letting your kids die in a fire caused by some idiot forgetting to put out a candle.