After spending over 50 hours researching fire extinguishers and talking to eight experts in the fire-safety industry, we think the best fire extinguisher for your home is the First Alert PRO5, which is readily available, affordable, and certified by the Underwriters Laboratories (now UL), a leading global safety-testing organization. The reality, though, is that choosing an extinguisher doesn’t have to be a complicated purchase—any UL-certified, similarly sized extinguisher from a quality manufacturer has the same firefighting ability.
Our pick
Easy to handle and effective against all types of common fires, this First Alert model exceeds the minimum recommendations for the home and is easy to find.
The First Alert PRO5 can effectively handle all types of common household fires, including wood and paper, burning liquids, and electrical fires. But its build, reusability, and availability set it apart from the competition. The First Alert exceeds the minimum size recommendations of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) yet weighs a manageable 10 pounds. It has a sturdy and reliable metal valve (not plastic), and you can recharge it for about half the cost of a new extinguisher. You can find a number of extinguishers that share most of its features, but the PRO5 gains the edge due to its wide availability on the shelves of Ace Hardware, Lowe’s, Target, and Walmart. This is important because it’s possible for a fire extinguisher to discharge during shipping.
Runner-up
This model has all of the same features and stats as our pick, but it isn’t as easy to find at brick-and-mortar retailers.
If the First Alert PRO5 is not available or if the price fluctuates too high, we also like the Amerex B402. It weighs the same as our top pick (about 10 pounds) and is effective against the same types and sizes of fires. Like the PRO5, it has a metal valve and allows recharging. The only downside is that it has less in-store availability; otherwise, we think it’s interchangeable with our main pick.
Also great
At half the capacity of our pick, this supplemental extinguisher works well for small, high-risk areas, and can combat all of the typical kinds of home fires.
Another great complement for smaller, high-risk areas, this is a smaller version of our runner-up pick, but with the same UL rating as the First Alert HOME 1.
In addition to a larger extinguisher, a smaller one may make sense for some places—say, in a kitchenette, a car or truck, or a room with a fireplace or woodstove. We recommend the First Alert HOME1 (also available in a four-pack) or DHOME1 (same thing, different color). These models have less than half the capability of our pick and are the smallest UL-approved extinguishers you can get; as a result they do not meet the NFPA’s minimum recommendation for a primary extinguisher. But like the larger models, the UL-approved HOME1 and DHOME1 can combat all of the typical kinds of home fires, have metal valves, and allow recharging. If you can’t find the HOME1 or DHOME1, you’ll get similar results from the Amerex B417T, which has the same UL rating.
Based on our research, we are not recommending extinguishers by one prominent brand you’ve probably seen at home centers: Kidde, which has a history of defective products and recalls. We are open to considering future releases from the company, but for now we think you have better options.
