Support & guide

Extinguisher Log 1.0 · iOS 17 and later

Getting started

1. Name your site. On first launch you're asked for one thing: a name for the place you're inspecting. "My site" is fine — you can rename it later.
2. Add your first extinguisher. Only two fields are required: a location description and the type. Everything else can be filled in later.
3. Run the check. The checklist opens with every item pre-selected as Pass. Enter your name once and submit.

That's a complete, real record — in about three minutes. Do it for one unit before you spend an afternoon entering a hundred.

Building the register efficiently

• Turn on Keep adding after saving in the asset form. The form clears and stays open so you can walk the building entering units back to back.
• Fill in the manufacture date whenever the nameplate is legible. Without it, the six-year, hydrostatic and retirement clocks can't be calculated and the asset is flagged as having an incomplete schedule. You can add it later and the dates fill in.
• For CO₂ units, enter the full charge weight. That's what the annual weighing is compared against, and it's what triggers the 10% loss warning.
• Group by site → floor → zone so the inspection round follows the order you actually walk the building.

Running a monthly round

Tap Start inspection round on the home screen. Extinguisher Log queues everything due this period and moves to the next unit each time you submit. The queue is fixed when the round starts, so it won't shift under you as you work.

If something's wrong, flip that item to Fail. The defect type is pre-guessed from which check failed, so most defects need one tap plus a photo. Up to five photos per defect.

Choosing N/A asks for a reason. That reason appears in the report — an auditor seeing "not applicable" wants to know why.

Leaving mid-round is safe. Every submitted inspection is already written to storage. The unit you're partway through is not saved as a draft, deliberately: a half-finished inspection record is a compliance status nobody can interpret.

Backfilling a missed month

Overdue periods appear on the home screen. Tap through, pick the month, and fill in the checklist as normal. Two dates get written:

• Date checked — what you state, constrained to that period and never in the future.
• Entry timestamp — written by the system, with no way to edit it anywhere.

The report labels these records as backfilled and prints when they were actually entered. This is intentional and it's not going to become configurable. It's also the reason the resulting document carries weight with the person you show it to.

Closing out a defect

Open the Defects tab, pick the item, and tap Mark as resolved. Add what was done and an after photo. If an outside contractor has to handle it, set the status to Reported as an interim state — those appear separately in the defect report.

Resolved defects stay in history and still appear in the report for the month they were found. The resolution date cannot be earlier than the date the defect was discovered.

Service cycles and reminders

Record a service event from the asset detail screen. Extinguisher Log recalculates every due date from your service history — you can't type a due date directly, and that's what keeps the clocks trustworthy.

Reminders fire at the time you set in Settings: 30 days before annual maintenance, 60 before a six-year internal exam, 90 before a hydrostatic test, and 180 before a non-rechargeable unit must be retired. Passing a hydrostatic test also resets the six-year clock, because the internal examination is part of that process.

If you decline notification permission, nothing breaks — due and overdue counts still show on the home screen.

Reports

Three types:

• Monthly inspection — the archive and hand-over document for a given period.
• Open defects — unresolved items only, with photos, for whoever fixes things.
• Asset register — every unit with its key dates, for handovers and insurance.

Quick pull at the top of the Reports tab is for an unannounced inspection: it generates the current site's summary immediately, with no configuration.

Choose Letter or A4 in Settings. Reports on the free tier carry a watermark.

Backups and moving to a new device

To export: Settings → Export a backup. You get a single package containing every record, service event and photo. Save it to Files, iCloud Drive, or anywhere else you keep documents. The date of your last export is always visible in Settings.

To restore: Settings → Restore from a backup, then pick the file. Restoring replaces everything currently in the app rather than merging — merging would create duplicate inspection records, which is worse than useless in a compliance log.

A backup made by a newer version of Extinguisher Log is refused rather than partially read. A damaged file is refused outright too — nothing is imported. In both cases your existing data is left untouched.

On a new device: install Extinguisher Log, restore your backup, then use Restore purchase in Settings to bring back the unlock.

Purchases

Extinguisher Log is free for one site and up to 15 active extinguishers, with watermarked reports. The one-time unlock removes those limits permanently.

The free limit counts active assets, so retiring units frees up room. The purchase follows your Apple Account and works with Family Sharing. If it doesn't appear on a new device, use Restore purchase in Settings and make sure you're signed in with the Apple Account that made the purchase.

Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us — request one at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Troubleshooting

Scanning doesn't work

Check camera permission in iOS Settings → Extinguisher Log. If the camera is unavailable, Extinguisher Log falls back to the list automatically — you can always pick a unit manually and type a code by hand.

An asset shows "schedule incomplete"

Its manufacture date is missing, so the six-year, hydrostatic and retirement clocks can't be calculated. Add the date on the asset detail screen. If the nameplate is unreadable, recording a past hydrostatic test or internal exam will also anchor those clocks.

A report is taking a long time

Large sites with many defect photos take longer. Above roughly 500 assets, export by site rather than all at once.

"Not enough free space to store this photo"

Photos are written to your device. Free up storage and try again — Extinguisher Log blocks rather than silently dropping the photo, because a defect without its evidence is a broken record.

An extinguisher was replaced

Use Retire this asset and add the new unit rather than editing the old one. The old record keeps its full history and stays correct in past reports; the new unit gets its own identity and its own clocks.

What Extinguisher Log doesn't do

So you don't spend time looking for it: no multi-user sync or shared registers, no web dashboard, no work-order dispatch or invoicing, no cross-site rollup reporting, and no coverage of sprinklers, alarm systems, suppression systems, emergency lighting or fire doors. These are deliberate exclusions, not a roadmap.

Planned for later releases: CSV import for migrating an existing spreadsheet register, a 12-month due-date forecast for budgeting, and report branding with your company name and logo.

Extinguisher Log produces inspection records. It is not a certification of compliance and does not replace inspection, maintenance or testing performed by licensed personnel. Annual maintenance must be recorded on a durable tag attached to the extinguisher, and a verification collar fitted after a six-year internal examination. Follow the current edition of the applicable standard and the requirements of your local authority having jurisdiction.