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In this guide
Kidde sorts its residential extinguishers by room, not by rating, and the Full Home model, FX340SC-2, is the one it names for whole-house cover. It is a red dry-chemical unit rated 3-A:40-B:C, which means it is certified for ordinary combustibles like wood, paper and fabric as well as flammable liquids and energized electrical equipment. Kidde's data sheet gives it 5.5 lb of agent in a seamless aluminum cylinder, an all-up weight of 8.25 lb, and a UL-approved wall hanger in the box.
There is no visible price on kidde.com and no cart; the site points you to a nearby retailer. The product data embedded in the page lists a $55.97 MSRP, which is the number this review uses, and the same data lists the Living Area unit at $49.97 and the Basic 5 at $24.97. The question the page raises is whether the extra Class A rating over the Living Area model is worth six dollars and another pound on the wall, and the answer depends on where the extinguisher will hang.
Our verdict
The right pick among Kidde's residential extinguishers for a hallway or garage where a wood-and-fabric fire is the realistic case, provided you accept an 8.25 lb single-use unit and a price Kidde publishes only as an MSRP.
- A good fit for
- A household after one extinguisher per floor and wants the one by the main exit to carry the most Class A capacity in the range.
- We would skip it if
- You expect to recharge a unit after use, you need something light enough for a car or a boat, or you only want coverage for a kitchen grease fire.
Reasons to consider it
- 3-A:40-B:C rating, three times the Class A capability of a 1-A:10-B:C unit by Kidde's own footnote
- 5.5 lb of agent, 13 to 15 seconds of discharge and a 12 to 18 foot range, all published on the data sheet
- 12-year service-free design under NFPA 10 and 12-year cover on residential extinguishers
The compromises
- Single-use: once the pin is pulled and the lever squeezed, the unit is finished, whatever is left in it
- 8.25 lb on the wall, against 7.13 lb for the Living Area unit and 3.2 lb for the Basic 5
- Kidde does not sell direct, so the $55.97 is an MSRP in page data and the retail price will vary
What we have not verified: The extinguisher was not discharged here; spray pattern, how the gauge reads over years, the strength of the wall hanger and how the aluminum valve holds pressure were not assessed. Kidde's page states no visible price.
The things in this guide
A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.
Full Home Fire Extinguisher, FX340SC-2
The highest Class A rating of the three Kidde units compared here, 5.5 lb of agent, a 13 to 15 second discharge and a 12-year service-free design, with a UL-approved wall hanger included.
Before you buy: It is single-use and 8.25 lb, Kidde publishes the $55.97 only as an MSRP, and nothing about the discharge was tested here.
Price checked September 11, 2026. Retailer prices can change.What 3-A:40-B:C buys over 2-A:10-B:C
The UL rating on the label is the only objective comparison between home extinguishers, and Kidde's Full Home carries 3-A:40-B:C. The Living Area unit, FX210R, carries 2-A:10-B:C. Kidde's guide defines the letters: A is wood, paper and fabric, B is flammable liquids, C is electrical equipment, and the numbers in front of A and B are UL's relative capacity figures for those classes. Kidde's headline of three times more firefighting power is footnoted as a comparison of Class A capability against a 1-A:10-B:C extinguisher, which is a smaller unit than the Living Area, so the honest reading is that the Full Home has half again the A rating of its nearest sibling and four times the B rating.
The data sheet explains where that comes from. The Full Home holds 5.5 lb of agent against 4 lb in the Living Area unit and discharges over 13 to 15 seconds at a range of 12 to 18 feet; the Living Area sheet gives the same discharge time and range with less agent. Both use a seamless aluminum cylinder and an aluminum valve, handle and lever, and both list an operating pressure of 195 for the Full Home and 100 for the Living Area, in a column the data sheet labels in feet. The taller cylinder, 16.8 inches against 14.75, accounts for most of the difference in the box.
Single-use, and what the 12-year figure means
The data sheet header says single-use, and Kidde's 12-year service-free claim is built on that. The footnote is precise: under NFPA 10, single-use extinguishers do not need the six-year internal examination that rechargeable units do, but annual external examinations and corrective actions are still required. Service-free, then, means no shop visit for a teardown, not no attention. Once a year you check the gauge, the pin, the hose and the label, and if the needle has left the green you replace the unit.
Single-use also has a cost that the page does not dwell on. If a pan fire takes two seconds of a 13 to 15 second discharge, the remaining agent is not usable and the cylinder cannot be refilled; the spent unit is disposed of and a new one goes on the hanger. Kidde's footnote implies the alternative: a rechargeable unit carries the six-year internal examination but can be put back into service after a partial discharge. For a home that expects to use an extinguisher once in a decade, if ever, the single-use trade is sensible. For a workshop where small flare-ups are routine, it is expensive.
Weight, the hanger and where it goes
At 8.25 lb the Full Home is the heaviest of the three residential units compared here. The Living Area unit is 7.13 lb and the Basic 5, FA5G, is 3.2 lb with 2 lb of agent and a 5-B:C rating that carries no Class A cover at all, so it is not a substitute for wood-and-fabric rooms. Height is 16.8 inches, width 7.5 and depth 4.5, and the data sheet lists a UL-approved wall hanger, part 340358, where the Basic 5 ships with a Coast Guard-approved strap bracket instead. Eight pounds on a single hanger wants a stud or a proper anchor, not drywall alone.
Kidde's own placement guidance, citing NFPA, is one extinguisher on every level near exits plus the kitchen and garage, mounted where it can be reached without searching. That is where the Full Home's rating makes sense: the unit by the front door or at the top of the stairs is the one that meets a sofa or curtain fire, and Class A capacity is what counts there. A kitchen unit is a different problem, and Kidde offers a distinct specialty kitchen model for grease fires; the Full Home is not marketed for that.
Twelve years of cover, with conditions on where you buy
Residential and Mariner extinguishers sit in Kidde's 12-year warranty band, matching the design life. The remedy is replacement only, after Kidde inspects the claim, and the replacement inherits whatever remained of the original period. The terms are stricter than most home goods on one point: coverage applies only to units bought from Kidde or an authorized US seller, and Kidde reserves the right to reject claims for extinguishers bought through unauthorized internet sellers. Claims start with a phone call, a description, purchase details and photos of the front and back label; returns to North Carolina are at the purchaser's shipping cost.
That authorized-seller clause matters because Kidde does not sell this extinguisher itself. The page has no price and no cart, only a store locator, and the $55.97 sits in an MSRP field of the page's product data. Expect retail prices to move around that figure, and buy from a named hardware or home-improvement chain if you want the 12 years to hold. The QR code on the package leads to registration, which Kidde presents as a convenience, not a condition.
Skip it when you need light, rechargeable or kitchen-specific
The Full Home is the wrong extinguisher for a car, a boat or a compact apartment kitchen. In a vehicle you want something that straps down and weighs a fraction of eight pounds, and Kidde's Basic 5 with its strap bracket is the obvious answer from the same catalog. For grease and oil on a stove, Kidde points you to its specialty kitchen unit, and a 3-A:40-B:C dry-chemical extinguisher discharging at 12 to 18 feet is more force than a stovetop needs.
Also pass if the idea of throwing away a nearly full cylinder after a two-second squirt bothers you. The single-use design is what makes the 12-year service-free promise possible, but it means a partial discharge is a total loss. Buyers who would sooner pay for a refill and an occasional inspection point toward a rechargeable steel-cylinder model instead. For the extinguisher that hangs by the front door and hopefully never moves, the Full Home carries the most agent of the three Kidde units compared here.
How we put this together
Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.
- Kidde: Full Home Fire Extinguisher, FX340SC-2 (opens in a new tab)
- Kidde: FX340SC-2 product data sheet (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
- Kidde: Warranty information (opens in a new tab)
- Kidde: Red Living Area Fire Extinguisher, FX210R, and its data sheet (opens in a new tab)
- Kidde: Basic 5 Fire Extinguisher, FA5G, and its data sheet (opens in a new tab)
- Kidde: A Simple Guide to Choosing a Fire Extinguisher (opens in a new tab)
