Matabi Backpack Forest Extinguisher 17 L

01 · FULL IT WEIGHS TWENTY KILOS

The figure the old page did not give

The tank is 17.5 litres total and 17 usable, and the empty unit weighs 3.35 kg. It is the sum that counts: over 20 kg on your back while you walk through vegetation.

That is where the padded straps, the adjustable belt that passes the weight to your hips and the lumbar support come from. They are not there to make it pleasant: they are there to make twenty kilos carryable.

02 · FOR THE FIRST FLAMES, NOT A FIRE

The honest limit of 17 litres

Seventeen litres put out what goes out in the first minute: an ember from the smoker caught in dry grass, a hot fragment, a small and reachable spot. For that this is exactly the tool and it can save your season.

What seventeen litres do not put out is a fire that has already run. If it has moved past the first flames, the thing to do is call the emergency number and get out — staying to insist with a backpack sprayer is how people are lost. And check your region's fire restrictions in high-risk season: in many places they cover the smoker too.

03 · TWELVE METRES JET, FOUR OF SPRAY

The lance and what the reach is for

The adjustable nozzle goes from jet to coarse spray. On jet the reach is 12 metres horizontally and around 7 vertically; on spray, about 4 metres.

The reach is not about convenience: it is what lets you keep your distance from the spot. And the jet goes to the base of the flames, not at the flame — wetting smoke puts nothing out, and with 17 litres there is not a second to spare.

04 · THE FIRST LINE IS THE SMOKER

What saves you having to use it

Most summer scares in an apiary start in the same place: a smoker throwing embers, or left to go out where it should not. An anti-spark canister inside the smoker and a smoker box to extinguish it do more to prevent fire than the sprayer does.

The sprayer is the last line, and carrying it in August is plain sense. But the order matters: first, do not start one.

05 · CLEAN WATER AND FILTER

The maintenance that keeps it working

At the end of each day the unit and its liquid circuits get cleaned. The nozzle is cleared with water or something non-metallic — a wire scores the orifice and changes the jet for good — and the filter is checked regularly.

If you keep it full through the season, change the water now and then: standing water fouls filter and nozzle, and a sprayer that will not start when needed is worse than none. The plunger is greased by tightening the nut and topping up grease when due.

06 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is the backpack unit: