AED, Fire Extinguisher, and First Aid Kit Checks: A Monthly Routine Your Team Will Actually Follow
Most churches have the right equipment. An AED tucked near the lobby, a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, a first aid kit in the nursery. What trips teams up isn't buying the gear — it's forgetting about it for eighteen months until the one Sunday it actually matters, and finding a dead battery, an expired pad, or a pressure gauge sitting in the red.
A safety team doesn't need a maintenance department. It needs a five-minute routine, a shared calendar reminder, and one person per item who's actually responsible for checking it.
Why this slips through the cracks
Equipment checks fail for a boring reason: nobody owns them. Response plans get written, drills get run, but "who checks the AED battery" never makes it onto anyone's list. The equipment sits exactly where it was installed, looking fine from across the room, while the actual indicators of readiness — battery status lights, expiration dates, gauge positions — go unread for months.
The fix isn't more equipment. It's a short, scheduled check that someone is actually accountable for.
What to check, and how often
AEDs — monthly. Most AEDs have a status indicator light that shows green (ready) or some combination of red/blinking (problem). Check it. Confirm the electrode pads haven't expired — they have a shelf life, usually 18–24 months, printed on the package. Confirm the battery isn't past its replacement date. If your AED has a carry case, make sure it's actually in the case and not borrowed for a first aid station months ago and never returned.
Fire extinguishers — monthly visual check; annual professional inspection. Look at the pressure gauge — the needle should be in the green zone, not low or over-pressurized. Check the pin and tamper seal are intact. Make sure nothing is blocking access to it (stacked chairs, décor, a cart someone parked in front of it during setup). Most local fire codes require a professional inspection and tag annually — if you don't already have a vendor for this, your local fire department can usually point you to one.
First aid kits — quarterly. Go through the kit and note anything used but not replaced, and anything expired — adhesive bandages don't really expire, but antiseptic wipes, ointments, and any medications do. Replenish before the kit gets used again, not after.
Radios and other powered equipment — monthly. Charge cycle check, confirm channels are still set correctly, and replace any radio that's had connection issues during a drill rather than hoping it was a one-off.
Make it someone's job, not everyone's job
Assign one name per location or per piece of equipment — not "the safety team," one person. Put the check on a recurring calendar reminder, not a mental note. A simple log next to each item, with a date and initials, turns an invisible task into something anyone can glance at and confirm is current. If your team already logs equipment checks digitally — FaithShield's equipment tracking does this — the log itself becomes the proof you did the check, which matters if an insurer or inspector ever asks.
What to do when something fails the check
If an AED battery or pads are expired, order replacements immediately and flag it to your team lead — don't wait for the next scheduled check to follow up. If a fire extinguisher gauge reads low, it needs to be serviced or replaced before next service, not "sometime this month." Treat a failed check the same way you'd treat a missed drill step: a gap to close now, not a note for later.
The real goal
None of this is about paperwork. It's about the thirty seconds between someone collapsing and someone reaching for the AED — and that AED actually working when the pads go on. A five-minute monthly habit is the entire difference between equipment that's present and equipment that's ready.