First one I just see no excuse for
Second one is not really a “bad install” something forced the body of the strobe off the wall from the looks of it. Around here ice is notorious for damaging exterior NA’s
and the last one … who knows haha
First, tall person win!
Second, someone really wanted that fire alarm to stop going off!
Third, what they did after no.2
when I went to camp years ago (2001ish), they had “pic number 3” has their fire alarm system. There were a couple of boxes that had those can-horns stored in them…and we actually got to see them in use for a fire drill. Loud it was, and effective. . .the red-neck fire-alarm XD
I apologize for the thread bump, but it seems that the reasons for these “install jobs” sometimes depends on what either the technician or customer wants, but in some cases it seems to be the technician’s preference. My college’s previous technician from the fire alarm service company usually would replace the whole thing when replacing an alarm signal (this is typically if using those Space Age VA4 horn/strobes). But the Student Center building was an exception; the old Standard 450 horns remained intact for the most part, but the old “FIRE” lights would be removed from the Standard retrofit plates and have a new Faraday MTL-style strobe added: ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs
This was simply to make it more ADA-compliant, and the reason that sort of strobe was used was most likely so it would somewhat resemble the original light and not look as awkward. HOWEVER, just one year after that alarm got the new strobe, THIS happened:
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Apparently the old Standard horn broke down, so the technician removed the horn and the strobe, taped over the old light socket, and slapped a U-MMT horn/strobe where the old horn once was. Some of the old Standard horn/lights in this building were also replaced with U-HN horn/strobes in the same manner. It doesn’t look so bad with that tape there, compared to THIS:
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Similarly in this case, the old Simplex 4051 horn broke down, so in order to make sure that music classroom had a working fire alarm in it again, they removed the dead horn and the lens from the 4050-80, and slapped a Wheelock NS horn/strobe onto it. If I did that, I would’ve removed the light bulb and then put electrical tape over the socket, then it’d look more decent without having to use a trim/adapter plate. I actually don’t know who did this; it even could’ve been Simplex! (Because around this time, a couple of new Simplex pull stations were installed as well.) I’ve heard about a few bad install jobs from them, people mentioning TrueAlerts slapped onto older Simplex light plates. Again, it depends on the technician or what the customer wants.
Back to my college; they got a new fire alarm service company that sells/distributes Honeywell products (mostly Notifier). From what I saw, Honeywell doesn’t ALWAYS do bad install jobs. Look at this:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3691/img0052uj.jpg
This Simplex 4051+4050-80 in the Fine Arts building was there from 1978 up until a few weeks ago when they got a new fire alarm panel (previously they had a Faraday MPC-2000 from the 1990s). THIS has now taken its place:
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7674/img1497vo.jpg
The trim plate is a little small, but at least it beats slapping that SpectrAlert Advance onto the old 4050-80 light plate! Similarly, the Field House building had all its previous SAE VA4 horn/strobes replaced with these same SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobes on the same trim plates.
Just wanted to make a point.
It all depends on the customer. They are paying. If they do not pay, or want to wait for custom plates then they get the lazy looking work you posted examples of.
The technician can do whatever they want but it ALL comes down to the customer. Why do they get away with such ugly work? Probably because they are both crappy old state and city buildings in a poor city with no oversight. I would not walk away from work like that there are cheap options that would only take a few minutes like using a small plastic blank plate cut to size. So what I see there is a bid job done at the lowest possible cost. Electrical tape is lazy as it could eventually fall off.
I re worded my post so ignore the one above and read this one its a bit more clear
For the 100th time… It all depends on the customer. They are paying. If they do not want to pay, or want to wait for custom plates then they get the lazy looking work you posted examples of. There are a million examples of quality install work where the customer was involved in the process and opted for the custom trim plates. The plates have to be custom measured, ordered, made, painted, then delivered all of which cost extra money and can slow down the job.
Why do the installers get away with such ugly work? Probably because they are both crappy old state and city buildings in a poor city with no oversight. They want the system up, running and operational as fast and as cheaply as possibly. I would not walk away from work like that there are cheap options that would only take a few minutes like using a small plastic blank plate cut to size (electrical tape is lazy as it could eventually fall off.) but if the budget does not allow for that how can I be expected to bill for that?
So what I see there is a bid job done at the lowest possible cost.
Honeywell does not do ANY work. They sell their products to product distributors like supply houses who then sell Honeywell products to licensed or “certified” installers. The installers are in most cases independent of Honeywell however they may have factory training. In some cases larger installers “partner” with certain company’s for various reasons. But Honeywell does not install the systems or devices so please do not say “Honeywell” does good or bad work.
OK, sorry. So I guess Massasoit College wants their alarm upgrades to look “good,” from what I have seen.
Here is what is probably a legit bad install: (I know this was 2 years ago but I thought I ought to share it)
Apparently instead of finding a nearby wall to mount these alarms on, or anchoring them to the metal door frame, the installer just attached them to the glass with DOUBLE-SIDED TAPE. And as you can see, the sun did it’s magic and it looks like the NA fell, and pulled the pull down with it.
Now it may seem cheap and it “works” at first, but clearly it did not.
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Wow, now that is terrible. Double sided tape? What the hell is this, a first grade art project?
The fact that the wires come up from the bottom tell me it was probably done when the wall was open so my question is what contractor came back and put that full window in and installed those devices like that. Sorry I just cant see even the most lazy installer do that. But hey… its possible 
They should have anchored backboxes to the metal door frame that was right next to the spot where those alarms were. That’s what I would have done.
Koorsen used sticky-tack on the SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobes so it could stick really good, but one might fall off on the wall in my classroom one day (which it might be because I saw part of it stick off). Similar to the fire alarm epic fail but they have backboxes behind them. The one outside my classroom with conduit and a backbox behind it is a better idea.
This is actually a strobe, not a horn/strobe in my classroom.
Here’s another fail of sorts, this time involving a Simplex 4251-30 pull station…
The key hole is covered up as well! I think if they couldn’t get any replacement glass but wanted to keep the frame up, just using a couple small bits of duct tape to leave the frame up wouldn’t be a bad idea, OR eventually get rid of the glass frame and hammer.
Also in terms of replacing old alarms with new ones, here’s an interesting variation I hadn’t seen before…
This classroom “pod” used to have two Simplex 4051+4050-80s (this wasn’t my school), but this summer they partitioned the open pod so the classrooms get their own enclosed walls and doors to the hall, and because of the initial alarm setup style they decided to install SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobes, one in the “hall” and one in each classroom. In these two rooms, rather than put the new alarm where the old one was, they simply removed the old alarm, and turned the existing backbox into a junction box. You can tell they used some kind of trim/adapter plate and put a Space Age “FIRE” junction box sign on it, and it actually looks kinda cool this way. The new alarms were installed separately onto the walls.
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The middle school had put in advanceds after an old bell system well the advanceds are dangling off there wires it was screwd in at one point and just continue to fall of the wall
Here’s another bad install job to mention: the Gibbons Elementary School in Stoughton, MA. Built in 1971, they currently have a Silent Knight system with SpectrAlert horn/strobes, several installed on their own backboxes and conduit, but I also saw some slapped onto older light plates! However, these were a kind I never saw before: they were a bit larger, the size of 2903s or Standard light plates, and were flat and gray with a Faraday/4050-80 -esque red light on the bottom (blank lens), and at least one of them had a “BLISS/GAMEWELL” logo on the bottom, revealing the school formerly had a Gamewell system, and that Gamewell used to have their own visual alarm signals! (I think the old horns may have been Vibratone 450s.)
Get a picture if you can! I want to see that plate.
Is it like the unknown ones you found?
I think he means this light plate, which is shown below.
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Yeah, I think that’s what they would have looked like without the SpectrAlerts, except they didn’t have the “FIRE” lettering and I mentioned one having a Bliss-Gamewell logo on the bottom, so Gamewell probably rebranded them.
On a similar note, I now see that Faraday rebranded those ESL detectors as well. Seems almost EVERY fire alarm company back then did so! (I’ve seen them from Edwards, Autocall, Simplex, ADT and FCI!)
Did you edit that pic without my permission? Also you should have at least gave me credit.
Oh, sorry. Didn’t notice.