What kind of MASS was it? Was it the pre-ADA version or the newer version?
That reminds me at Dan D.'s old apartment, they had a Simplex system (possibly a 4208) that had 4040 horns on 4050-80 light plates, and 4251-20 pulls. But in 2004 they did an upgrade, switching to Notifier, and they took out the 4040 horns and put BRK-MASS horn/strobes on the light plates and disconnected the old lights. As if the bad install jobs and non-ADA strobes weren’t enough (they were only 1 candela!) the horns were unsynchronized. He said they also kept the old Simplex pulls and began slowly replacing the old Simplex smokes with SS i3s.
Thank God the install jobs of replacing the old Standard horn/lights and Simplex 4051/4050-80s at my college aren’t done in a bad manner. I’d think they would take out the horn and light and lens, then mount the VA4 horn/strobe on the old light plate! This is what they do instead:
Before:
After:
Usually they mount the VA4s on red trim plates to hide evidence of the old alarm that was there, but not this pic. It’s often not a bright idea, because then you can see the paint from the old wall color from when the building was originally built and the alarm was put there, or a bit of old wall artifacts in the shape of the old retrofit plate.
I think it was the newer kind? The one that used to be in the restaurant had the big clear horizontal strobe. I assume this is what you are referring to. I’m just in a habid of calling it just MASS.
Something to remember when looking at jobs especially those that retrofit/modernize/bring up to code is that in a majority of these installs the new system is installed by the lowest bidder. Their job as the lowest bidder is to get the system installed, meet code, and have it operating as soon as possible. When a company comes in to retrofit a system cutting new plates, finding plates that will convert old back boxes etc. all add cost to the job and in most cases the group/company/school etc. that put the job to bid is well aware it wont look perfect. Their concern is making the fire dept and inspectors happy. In many cases people that are responsible for property’s see fire alarm systems as a very large hole in their budget and want to spend as little money on them as possible.
Installing a system in a building thats 50 years old with brick or block walls is VERY hard. The install company is not responsible for patching holes that rests on the building owner(s) When a company comes in and leaves empty panels for splices and modules it saves time and cost for everyone involved and in most cases it does not violate code. They cant leave the electronics in the splice box it confuses fire fighters and any one else checking panels for alarms when seconds count.
We may notice things were not sure about or things that look like crud but in almost every case the system has passed inspection and when it comes down to it as much as I wish every device was installed perfectly thats not always the case the systems primary job is to evacuate people and aside from us who even notices them? Hey… people ignore them when they go off so they sure aren’t looking at them when they are not operating!
I see plenty of painted sprinkler heads and smokes, usually in big commercial buildings that can’t be throughly inspected. Sometimes I just scrape the paint off the airholes, other times the whole head needs to be replaced. It’s a real pain in the ass especially when dealing with old obscure smoke heads. 90% of manuals and wiring diagrams are long gone. Otherwise they’re in a big moldy bankers box somewhere by the panel. Original wiring diagrams really suck especially after they’re water damaged and ripping as you try to unfold them. It’s like trying to read the encyclopedia brittanica printed on a napkin.
There’s always the crackhead electricians that smash a big hole through a firestop and leave it like that after they’re done. Or they just stick an oily rag in there to “seal it off”. :lol:
This is an old annunciator in the enteranceway of my cousin’s apartment. The new system is an EST3 with geneses. Anyway, look how high this thing is mounted! You can see the corner of the doorway, and the fact that it’s almost touching the ceiling.
Ahh yes! That annunciator is for an old Simplex 4246 system. I bet I’m the only forum member who has seen, heard of, and/or worked on one of these things.
On a 4246, the system is controlled via the annunciator. The “panel” has no controls. There should be a small gray trouble bell mounted near that, too.
Amazing! The gym building at my high school had that same annunciator, but the trim was red, not gray. And it had a black trouble bell near it too. So it was probably a Simplex 4246 system. I think the main building originally had the same, the main office had some dismantled annunciators/panels like that with “FIRE ALARM TERMINALS” over them, and their current fire alarm panel is an FCI panel (IDK the model number, I just know it is large, has 24 zones, and is non-addressable). Never saw what the Fine Arts building has, I assume it still has the Simplex 4246 annunciator intact. The original signals and most of the original pulls are intact in all three buildings; Simplex 4040 horns with flush-mount grilles, Edwards 270-SPO pulls (five were replaced with Simplex 4251-20 pulls some time in either the mid-to-late 1970s or the 1980s), and Chemtronics heat detectors, with at least three System Sensor 2451 smokes and even a 9-volt First Alert smoke in one hallway!
Also saw that annunciator at the building in my city where the temporary library was held while they were renovating/expanding the main library building in 2001-2003 (BTW, the old library building had some Gamewell horn system originally, but now it has a Simplex 4010 system with 4003 voice-evac). The pulls at this building are Edwards 270-SPOs like at the high school; the horns are even flush-mounted as well, only differences is that inside the grille is a metal flat sounder plate, so they aren’t 4040s like at the high school. My best guess is that they are Simplex 4041s.
Don’t know how “bad” this install job is, but it sure is mondo-bizzaro! I don’t have a picture, but I can describe it. At the Davis K-8 school (where I went for kindergarten and for a summer day camp in 2000), which has an old Simplex fire alarm system with Simplex 4051s on 4050-80 light plates, has a very strange installation job at one exit. Like so many of the other alarms, it has a Simplex 4051 horn installed on a 4050-80 light plate, BUT: the 4050-80 plate is mounted on the wall like it’s supposed to, but the 4051 horn is on three backboxes! The third backbox fits into the 4050-80 light plate, and in the middle backbox a conduit goes down to a Simplex 4251-30 break-glass pull station (also on a backbox, but just one). I belive that either this was how that one horn/light was installed back in 1974, or maybe some kind of construction occured there and they had to take out the horn/light and pull station, and they had no choice but to reinstall it the way you see it today. I forgot all about that until I saw it today at the school. Anyone else ever see an installation job like this?
Here’s a bad one for ya. A wheelock MT-24-LSM replacing a 2903+2901-9833.
I dont have a picture of it, but the installation HACKERS removed the 2903+2901-9833, scrapped the 9833 and put the 2903 plate under the knife. Literally. They actually CUT the 2903 right down the center of the hole for the horn. Then they put the 2903 plate back on the backbox and somehow attached a Wheelock MT-24-LSM in the open space remaining. There was a big hole below the MT. You could see into the 2903 backbox. Want to know what makes it seem lazy? The 2903’s backbox is SURFACE MOUNTED! All they had to do was remove the old box and screw a new one to the wall!
I had my mom’s cameraphone when I went there today and cameraphones take crap for pictures.
OMG! Where did you see this?! Sounds almost like the bad install job they did at the bowling alley Dan M. showed us! Interestingly, we have a Simplex 2903+2901-9833 in the cafeteria in the Student Center at my college! Like this:
If they don’t replace it with a SpaceAge VA4 horn/strobe, I wonder how they will upgrade this alarm. This is because the other alarms in this building are Standard horn/lights, and they got THESE upgrades:
who even notices them? Hey… people ignore them when they go off so they sure aren’t looking at them when they are not operating!
