Fire Alarms in Buildings (2.0)

[The09Creeper (TheSillyFox)]

There is a duct detector protecting that exhaust vent along with the spot smoke detector

@Elevatorfan19

thats a fire damper, when the smoke detector goes off it closes

I didn’t realize there was a fire damper there

[Caleb_Culwell (Locks and alarms)]

nah that’s 80’s fire lite

[Tesla_railfaning (Fire alarms of New York)]

My local walmart got this treatment aswell, whats cool with this is that my local sams club got a panel swap with a Silent Knight 6820 with a SKE-450! They kept the A/V’s tho, the reason for the replacment was because the safepath decided to not work anymore.

[JingzFireAlarms]

Forgot to mention, this system was installed in 2008–2009ish.

[Sk5820XL]

Santikos Casa Blanca movie theater in San Antonio, TX with Edwards/EST voice evac system.

Panel: unknown (amplifier unknown)

Annunciator: RLCD-C

Pulls: EST 278 with Stopper 2 covers

NAs: Genesis speaker strobes wall and ceiling mount (red wall mount speaker strobes in auditoriums, no picture), Genesis remote speakers ceiling mount

Smokes: unknown (did not see any)

[aerhardt]

@aerhardt

Another Update:

@aerhardt

@aerhardt

Bavendick Center- BSC- Bismarck, ND

This is the new ~100,000 square foot building that will replace the Armory. Other than one privately owned building with a Bosch system, the college has all Simplex and Siemens systems. The newest building on campus that opened in 2025 has a Simplex 4100ES voice system with ES notification. That’s very possible for this new building, or it could also be Siemens, as the Siemens dealer in my area also does most of the tech integration that would be necessary in a building like this. Only time will tell.

I saw that this college is at the top of the list of recent projects on the website of the Autocall dealer in my area. This likely means that this building will be getting an Autocall 4100ES voice system, which is very unprecedented for this college.

I have found the first image of a device from inside the building online:

This looks like an Eaton Eluxa speaker/strobe to me. This really doesn’t help me much with identifying the system, though. It could still be Autocall like I thought, as Simplex/Autocall panels fully support Wheelock and Eaton devices, it could also be a Siemens system with old stock devices, which is very plausible. It could also be something else, but I really don’t see that happening.

This quoting is getting a little out of hand lol. Hopefully I don’t have too many more errors that I have to correct.

Many more photos of the building were posted online today, as it has officially opened to the public. I saw these in the backgrounds of some of the photos:

Apparently, it is yet another Siemens system in my community after all. I don’t think that’s inherently a bad thing, but it’s crazy that they have over 34% of the market share in my area, and they are only becoming more and more common as they replace older (mostly Simplex and EST) systems.

My local Autocall dealer does still have this college listed on their website, which is what originally led me to believe that this was going to be an Autocall system. Either they are installing a system in a different building on campus that I’m not aware of, or they installed one of the other things that they do (security alarm/access control/cameras) in this building, and they had it listed on their fire alarm page for some reason. Although, I know that my local Autocall dealer installed the security systems at my school (even though they didn’t get the fire alarm bid), but they didn’t list it anywhere on their website.

@Tesla_railfaning

I would say, your area is getting more autocall systems, newer siemens systems use acends now, they would have a mix of acends and eluxas if they were using old stock and they went out.

@Tesla_railfaning Apparently, my local Siemens dealer must’ve had a lot of old stock. This seems to be a common theme with them, as I saw them use Z- series devices just a couple of years ago, I’ve seen them use SL- series devices last year, and they are still installing some SL2- series devices. Oddly, they don’t seem to be consistent with always using old stock, as I’ve also seen the same dealer install ACEND devices as early as over a year ago at this point (in the auditorium area at my school).

[TheCarson116]

@Mhgk

It is. The ES series was a series of horn strobes that looked like speaker strobes, but I believe those were discontinued by the time Wheelock switched to UL 1971 strobes and replaced with the MT.

I didn’t say anything about that series, but okay: if anything I was referring to the fact that Wheelock NAs that look like the one in question can often be speaker/strobes or chime/strobes.

@Mhgk

It’s a reference to You’ve seen funny names for animals… - #69 by Mhgk

Oh, uh, okay…

@Alexis_T

(just a box with a sounder and a call point running off a 9V battery)

Seriously? Can’t believe anybody thought that was “safe”!

@Alexis_T

For the most part, we always had electronic sounders (and rarely voice evac systems, in larger buildings hooked up to the PA system, this is called a SSS or “Système de Sonorisation de Sécurité”)

Bells too right? (since last I checked bells were the first kind of audible signal in several applications, including fire alarm)

@aerhardt

This one has been doing its job well for over 32 years, and will likely continue to for decades to come:

Wow, really? Quite impressive for an electrical outlet!

@Tesla_railfaning

Ceasers Palace Alantic City, HUGE variety, theres some more cool stuff here.

@Tesla_railfaning

listen, ALOT of variety, this is all on a 4100ES.

Very interesting indeed…

@JingzFireAlarms

Canada loves their bells, heh (at least if that is in Canada, very nice otherwise though).

@NOTIFIER

Uniqlo Chicago

Autocall 4100ES system. This might be the first Autocall system I’ve seen. Signals were Wheelock Eluxa speaker strobes, and smokes are TrueAlarms.

There goes (technically) Simplex again using Wheelock NAs when they should have their own to use instead…(especially in this day & age)

@NOTIFIER

There were no smokes, even for recall, and no pulls.

That sure doesn’t seem safe (even if like in a lot of buildings I’ve been in there are likely smoke detectors, just not in public areas (for whatever reason).

@NOTIFIER

There were Wheelock Eluxa speaker strobes, and some of the older ET-series vandal resistant speaker strobes.

Neat combination.

@NOTIFIER

There were also a ton of “STAIRS” exit signs.

Cool: nothing like vintage things like them! (to put it one way)

@aerhardt

JCI is really falling behind with their notification appliances.

Considering how much they’ve been driving Simplex into the ground, I’m honestly not surprised about that at all.

@El_Chupacabra

The smaller lettering on that 4050 pull station is quite odd. I’ve seen a photo of a 4050 with this type of lettering, but it read “local fire alarm” (with the word “local” being alone on the upper portion); this one looks like a “local alarm” version that’s missing its “local” text and that’s had its “fire alarm” text rearranged. It’s a strange variant, and I see no obvious reason for it to exist.

Oh yeah, huh, odd…

@Elijah_Cooper

Backstreet Cafe (Muldragh, KY)

Have you forgotten me politely asking you to please make use of proper punctation? (including of course most prominently not capitalizing every single word) Thank you.

@aerhardt

For some reason, many emergency lights in the store were on dimly, although they showed that they had AC power:

That’s odd…

@aerhardt

I’ve always loved how these devices look, especially on a drop ceiling or drywall ceiling.

Yeah: shame they’re not made anymore.

@aerhardt

This Walmart location is pretty interesting with the fact that they are still actively using the SAFEPATH system. They have the new paging/music system with the new tones and Walmart Radio announcements, but they opted to not upgrade the speaker system. Instead, they are still using the SAFEPATH system as the speakers throughout the store, and the show no signs of changing that.

Awesome! Hey: if it isn’t broken don’t fix it, right? (shame not all Walmarts get this)

@aerhardt

The old owner of the Subway always kept this knob turned all the way down, so the speakers in the restaurant never made any sound.

Well wasn’t that dumb…

@Sk5820XL

You don’t see systems with remote speakers like that every day! (Genesis ones too!)

Apologies for this super-long post, but as you can see there are a lot of things I’ve wanted to reply to & only now have I actually gotten around to doing so, heh.

[The09Creeper (TheSillyFox)]

I don’t think I’ve seen this many replies in one post

[TheCarson116]

I did say why there are so many & also apologized for doing so.

[Sk5820XL]

Walmart in San Antonio, TX. Radionics system

Panel: unknown

Annunciator: unknown

Pulls: Radionics T-Bar

NAs: System Sensor SpectrAlert Classics and Advance remote strobe

Smokes: unknown (did not see any)

[Sk5820XL]

Fire Lite voice evac system at South Park Mall in San Antonio, TX.

Panel: unknown (amplifier unknown)

Annunciator: unknown

Pulls: BG-12 (no picture)

NAs: System Sensor L-series speaker strobes ceiling mount, System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance remote strobe ceiling mount, System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance remote speaker

Smokes: unknown (did not see any)

[Mhgk]

@Sk5820XL

unknown remote speaker

That’s an Advance speaker (from System Sensor), just like the remote strobe (but the speaker strobe is L-Series).

[The09Creeper (TheSillyFox)]

@TheCarson116

I did say why there are so many & also apologized for doing so.

No your good lol

University of Hartford: The Hartt school and Millard Auditorium

I suspect the original system was a Simplex 4247-4 (or similar) with 4040 horns and 4252-112 I think. Second system was a mid 90s Simplex 4100+ possibly using transponders with these speaker strobe plates, smoke, heat and duct detectors. Some time in the 2010s the cpu was upgraded to a 4100ES . They used federal signal mini horn strobe in many of the rooms, Idk why they couldn’t just use speaker strobes or strobe. There is one wall true alert speaker strobe that replaced a strobe plate and a new install true alert ceiling speaker strobe. There are also a few replaced smoke and duct detectors, pull was replaced because of a broken handle. In a cabinet there was tons of duct detector housings, a few bases, strobes and key switches.

(Bottom left smoke detector is on a relay base)

(Different buildings pull station)

[Tesla_railfaning (Fire alarms of New York)]

excuse me.. what.. a classic and a rare pull?

[JingzFireAlarms]

Yes that bell strobe is in Canada.

[Tesla_railfaning (Fire alarms of New York)]

If you guys remember this, the system is sadly gone Its now a new Potter AFC-1000V with wheelock eluxa devices, and i also saw some wheelock ET70WTP Speakers outside, some old stock.

[Tesla_railfaning (Fire alarms of New York)]

what.

[aerhardt]

Well, at least it got a good upgrade. I’m not too unhappy about that. If it got replaced by a Honeywell or Simplex system, I would probably feel a lot different about it.

[Tesla_railfaning (Fire alarms of New York)]

No opinions on this?

[Mhgk]

@Tesla_railfaning

Its now a new Potter AFC-1000V with wheelock eluxa devices

Are they the Potter-rebranded Eluxas or the normal Wheelock ones? The Potter ones have the Potter logo engraved where the Eaton logo normally is.