Just like the title says how did you Get into fire alarms?
I don’t know really. I thought they sounded cool when I was in 3rd grade or so. A few years later I got some for the house to play around with. Its just something to collect, just like other people collect stamps or something.
My interest started off with my school alarms. My elementary school had Gentex GX-90s rebranded by Simplex set on continuous. I would also remember a Wheelock NS set to Code-3. Then, I googled Simplex in the video search box, and saw one of Xsk8r114’s videos of a 4251-30GA pull station. That sparked my fire alarm interest.
Then, I got a Wheelock 7002T- my first alarm.
My interest also sparked because of school’s alarms. I was in pre-kindegrarden when we were going to have our annual fire drill. They told all of the parents a day before, because some of the kids were terrified. I remember this one girl crying really loud before it went off. I didn’t care, I was neiutral. I was expecting it to be SUPER loud, because that is what I was led to think. Whenever the original SpectrAlert horn/strobe in my classroom sounded, I thought that sounded very soft. Then, once we got out into the hallway, it was louder than I thought it would originally be. That is when my first faint interest sparked.
The interest as a whole sparked throughout monthly fire drills during elementarily school, when we had some low pitched horn on an incandescent light plate (all Simplex alarms).
In sixth grade, we were in the enrichment room a lot of the time since that is the room that would fit all of the sixth grade classes. Several times there was a fire alarm in there and it interested me because the vertical AS did Code-3 while everything else did continuous and I liked the horn. However, now that I’m older, I hate electronic horns since they are so BORING! :lol:
Yes, electronic horns and chimes seem to be favored among newbies fire alarm enthusiasts, as mechanical horns seem to be favored by veteran fire alarm enthusiasts.
Funny, I prefer electromechanical because I grew up with 4050s that I became fixated on because they were so damn terrifying.
i have yet to get a chime i only have electronic horns
Hopefully you will eventually get one. I honestly would like to always have horns up, but they can easily be heard outside and I’m afraid one of my neighbors might call the dispatcher if they hear them. I wish I had a basement like Scottparsons2008.
My alarm system is in my basement as well.
I thought that at first, because of the stairs, but isn’t there a door leading outside in the room your fire alarm system is installed in?
My fire alarm interest sparked when I lived at a high rise apartment building in Arlington, Virginia during the latter part of 2010. It was all red wall mount EST Genesises. Speaker Strobes, remote strobes, and Speaker onlys. The Speaker only versions were in every room in the apartments since they were very quiet. lol 
The remote strobes were close to the elevator area in every floor as well as in the mail room. The Speaker Strobes were mainly in the hallways on every floor as well as in the lobby and the amentities. They all went off during the 2010 holiday season. My dad didn’t want to evacuate, but I knew that the building should be evacuated once the alarms go off. So eventually I got dad to do the right thing in that situation and got out of the building. We didn’t know why it went off but I suspect that people were burnin food in the oven. 
Since that night, I started researching fire alarms online and began exploring the various manufacturers and models as I go into every building. I LOVE every minute of it and I hope to start a collection very soon. 
Nice! You will LOVE your first alarms! Just make sure to keep them if you ever get bored of them, because you will probably pick the interest back up.
Yes our basement door
Aren’t basements supposed to be underground?
it is the white door it goes to my dads office the same place were i did the Q&A and that is under ground our yard has a pitch to it so the side that is faceing the street is under ground
Funny thing is, I used to hate fire alarms, though had a small interest. When I was on YouTube, I decided to look up fire alarms. I watched one video… and another, and more. That got me into fire alarms.
Oh great! Welcome to the community! Do you have a collection yet?
Oh, that’s pretty cool. Do you ever have flooding problems?
A lot of enthusiasts hate or have phobias of fire alarms, until they give them a chance. Most fire alarms enthusiasts would probably admit to picking up the interest even further after watching YouTube videos.
I got into fire alarms mostly by school fire drills and Youtube vids.