Like the wiring, alarms, boxes and conduit, panels, smokes, pulls, Etc.
The wiring will generally last a very long time (like the length of the building’s life), but the type and location of the wires can quickly become obsolete. I would say the average lifespan of the actual components that you can get before some start failing is around 15-20 years.
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Thank you for answering my question! Thank you so much
Wiring generally goes obsolete before it fails provided it was installed properly (i.e not damaged during installation or left in a spot where it could be damaged during remodeling); likewise with boxes and conduit.
Conventional pulls are pretty simple devices, so unless they physically break or are of a faulty design, you can keep a non-coded pull around for pretty much forever. Addressable pulls may be conventional pulls with mini-monitors attached (see above in that case) or have the monitor circuit integrated into the pull, in which case they should be treated as any other addressable module.
Detectors theoretically can have a long working life (it’s not the “replace every 10 years” bandied about for smoke alarms in residential settings) but like most electronic devices, their lifespan is sadly not infinite (thanks a lot, electrolytic capacitors). This is also true for modules and panels, although the life of modular panels (4100s etc) can be extended considerably as the most failure-prone components (such as the power supply) can be replaced while keeping the rest intact.
That said, if you have a system that uses a long-standing and well-supported protocol (Apollo XP95 comes to mind), you may be able to keep a panel in service for quite some time as device availability/protocol obsolescence won’t be an issue. Sadly, most North American panels don’t use protocols that long-lived/relatively vendor-independent (see the phaseouts of SD and CLIP in the SK/System Sensor line, although FlashScan/Velociti/AP might have a long enough lifespan that CLIP going the way of the dodo will be a one-time blip, and Simplex/Autocall seem to be good about backwards compatibility to MAPNET II?).
As far as notification appliances go, though? Strobes generally will have a finite lifespan (xenon ones have a chunky photoflash capacitor in them that will go bad eventually, and LED ones might not be that much better, even before you get to the actual light emitters wearing out), and electronic horns (especially fancier ones) are going to be similar; piezo mini-horns, electromechanical horns, and bells will generally last a fair bit longer if not forever, though. Speakers also may last a long time, although those do contain a DC blocking capacitor and that may be vulnerable to wearing out the same way electrolytics in electronics do.
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The boxes, wire and conduit will last as long as the building
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Ok. Thank you for your help.
As others have mentioned, the wiring will often last indefinitely as long as it remains up to changing fire alarm codes. New panels will come and go, often keeping existing wiring or even field devices.
The panels themselves, depends. I’ve seen 60 year old panels that still work as well as they did when installed. But there’s not much to them, they are relatively simple systems while the higher complexity of newer systems leads to shorter lifespans. Even so, a “modern” (post-2000s) panel can still last decades, and are usually built to be upgradeable without needing replacement. For example, a 25 year old Simplex 4100+ could be upgraded to a 4100ES without replacing the whole system. Mapnet can be upgraded to IDnet, and most existing devices would still be compatable.
Thank you, that is very interesting, what panel was the 60 year old one?
When I was doing inspections for Simplex we would sometimes come across a 4246 Panel that still did everything it was supposed to. But in all honesty it’s been a while so I guess I should have said 50 years not 60 since I don’t actually know if they’re still in service…
Nice! That simplex sounds very interesting
A lot of older systems were made to last the life of the building as well since there was very little to go wrong as they didn’t have any electronics, unlike the plastic crap they have now
Yeah, the level of protection and technology has certainly gone up, but the level of things that can go wrong and bad quality control has also gone up just as much. I would say you can’t expect a modern system to last more than 25 years.