I went in Walmart recently and the fire alarm annunciator was beeping.
"beep beep - beep beep - beep beep (pause) beep beep - beep beep -
beep beep (pause) beep beep - beep beep - beep beep
Yeah, I think I’ve been in a few Walmarts where that’s been going on. Given the pulse pattern you described along with Walmarts commonly using them, I’d say that Walmart you went to has a Bosch or Radionics system (Bosch now owns Radionics). More than likely the system was probably in trouble (though that pulse pattern might also be used for supervisories, I’m not sure).
The Walmart stores I have been in have two annunciators. One at the grocery entrance and one at customer service. Some of the Walmarts I have been in have a panel with very few buttons at the grocery entrance and one with full system control at customer service.
I think I’ve been to a few Walmarts that had that kind of setup. Yeah, Bosch/Radionics have sold several models of keypads (as they call them) with differing amounts of buttons.
I was in Walmart today and the fire alarm went off a couple of times for a few seconds. L-Series horn/strobes and remote strobes on the ceiling.
the fire alarm went off a couple of times for a few seconds.
I’ve seen this happen in person. It’s gotta be a Bosch system. For whatever reason those Bosch systems are really bad about controlling their NAC circuit if the panel is experiencing AC faults or other troubles. One time during a tornado warning, the power in the Walmart would flip to the backup generator, and each time it did, the fire alarms would go off for about 2 seconds and then stop. I don’t know why the panel acts this way in response to the backup generator being triggered, but it goes to show why most of those stores have been replacing their systems.
Very strange if you ask me, though I’ve been in countless Walmarts & none of their systems ever went off while I was there (even though I believe a few of the systems did have troubles).
The local Walmart has no backup generator. If the power goes out they have to close the store until the power comes back.
The day I went in the local Walmart and the fire alarms went off twice for a few seconds the annunciator wasn’t beeping. Both when I came in and when I left the annunciator was not beeping. I did hear a sound coming from the fire exits each time the alarms silenced. They have delayed egress.
Something in common with Walmarts. In every Walmart I have been in the NAs have been either Wheelock or System Sensor brand. The brand of the annunciators and pull stations have have been Radionics/Bosch.
My local Walmart has a Bosch system with a Wheelock Safepath voice evac panel. The NA’s are Wheelock S8’s in most of the store, Wheelock ET70WP’s in the walk in coolers, and Wheelock E90’s in the bathrooms. They use the speakers for voice evac, intercom, and background music. The S8’s sound fine with the music but the smaller speaker/strobes sound awful with the music. I have walked by the annunciator a few times when it has been beeping. The customer service desk has a red Bosch keypad for FA, a white Bosch keypad for security, and a Bosch pull station (the only one in the store). One of the entrances has a red keypad and a Wheelock safepath remote microphone. The other one just has a white keypad.
Sounds like a pretty standard newer Walmart system (older ones from what I have been told (& have seen) use either SpectrAlert Classics or, in some very rare cases (like really old Walmarts), Radionics-rebranded ASes & MTs). I’ve been to at least one that has the exact setup you described, though there’s also at least one ET70WP-series speaker strobe outside as well (I’m not sure I remember seeing any in the coolers though, if I even got a chance to look). To me all the speakers sounded fine playing music.
Thr systems that Walmarts in my area use are SpectrAlert Advance ceiling mount horn strobes, although they use a seperate speaker system for music and announcements, the announciators are also Bosch.
1 Like
Yeah this Walmart was built in 2014. The neighboring town has older Walmarts with classic’s as well.
1 Like
The Walmart closest to me used to have SpectrAlert Classics, however some years ago the store got a system replacement and the store now has L Series horn/strobes and remote strobes. They also have a SpectAlert Advance horn/strobe on the building in the outside garden area, an area that before the system replacement didn’t have an NA.
2 Likes
The annunciator at the local Walmart was beeping today. It displayed “duct smoke detector”.
I went to a target some time ago (I don’t usually go there.) Annunciator read “CO alarm, Zone #.”
That’s really not good.
God forbid the building catches fire. I saw an interesting case in Richmond where a fire alarm system fail caused an entire building to catch flames. Reminds me of this.
1 Like