What type of alarms do you see most in your area? Here, we see a lot of Notifier.
It’s a pretty good mix of alarms here. There really isn’t a set trend.
Same here. Though I can say that lots of newer systems in my area use SpectrAlerts and BG-12s.
Mostly national time t-bars and spectralert advanceds
a nice mix…
Usually I see:
[]Notifier
[]FCI
[]Thorn/Autocall (and lots of it!!!)
[]Silent Knight
[]Edwards/EST
[]Faraday
[*]Fire-Lite
I have also seen:
[]Simplex
[]Honeywell
[*]Pyrotronics
A pretty good mix, but mainly System Sensor and Edwards.
Mostly Edwards/EST, Mircom or Simplex stuff around here.
My area (near Providence, RI) has . . .
[list]
That’s right… no EST. Well, not for the most part, anyway.
For smaller to mid-sized buildings in my area of the city, EST QuickStarts (especially with Genesis signals) and Mircom FA-1000s are pretty common while bigger buildings and high-rises tend to have EST3, 4100(U/ES) and MXL/XLS systems.
The variety within the city, however, is enormous: Gamewell, Grinnell (rebranded Mircom panels), Standard Electric Time, Fire-Lite/Notifier/Honeywell, Electro Vox and Mirtone (and probably others that I forgot) systems can all be seen.
As far as systems go, it’s a pretty good mix. Simplex, EST, and the Honeywell brands are probably the most common. Rutgers is almost all Simplex of course, which means a lot of TrueAlerts and 9838’s - not as much of the earlier 4903 series, interestingly, though my dorms for the first 3 years had the speaker versions. EST is also fairly common in my area, with mixes of Integrities and Geneses, plus some of the schools in New Brunswick still have 892’s (though these schools are apparently getting new systems soon).
Other than that, as far as signals go, SpectrAlert Advances are by far the most common for new installations for non-Simplex/EST systems, while a lot of systems still have classic Spectras, and some from the mid-late 90’s have Wheelock MT’s, AS’s, and NS’s. For voice evac, Wheelock and Simplex speakers are the most common, though one new building that popped up recently has the Advance speakers (which I actually heard going off).
In my area, Fire-Lite and sometimes Silent Knight almost completely dominate the smaller applications. I’m also seeing a lot of EST FireShields popping up lately.
Larger buildings tend to be a mix of Simplex, EST, Siemens, or sometimes older Honeywell. Haven’t seen much Notifier or Gamewell-FCI in new installations.
For retail stores and strip malls, I usually see Honeywell products. More specifically, I generally see Fire-Lite and Silent Knight panels and pull stations used with System Sensor alarms and Notifier pulls and panels used with Gentex alarms.
In addition, for office and medical buildings, I usually see Simplex or Notifier/Gentex equipment used.
For all of the schools around my city (everything from elementary schools to colleges), the system is almost always Simplex.
It’s rare to see an EST, Gamewell-FCI, Siemens, etc. system.
Edited this.
we usually see spectralert advances in colorado. our schools have simplex truealerts with tbars and mts.
We see Edwards alarms, mostly 270-SPO pulls, Edwards Adaptabels, and 6500 panels.
Same here. I live in Pawtucket RI. All three of my schools had Simplex horns as the main signal (Simplex 4903-9219, Simplex 4051+4050-85 and Simplex 4903-9838+4903-9101s). The college I went to did have Simplex 4051+4050-85 horns, but they were replaced with a Notifier panel and SpectrAlert Advanced ceiling speakers.
Here in Washington D.C., the most common alarms I see are U-NH-MCS’s, RSS’s, CH-70’s, and Wheelock Exceeders. The most popular pull stations I see are BG-12’s and that Siemens one I have still yet to find the model number.
Generally a mix, but Simplex is the most prevalent, especially in mall stores.
If this is the alarm, it is a Siemens MS-501.
(Ben Schumin)