We recently had new duct detectors installed at my school and they put push button test switches in the gym for them. It’s only a matter of time before a ball hits one of them and puts the panel in alarm due to them being uncovered.
They might not be a code violation but that’s definitely a dumb design choice: heck why push-button test switches even exist in the first place I have no idea considering they’re so easy to tamper with.
Agreed. I’ll try to get pictures of them.
Either what is going to happen is it is going to be set off, or the button is going to be broke off.
Yeah that’s a false alarm waiting to happen (unless the button has to be held, which should diminish the chance of a false alarm greatly).
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That’s a possibility. But we won’t know until it happens. I mentioned it to the office and they’re going to contact maintenance to see if a cage can be put over them. So hopefully that happens.
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I’m trying to get maintenance to put cages over them to prevent that.
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Good Job Trying to get Maintenance to cover them i mean like the other People said its a false alarm waiting to happen
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As a technician, I think they would be rather hard to activate with a ball. The switches have to be pressed for some time before they actually set off the duct detector. Like at least 3 to 5 seconds.
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Ok, that’s good to know. I still don’t like the idea of them being unprotected, though. The horn and strobe in there are unprotected as well and based off of those, these test switches will probably see some nasty stuff in their time being there.
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That’s what I was thinking since with a more average key test switch the key has to be turned & held in that position for a few seconds before the detector activates. Button test switches are still probably not a good idea for several reasons though.
The fact that they installed all of that without using cages to protect them is just nuts.
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You should go to your installation company and get covers over them or get the attention of your school and let them know that they could be tripped
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As mentioned above, I’ve notified the school about it. Hopefully they get covers.
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Yeah. There are kids in my school that would mess with them because they don’t care. These not being keyed is a big tampering problem.
Wish they did put cages on them. The horn and strobe have somehow survived the past 37 years of being hit though. Hopefully the test switches last like them.
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At this point, I would say it’s the school’s problem, you have warned them, and if something breaks, they can’t say they had no clue, just more cash out of the districts pocket when they have to replace it.
I keep thinking that push button test switches are just as good as Call Point stations as just the single press of a button manually activates the alarms. Knowing how public schools have rowdy children that loves to mess up whatever they can in a school that button’s gonna get broken off or pushed intentionally.
It would be better if they put key reset stations instead of push button stations, and to mount them a bit higher where its some what out of reach, except for inspectors to use the ladder to reach them.
I agree with making them key test. They’re already out of reach though.
