My School’s FA System in a Nutshell

[quote] Oh? There’s dust? Let me sing the song of my people. [/quote] [quote] Oh? There’s a fire? Clean my sensors. [/quote]

Really annoying. TrueAlarms, if that makes it clear.

Let’s not brand-bash now…

I’m not trying to, this has happened many times, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who dislikes TrueAlarms.

Well ok, say you dislike them then, Don’t make quotes that make it look bad because you dislike them. Brand bashing: " Xyz’s products are the crappiest quality, and their tech’s are idiots" Not brand bashing: “We have seen a lot of failures with Xyz’s products and have had to replace their products during takeovers”

I don’t get the issues you are having with the devices. Seems just to be features of the device: fire detection and detector maintenance reminders.

Quite honestly, I don’t know how some of you guys get so in depth with the alarm system at your school. You are supposed to be students, not part of the facility maintenance department :wink:

The annunciators (graphic and regular) are right by the main entrance. In the tech lab, the saw dust set it off. I was in that class, and our evacuation route goes by the annunciators, and the tech lab was in alarm, according to the graphic annunciator. In the same room, a machine overheated, and combusted. The teacher ended up using the fire extinguisher to put it out. After class, as I walked by the annunciators, the tech lab was in trouble.

I guess this makes sense given that the building is quite old.

I do like Simplex very much, especially the vertical 4903 TrueAlerts, which replace older mechanical horns.

What does the building’s age have to do with anything if it has a new fire alarm system? Does it produce more dust?

The TrueAlarms are quite old, I think they are some of the first…

If only there was a like button for this comment…

TrueAlarms are pretty good detectors but I agree they do have their issues.

Age is a big factor and if they are “old” like you call them, keep in mind that detectors do get dirty and do eventually need to be either cleaned or replaced. I have seen dirty smoke troubles occur on other brands as well. In fact, last time I worked in the field I was going around cleaning out 12 year old Notifier addressable smokes in a mall that came in as a “Dirty” trouble. Did half a dozen of them that day and more keep coming in. It’s due to age and partially due to the environment in which they are installed, as well.

So before you go brand-bashing since you clearly have a grudge against Simplex, stop to think about this logically for a change.

Yeah, they’re reaching their mark, as the system had an overhaul about 8 1/2 years ago. I don’t have a grudge against the company itself, just the detectors that cause most of the false alarms.

I have seen phantom alarms from TrueAlarm detectors but not that often.

Usually a false alarm is caused by some sort of other factor, such as the workshop dust you mentioned. In that case, I want to know one thing: Why is there even a smoke detector in a workshop anyway where dust can set it off?

I don’t have any idea, there are some MS-2s in the auditorium, even though the main pulls are 2099s. My guess: They needed somewhere to put the extras. Don’t know why they couldn’t save them if another crapped out.

As I mentioned in a YouTube comment, the school will have an upgrade next summer, so the weird parts will probably be fixed.

What exactly do you mean by “they needed somewhere to put the extras?”

There were extra smokes, that’s what I mean.

That really isn’t how it works… Everything has to be approved before devices are installed so I doubt they would do it on a whim.

Yeah exactly. So, someone was an idiot and decided to put a smoke detector in a wood shop.

As for the rest of the system it does sound like it’s not being maintained very well.

How so? Sure, the other TrueAlarms have had spoofs, but overall the system seems to work.

should have somewhere between zero and zero false alarms if maintained properly.

there’s also a very good chance the smoke was put in the wood shop because nobody told the FA company it was going to be a wood shop.