In my area, Siemens is by far the most common. Almost all new systems in my area are Siemens. Simplex is probably second and is still seen in many new systems but is starting to be taken over by Siemens. Firelight is still common for small systems (mostly conventional). I am starting to see a few Potter systems in my area as well.
I’ve seen some simplex stuff and I’ve seen a lot of Honeywell systems
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Seems like around me it’s mainly Silent Knight and Bosch. Although there is Simplex, Notifier, and Fire-lite.
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My town used to be primarily simplex/faraday, and there are remnants of it, but now it is mostly EST. only the very newest buildings have honeywell, and they are poorly done. speaking of which, breaking fire codes seem very common. most buildings have at least one code vilation. in the local IHOP, the system was OFF. no AC, no battery, nothing.
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As for my school district, Simplex is the main supplier of fire alarm equipment, every school I have attended has used some simplex components. At some point, the school district replaced my schools original system, and installed a 4005. The horn strobes were replaced with Wheelock NS.
For city buildings, Spectralert Advances are used as the main N/A, I have not seen panels in these facilities.
For general use, Simplex, and Fire Lite systems are mainly used.
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My area has a good mix of systems from five major brands, although I’ve noticed that certain manufacturers are more popular in specific types of applications.
Edwards is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades—their products are commonly seen in all types of applications, from small commercial establishments to large institutional buildings and high-rises. This brand has a noticeable presence in the residential market. The EST3 is perhaps one of the most common systems in my area, although I regularly come across various other Edwards panels—QuickStarts, EST3Xs, FireShields, 6616s, an EST4 (the courthouse recently replaced its MXLV with the first EST4 I’ve seen in person), and the occasional surviving 6500 or 2280.
Simplex is a particularly common choice for large-scale applications and institutional buildings, such as hospitals, museums, universities and high-rise office buildings; my university, for instance, uses numerous newer and older Simplex systems on its campus. While Simplex systems aren’t quite as common as certain other brands’ systems in smaller installations, such as stores and restaurants, and in residential buildings, they still have a decent presence in these types of applications. I primarily see 4100-series panels; smaller Simplex panels, notably the 4008, 4007ES, and 4010/4010ES, aren’t quite as common.
Mircom has a very strong presence in the residential market (covering everything from small apartment buildings to high-rises) and in various types of small/mid-sized applications (such as stores, restaurants, schools, and community centres). However, I practically never see Mircom systems in large-scale installations, other than high-rise residential buildings, or institutional buildings (for instance, I don’t believe any of the local colleges/universities or hospitals use this brand). I’ve noticed that Mircom panels—particularly the FX-2000 and FA-1000—are commonly used to replace older conventional panels.
Siemens seems to be the opposite of Mircom: their products are a popular choice for all types of large-scale applications and institutional buildings (the two main colleges in my city, for instance, appear to exclusively use Siemens systems for new installations, and two of the largest museums are protected by Siemens systems) but aren’t quite as common in smaller buildings. The MXL and XLS are particularly common, although it seems that MXLs are quickly being upgraded (often to XLS/Cerberus PRO Modular systems). Smaller Siemens systems, such as the SXL, MXL-IQ, and FS-250, are a much rarer sight; the only Siemens panel I tend to see in smaller applications is the TXL-1000, which is merely a rebranded Mircom FA-1000.
Finally, Notifier is similar to Edwards in that I see their products in almost every type of installation; for instance, various stores I regularly visit, my elementary and high schools, the stations on the main light rail line, certain large government buildings, and the local international airport are equipped with Notifier systems. While Notifier’s popularity has seemingly increased over the last 15 years or so, Edwards, being a better-established brand due to its longtime presence, remains more common overall.
I occasionally see Fire-Lite systems in various types of smaller building (primarily stores and small residential buildings), but it’s far from being one of the most common brands. Fire-Lite’s popularity in my area neither seems to be decreasing nor increasing over time. Moreover, I recently saw a Maple Armor system for the first time (in a small apartment building that was recently built near my house)—it’ll be interesting to see whether this brand will manage to carve its niche in the market.
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For some reason, EST seems to have pretty much disappeared in my area. I have not seen an EST system newer than 10 years old and even those are very rare.
in Northeast Ohio, the most dominant brands are Simplex, Siemens, Honeywell/Notifier and Edwards. For more obscure brands, they would be Autocall, Standard Electric Time, IBM, and Faraday
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in other words, there is no common brand for NE ohio.
pretty much, but most of the buildings I come across, usually have Honeywell systems. There are the occasional Bosch and Silent Knight systems, which I forgot to mention. Cuyahoga Falls had some Gamewell systems back in the day.
My area is mainly a Honeywell made system under 1 of their many brands. They’re usually maintained by Cintas or Evergreen Fire & Security (which Honeywell brands are always 3rd party distributors do the work). occassionally I may find a Bosch annunciator or pull station and Gentex devices too. Simplex and EST devices also exist but it’s more common up north into the big cities.
At one point it was all Edwards. Now a days, you still see Edwards, alongside Mircom, Notifier, and then Simplex and others.
I miss seeing the 6500. We replaced our last 2 last year in my company.
One was a 6500 from 1973. Thing was a solid workhorse. Only got replaced because the condo wanted an upgrade. The NACs are still 10" Edwards Durabels, with like 2 Edwards 439Ds replacing 2 of them. Those bells last a very long time, we have a few apartments with Durabels still. We replaced it with a Kidde VS.
The other was a 6500 MKII from 1990. It would have been in service today, had it not crapped out. It was causing false alarms, you would hardly touch the main board and the whole thing would alarm. The condo wanted to replace it in 2024, but obviously the panel had other plans. This one has 6" Edwards 439Ds instead, and we used a Kidde VM instead.
Notifier. Or any other Honeywell panel.
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Mainly Honeywell, some simplex, and Bosch cough cough Walmart cough
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I know most walmarts have bosch systems, but for whatever reason, mine has voice evac with e90 speaker strobes and s8 speaker strobes. i think it’s notifier.
Those systems are still usually Bosch systems with a Wheelock Safepath voice panel.
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have you ever spotted an s8 in the wild? they seem rather uncommon.
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is full of them.
They are in my local Walmart and are also being used for intercom and background music. They are all tied into a Wheelock Safepath. The Safepath is connected to a Bosch system. Like @randomperson said, I saw a TON of them in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport a couple of months ago.
Mostly Notifier, although I have seen some Simplex systems, a few FireLite, but majority are Notifier. Well that makes sense because there is a Notifier distributer in my City! 