Hi All,
Been getting a few quotes for replacing our 30 year old Simplex FACP. Our smoke detectors are of the same age/generation. Do we need to replace smoke detectors in commercial system every 10 yrs like we are told to do for our homes?
Two companies said NO, “as the commercial version ages, it actually gets More sensitive… not falsing.” Only 1 company said all smokes should be replaced Every 10 yrs.
Any assistance is appreciated, as we are looking at some $4,000+ to replace.
Thank You!
Chip
Correct - there is no code requirement for routine replacement of smoke detectors in commercial fire alarm systems.
However there are code requirements for annual functional testing and periodic sensitivity testing.
Correct - conventional smoke detectors do have a sensitivity increase over time. Some of this can be due to normal component aging but most is due to accumulation of dust and dirt as the picture below shows. Many commercial smoke detectors can be cleaned if they become a problem.
Not correct - the sensitivity increase does not contribute to false alarms. Making a smoke detector more sensitive does give a greater chance that a minor increase in obscuration in the sensing chamber will result in an alarm because of the dust and dirt already in the chamber.
Hello STR,
Thank you very much for the information! That was exactly what I needed. I figured we were being over-sold by the rep.
Truly appreciate your taking the time to help us out!
Any heat detectors on your system need to be sent off for testing every 15 years or replaced, smoke’s you can use as long as they pass the annual inspection.
We have a lot in the field that are over 30 years old, we also routinely replace old FACP’s with new one’s and take over the existing conventional zones with the ultimate goal of replacing them with addressable devices in another 5-10 years. This at least divides a complete replacement up over multiple budget cycles, starting with the head end then doing the field devices years later. A decent FACP should also be able to replace one zone worth of devices at a time so you can divide upgrading up even farther, some people require this for accounting reasons (ie: if you can’t approve any project over 5k, it breaks it up into a lot of projects under 5k over time).
Hi Chris - Thank you very much for the input. I was totally unaware of the requirement to test the heat detectors every 15 yrs. We’ll add that into our plan. As to the idea of upgrading to addressable detectors on a zone by zone basis for budget reasons, that is exactly our plan Great minds think alike!
Great minds think alike!