What's the loudest fire alarm that you've heard?

What’s the loudest fire alarm horn/strobe?

  • SpectrAlert Classic
  • SpectrAlert Advance/L-Series
  • Wheelock AS
  • Wheelock NS
  • Wheelock ZNS
  • Wheelock Exceder
  • Wheelock 7002T
  • Wheelock EHS
  • EST Integrity
  • EST Genesis
  • Pre-Integrity
  • Edwards 892
  • Gentex Commander 3
  • Gentex SHG
  • Simplex TrueAlert
  • Simplex 4050
  • Simplex 2901-9838
  • SImplex 4903-9252 (pre-TrueAlert)
  • Siemens U-MMT
  • other
0 voters

This is the first poll that I ever made. What’s the loudest fire alarm that you heard?

2 Likes

I chose the Wheelock 7002t and it is loud on all settings! My middle school had them

The newer TrueAlerts are so much louder than the older models, especially on code-3. I can stand continuous TrueAlerts however which is weird lol.

1 Like

It depends on where the horn is for me to decide if it is louder than usually and a bit uncomfortable. For example, the 4051s at my middle school weren’t that bad but the ones in the science wing were for some reason louder than the rest of the school. A 9838 in my high school that was in a hallway that lead down a stairwell and was a direct exit for the teen center was also louder than usual but figured that was because that hallway passage was concrete.

Regardless, the loudest alarm for me would have to be the 2DCD. My high school had two of them and they were just on the verge of being ear-piercing. One was in the assessment center which became a secondary computer lab and when it went off, I swear it made the computers in there end up going a bit staticky. The one outside the room near the Cosmetology shop wasn’t much better.

[quote=idontwannaknow post_id=84948 time=1566945337 user_id=3956]

The newer TrueAlerts are so much louder than the older models, especially on code-3. I can stand continuous TrueAlerts however which is weird lol.

[/quote]

You mean the 4906 ones, including the conventional multi-candela 4906-9127? Yes, they are one of the loudest electronic horn/strobes out there, just as loud as the System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance and the Wheelock AS!
But they can’t beat the Simplex 4040 horns on Continuous at my old high school!

For me…

Electronic:
[list]

  • [*]Wheelock MT
  • [*]Gentex Commander 2 & 3 (Mechanical)
  • [*]System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance
  • [/list]

    Mechanical:
    [list]

  • [*]Simplex 2901-9833+2903-9101
  • [*]Federal Signal 450D+VALS
  • [/list]
    1 Like

    For me, the loudest electronic horn would have to be the classic SpectrAlert which makes me SHUDDER to think how loud the Advance and L-Series will be. Once again, it may have been the room, but in my high school, there was a classic SpectrAlert in the lecture hall and even on code-3 in there it was pretty loud, but that might have been because it was a bit echo-y or the room was an odd shape (almost like a triangle on its side.)

    This poll is missing the Space Age 2DCD (2901-9806), which several users over the years have claimed to be the loudest alarm they’d ever heard. I’ve never heard one in person.

    You should be glad for that because I think the ones at my high school also made my teeth vibrate on occasion. :lol:

    Electronic: tie between the Gentex Commander 2 on Code 3 Mechanical and the Siemens U-MMT on Continuous Horn. I find the U-MMT’s to be much more irritating though.

    Electromechanical: definitely the Standard Electric Time 30A. Those things are brutal.

    I’d say that my Amseco BZ-50P/BZ-50BP takes the cake with the icing and the cherry on top, even at 12V it felt like I had a very large speaker blaring straight to my face.

    Was your face right in front of it? XD

    I just got a brand new Edwards 881D-AW, flush mount adaptahorn, and this thing is very very very loud! Tried it out and my ears were ringing for a minute after

    I think a good idea for people who are starting fire alarm collections or have them already is to get some sort of noise protection. LOL

    [quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=85108 time=1569457976 user_id=18]

    Was your face right in front of it? XD

    [/quote]

    Oh thankfully no LOL but it really felt like it was.

    I can only imagine how much worse it would be if there was a building that had them as the majority alarm. LOL

    Loudest I’ve heard was my own 2901-9806. I have a 120 VAC Adaptahorn that I still need to make a video of, but I think the -9806 is still worse. The Simplex non-coded ∏-bar is pretty loud when you reset it, too. :wink:

    The Gentex GX-90s at my Elementary school. Always scared me when I was little. They were on continuous to.

    Time for an update, yet again?

    I tried the BZ-50P on a 9V battery (yes), and it still was deafeningly loud, yup, I think I got a champion there, but…

    … I found what appears to be a “High Power output” version of my AE&T/E2S T100 sounder, the T112N, this one, I think it requires 12V at the absolute minimum (won’t run on 9V, or so that’s what I have been told about these), 119 decibels… Hmm do we know how high (in dB) a Simplex 4051/4050 or a Amseco BZ-50P can go? I think I might be onto something there.

    Nice, that looks decent. I only heard 2 fire alarms go off in life, Gent C3s and Flashni siren/strobe

    1 Like