Special Order Fire Alarms

Has anyone ever seen (or own) any special order fire alarm devices? I’m talking about ones that have a custom design or color, like these:

I can’t say that I have ever heard of seen this before. I didn’t think it was even possible. That is really neat!

Simplex now manufactures brown and black TrueAlarm smoke detectors and black speaker strobes for their TrueAlertES line. The speaker quality is also better, but not that it was bad on the 4906 speakers; I always thought the quality was pretty good. This way, if the ceiling is painted brown or black people don’t have to destroy the device by painting over it.

Here is a video of these new devices (not mine of course):

System Sensor also offers black cases for their *51 smoke detectors.

Also, if the ceiling is painted a different color than white, the obvious solution is simply not painting the smoke detector, even if it sticks out. If they’re going to paint over it, then they might as well just not install it there in the first place.

Yeah. Unfortunately some people probably don’t see it that way. I think at entertainment venues and theme parks (for example, Disney) do get custom devices because they want them to blend in and make them less noticeable to add to the experience, although I’m not quite sure why they’d think a fire alarm would stick out when most people walk by them with complete disregard for them at all; there’s not a whole lot of people that would say, “that fire alarm sticks out!”, because they typically go unnoticed anyways since they’re so common.

At Great Adventure (Six Flags in New Jersey) on the indoor rides I’ve been on they paint the devices to make them blend in, and it usually looks pretty bad. I saw a bunch of Wheelock MTWP (Newer Version with horizontal strobe) that were painted with brown and grey paint to make them blend into the fake-rock wall, and honestly I think it made them stand out way more. They had a few sprinklers, but I don’t remember any smokes or heat detectors.

Yep, that sounds like what those kind of places would do lol.

Arnscott Electronics AS4000 and AS8600 speakers are available in custom colours. I’ve only ever seen the standard off-white versions, however.

I don’t know whether this is a custom factory order or a field modification, but I saw these brown EST Genesis devices a few years ago at a hotel in Las Vegas. If this is indeed a field modification, it looks pretty much flawless.

Those alarms in the first post were probably painted, but I have seen this in person once before: http://www.ebay.com/itm/GAYLORD-VENTILATOR-FIRE-ALARM-STATION-C-1357A-YELLOW-/142019125300

Looking at the wall it appears they were painted over because you can see the paint brush lines next to where the devices are.

I know Gentex sells blue Commander 3s (seen on multiple channels) however, they are labeled as general purpose, not just fire alarms.

Whats a Gaylord Ventilator?

I believe they are vents that are used in kitchens. It appears that a company called “Gaylord” rebranded these and sold them.

I have seen brown Genesis speakers in multiple locations, notably the New York capitol building. Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, OH has brown SpectrAlert Classics on the first and second floors.

i don’t think its a custom device, i’ve been told disney world paints all of their devices. they’re probably their own AHJ so they can do basically whatever they want.

it’s a voice system so the sound could be literally anything they want it to be.

The state of Florida basically allowed Walt Disney World to form their own government. So they can do whatever they want on their property with no outside interference. Here are some excerpts from a web article. For more information google Reedy Creek Improvement District.


The Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) is the immediate governing jurisdiction for the land of the Walt Disney World Resort. As of the late 1990s, it comprised an area of 38.6 sq mi (100 km2) within the outer limits of Orange and Osceola counties in Florida. The RCID includes the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, and unincorporated RCID land.

A five-member Board of Supervisors governs the District, elected by the landowners of the District.[citation needed] These members, senior employees of The Walt Disney Company, each own undeveloped five-acre (20,235 m²) lots of land within the District, the only land in the District not technically controlled by Disney or used for public road purposes. The only residents of the District, also Disney employees or their immediate family members, live in two small communities, one in each city. In the 2000 census, Bay Lake had 23 residents, all in the community on the north shore of Bay Lake, and Lake Buena Vista had 16 residents, all in the community about a mile north of Disney Springs. These residents elect the officials of the cities, but since they don’t actually own any land, they don’t have any power in electing the District Board of Supervisors.

The District headquarters are in a building in Lake Buena Vista, east of Disney Springs. The District runs the following services, primarily serving Disney:

Fire protection and emergency medical services – through four fire stations.

Law enforcement – from Orange County, Osceola County and the Florida Highway Patrol are contracted to police the district. In addition, the Walt Disney Company employs about 800 security staff in their Disney Safety and Security division. While Disney security maintains a fleet of private security Chevrolet Equinoxes equipped with flashing lights, flares, traffic cones, and chalk commonly used by police officers, arrests and citations are issued by the Florida Highway Patrol along with the Orange County and Osceola County sheriffs deputies.

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Actually, they don’t paint every single one of their devices. They do paint some, though.
Source: Been there every year from 2010 to 2016.
No pull stations were painted. (Siemens single-action with glass-break Stoppers - just about EVERY pull station had a glass-break Stopper!)
Some detectors were painted very carefully, and others were not painted. (Siemens FirePrints, with some older addressable PE-3’s)
Some signals were also painted (again, very carefully), and others were not. (LOTS of different types)

I don’t think that painting devices is just a matter of who the AHJ is. All fire alarm devices are UL listed and/or FM approved which means those independent agencies have subjected those devices to rigorous testing and found them to function properly in all conceivable emergencies if they are installed per the guidelines of the manufacturer. Installing devices in a way inconsistent with the manufacturer’s recommendations will basically void the UL and FM approvals. And since most devices have engraved on them somewhere, Fire Alarm Device - Do Not Paint, painting over them is definitely legal grounds for trouble if a fire were to happen and the system were to malfunction in some way. Even if Disney is their own AHJ and they grant themselves a variance, tampering with devices or installing them in a way they should not be installed is a poor practice no matter who’s in charge.

chances are disney is also their own insurance company, they don’t care much for listings.