They can prevent legitimate fire alarm pulls. Someone spots a fire and then goes and lifts the cover, hears the alarm from it, and thinks they’ve set off the fire alarm.
Yeah. Plus the siren emitted can alert someone and track down the kid who did it.
I haven’t heard of this happening before. If that is the case, I think they should start making them with a 10± second delay to give the person time to pull the alarm. That’s the pro, the con however is that it is harder to track a false puller due to said time delay. There are some other ways around this issue, such as more signage.
Saw this video in another topic…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clpc3REUgps
The actual fire alarm gets set off around 15 seconds after the Stopper goes off.
Alarmed stoppers are a baaaddd idea and this is s good exapmle. most assume that the sounder is the actual alarm
How about some kind of sign by the stopper cover that says something like “lifting the cover only sounds a local alarm, to sound the fire alarm, the lever must be pulled.”?
All stoppers already have labling that says lift THEN pull. sooooo
Good point, but most people won’t read that if they want to sound the alarm in a hurry. Like what was said earlier, if they hear something sounding, they may assume that it is the fire alarm. In many places that use these Stoppers, trained staff should know what to do in case of an emergency, and know what to pull if it comes to that.
They certainly have a place but I feel that consultants/engineers can be a little overzealous in recommending them.
I’m aware they can meet ADA requirements but if you’re someone with limited hand dexterity from age, injury, etc. It can be a real challenge to activate the stopper cover and then the pull station. Especially when the horn goes off if you aren’t expecting it.
No where in all of what is written on stopper covers is there any warning about a local alarm inside. The alarm comes as a surprise when the cover is lifted.
Maybe the stoppers could have a speaker in addition to the alarm with a voice saying something like “this alarm is only local, pull the lever to activate the building alarm”.