Fire system troubleshooting

We were recently called to a local grocery store experiencing trouble with one of their fire alarm booster panels (used when there are too many horns and strobes in a building to run off of the main panel). The system showed that there was a trouble on one of the two NAC loops (notification appliance circuit). To source the issue, we proceeded around the store removing devices to see if we could read the end of line resistance we were looking for. As our technician had determined the panel wasn’t reading it. This meant that one of the horns and strobes had either failed, a wire had fallen off causing the circuit to be “broken” (as you can see here) — a build up from a device in the walk-in freezer. We thawed the ice with a heat gun but ultimately determined the horn needed to be replaced due to the damage.

This took six hours of onsite time diagnosing and sourcing the problem. Had this been an Autocall system with addressable NACs we could have simply walked in and seen the NAC loop was in trouble, which then would have told us which device number was in trouble and a description of its location in the building. This more than likely would have saved 4-5 hours of diagnosing and troubleshooting time.

These devices cost marginally more money than the standard ones but can save significantly more down the road. If you think you have an old, outdated fire panel, give us a call and we can provide you with an estimate for a new system.