Myths (continued)

MYTH:   If you want your home fire sprinklers to be reliable, they will need frequent, expensive maintenance.

FACT:  The standard design for home fire sprinklers is much simpler than the design for more traditional sprinklers like the ones used in commercial buildings.  If you install a home fire sprinkler system, the only “inspection and maintenance” you will need is to (a) walk around your home and make sure the sprinklers are not obstructed by something that would block the water coming out, and (b) avoid turning off the main control valve, which you don’t normally operate anyway.

People familiar with the more elaborate maintenance requirements of traditional sprinklers may just assume that any sprinkler system needs the same.  Here are the reasons why that isn’t so: 

(1)  A home sprinkler system usually has only one main control valve, not the multiple valves in many locations you can find with traditional sprinklers. 

(2)  A home sprinkler system may not have a waterflow alarm connected to it.  If it does not, there is no need for annual testing to check it.  If it does, the test involves simply turning a valve, and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition has developed simple instructions so any consumer can easily perform the test.

(3)  A home sprinkler system probably will not use a pump.  If it does not, there is another annual test you don’t need to worry about.  If it does, the test involves simply turning on a switch to see if the pump runs.  If the pump supply is from a tank, the water level in the tank will need to be checked periodically. If your pump isn’t working, you don’t have any water anywhere in the home, which is both a bigger and an obvious problem. And if the sprinklers run off the domestic water supply, as they typically do, there is no separate pump for the sprinkler system.

(4)  A small number of home sprinkler systems may be dry-pipe systems, which need their air pressure checked periodically, or tank-fed systems, which need the water levels in the tanks checked periodically.  In every case, you probably don’t have that kind of system, and if you do, the testing and maintenance are simple – looking at a gauge, flipping a switch or turning a valve.

(5)  If you are testing your smoke alarms monthly by pushing the test button and replacing their batteries annually, you are already doing more testing and maintenance on your home’s fire detection system than you will need to do to take care of your home fire sprinkler system.  Both smoke alarms and sprinklers can be damaged if you pull them off the ceiling or hit them hard enough with something, but so can your light fixtures.  If you haven’t been worrying about your other equipment, you don’t need to start worrying about your sprinklers.  Both smoke alarms and sprinklers can be impaired if you paint them, but so can everything else installed in your home.  Again, there is no special need to worry about your sprinklers.

On the rare occasions when home fire sprinklers (or any other sprinklers) do not operate, it is usually (about two-thirds of the time) because the sprinkler system had been shut off before the fire started.  Other problems, even less frequent, include damage to sprinklers (as might happen if you were to hang a heavy coat on the exposed sprinkler), turning off the sprinkler while the fire is still burning, blocking the water from the sprinkler (as might happen if you put a tall piece of furniture directly under the sprinkler), or not getting enough water from your water supply (in which case, you would probably already have noticed that your clothes washer and dishwasher aren’t working properly either).

Your home computer may have hundreds of individual parts, all of them hidden from view and capable of failing for no apparent reason and taking down your computer with them.  Your home fire sprinklers are not like that.  They don’t need complex, expensive, or frequent maintenance, and what they do need is easy for you to perform.  Don’t let misplaced fears about maintenance requirements keep you from getting powerful protection for the lives of your family.