Fire Sprinkler System Maintenance: Ensuring Reliability and Performance
Fire sprinkler system maintenance is crucial to the performance and reliability of the system and the safety of people in the building in the event of a fire.
Regular maintenance of your residential fire sprinkler system is important for complying with fire safety codes and making sure your systems are up to date and identifying potential problems with your fire system before it’s too late. Here is a list of ways to make sure your fire sprinkler systems are performing reliably.
Regular Inspections
Before anything, you should regularly inspect your fire sprinkler systems even if there are no noticeable problems. Not all problems can be noticed with the naked eye, and your sprinklers should, hopefully, not be active regularly, which makes it harder to measure the problems with your sprinkler system.
Both visual and functional tests should be put into practice to make sure that your system is working effectively and safely. These tests should be taken by a qualified technician at least once a year. Functional testing is carried out by means of an equivalence test which means that rather than triggering the system, the available mains flow and pressure is measured and compared with the system design requirement.
Visual tests may include looking at different components of your fire sprinkler system, such as the sprinkler heads, flow switches, pipes and pumps. The qualified technician should be able to recognise any issues with these components if there are any.
It is also a smart idea to perform smaller-scale tests and inspections regularly throughout the year by yourself, on top of the annual inspections made by the qualified technician. This may include testing its alarm safety to ensure people are made aware of the danger in the potential result of a fire.
Regular Cleaning
- It is essential to check all cover plates to ensure that they haven’t been painted over and in particular to check that the small air gap between the plate and the ceiling has not been sealed up with caulk by a decorator!
- A flow and pressure test must be carried out at the system test point and the readings should be compared with the system requirement.
- The flow alarm must be fully operational.
These steps are crucial to the safety of those in the building and can help you track the performance of your fire sprinkler system.
Record Test Results
It is always important to keep a log of the results from all of your maintenance tests on your fire sprinkler system. This applies to both your personal tests and tests done by a professional technician.
This is important as it allows you to track its progress and help make future improvements when it comes to the fire safety of your building, to comply with code BS9251.
Keeping a log of these results is not just for tracking this progress, but can also be used as proof of safety when it comes to local safety authorities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, your fire sprinkler system should have regular maintenance tests to ensure the safety of those in the building. Smaller-scale tests should be taken multiple times a year by yourself to make sure things are working correctly, and at least once a year by a qualified technician. It is always important to track the performance of your fire sprinkler system and make sure the sprinkler heads are regularly cleaned to avoid any risk of your system not working in the event of a fire.
RAD Fire Sprinklers
At RAD Fire Sprinklers, we install all of our home fire sprinkler systems in line with BS9251. For twenty years, the team at RAD Fire Sprinklers has installed fire and water sprinklers in residential buildings. Fill out this form if you’d like more details about our sprinkler systems. Alternatively, call us at 01892 680 090. Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date.
