Fire Drill
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Added: 3 years ago
From: SimplexTech
Views: 54,372
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  • New video?

  • I really love your videos man, I want to be an official "fire alarm technician" like you.

  • If you think Notifier's garbage, don't come to my hometown. They're doing away with the Simplex systems in the schools and replacing them with Notifier voice-evac systems (currently they are getting rid of a middle school's 8-year-old 4100U system!) Several other places like the hospitals, public library, courthouses, etc. still use Simplex. Besides, I've seen a LOT worse than Notifier *coughSiemenscough*

  •  have the 4051s been retrofitted ?

  • @simplex9838man I seriously doubt it. Usually when a system without ADA-compliant signals is upgraded, even if it's a new system by the same company, EVERYTHING gets replaced. When they upgraded a building with 4051+4050-80s at nearby Stonehill College, they just replaced everything with a crappy new Siemens system with Wheelock ZNS horn/strobes/

  • @wileyk209zback Correct, the old horns were removed and patched over. The new system is a cluster of conduit runs. The pull stations were compliant so they replaced them one for one.

  • is it faster to open the box of the pull station or pull the t bar?

  • Simplex does indeed rule the fire alarm world. Even the bell systems from my school days in the 60s and 70s featured simplex bells and buzzers.

  • I much prefer the classic, intermittent bell and buzzer signal. These had a slower march, and actually, a very pleasant sound. I and many of my classmates enjoyed the sound. It was much like music in that there was both rhythm and harmony, and no two bells or buzzers sounded exactly alike.

  • hey why is the camera always pointed down

  • @branno816 read the video description

  • @branno816 It's for privacy reasons some states have strict laws about filming or he did it just for the respect of the privacy of everyone around them. I personally wouldn't care if I got filmed for a situation like this. No harm being filmed while evacuating during a fire drill and would gladly sign any permission papers but anyone under 18 has to get a parent/guardian's permission first.

  • Awesome video my friend. I would honestly love to be able to do that kind of stuff with you sometime because I like fire alarms a lot. Being able to Open up or pull a pull station sounds pretty great to me too. Keep your really awsome fire alarm videos comming.

  • Question: When buildings upgrade alarm systems, why don't they just put them where the original alarms & pull station were?

    I recently visited my old middle school (built in the mid/late 60s), and I saw nothing but blank covers where the old alarms/pull stations once were...all you now see are rather unattractive back boxes and wire conduits where the new alarms are now. (The old alarms were 4040s w/double projectors and "Chevron" pulls).

  • @GandSAfan - It has to be brought up to today's codes. All fire alarm systems now have to be ADA compliant, which includes changes like pull stations more accessible (lower) and introduction of both audible and visual notifications that can be heard and seen in all areas, just to name a couple. Sometimes the retro-fit can be ugly but a good electrical contractor will make it look as good as it can be.

  • The like the 4251-20 pull that is shown.

  • I am starting to love those classic alarms.

  • Did someone think the alarm was falsely pulled when they saw the station?

  • Comment removed

  • @hyperbaricchicken101 all were working correctly in this video.

  • Do you get called in schools to perform fire drills?

  • Fire drill...my favorite part of school!

  • Why did you actually pull the alarm instead of using your keys and opening the pull like you do on all your other videos?

  • You know I never liked 4051s but there ok

  • My Favorite! Fast Paced March Time Rate. Gotta love it! It sounds mad awesome with the 4051's. Also, SimplexTech Is The Man!!!!!!!!!

  • At my school,they tell you ahead of time when the drills happen.SOMETIMES

  • lol It Sounds Like An Electric Guitar :-)

  • All you haft to do to ring the bell at my school is flip a swich

  • R u da principal?

  • @BlazikenIsRad No. He's a SimplexTech, hence the name.

  • When were the 4051's discontinued and for what reason?

  • They were discontinued around 1982-1983, I believe, because Faraday, the original maker of the 4050s and 4051s (they were Faraday's knock-off of the Federal Vibratone horns), stopped making them, so Simplex instead began rebranding Faraday's newer horns of the period. Simplex continued rebranding Faraday products (by this point it was just horns, bells and chimes) until the TrueAlert series.

  • @rhett443 because of changes in fire codes

  • i like how he just walks up and pulls it

  • SimplexTech Rules!

  • Nice!

  • these sound rather nice :)

  • my school recently updated to a siren from horns. i remember i was at the school when they tested the system. it went on 4 like 20 minuets

  • Comment removed

  • hahaha all the chairs start o move as soon as the alarm sounds

  • I'm wonderin' why they replaced that whole system. The one shown here seems to be working fine.

  • @thesoulsekr Maybe they upgraded it because it wasn't ADA-compliant? (i.e. no strobes, pull stations high up, etc.)

  • Comment removed

  • SimplexTech, I need to ask you something a tad off topic.

    I'm a service tech for the Grand Rapids, Michigan SimplexGrinnell office. Your video and audio quality seems to be superb. Can you see if you can find the Make and model of your camera? Mine is terrible because it does not record audio and has choppy video. I wanna post vids of my fixes/tests, but want a decent video camera.

  • this one is cool. you hardly ever hear buzzers anymore.

  • neat sound!

  • When I grow up, I want to work for simplex too! testing the alarms looks like fun! I have fire alarms hanging in my room made by you! + i'm nine. sorry, but I have a weelock ehs fire alarm... sorry. if I made you dissapointed,simplextech. I dont have much money,(chuckle).

  • Hi, I'm nine, and I was wondering what kind of fire alarm that I have in my school  that was made by the company Simplex.

    (you work there so you might know)

    it has a 2903 strobe plate and has a silver metal thing in it . it sounds like bees.

  • How the hell should he know what kind of fire alarms your school has? He probably doesn't live near you, and does not perform service on systems in your area. Just because he works for the company doesn't fucking mean he knows every fire alarm system on the planet.

    Also, it is illegal (yes, ILLEGAL.) for anyone under 13 to have a registered login account on ANY online website. Better be careful kid.

  • It's a Kodak Easyshare digital camera with video recording capabilities. Thats about all I know without digging for the box somewhere...

  • Oh. That's okay. Thanks for answering.

  • were the 4051 horns on strobe plates

  • @alarm610 No ... they were on semi-flush mount plates

  • That's neat. Pretty much all Simplex 2001 systems I've known have some sort of visual alarm, usually 2903 light plates, but sometimes 4050-80s or in one case, Space Age Electronics horn/strobes!

  • How The hell would he know that

  • it's better than a 4006

  • I hardly know much about the 4006. Haven't serviced many. The advantage of a 4006 over a 4005 is an LCD annunciator, and on board DACT. How many zones can a 4006 handle?

  • Why did you pull it this time, instead of opening it and setting it off with the key?

  • fake

  • yea, it's fake

  • I was at my dads jobsite at a highschool with truealerts and i passed by the panel and heard it beeping and checked it out. Then i saw the annuciator and saw it was in trouble but i didnt want to really ack. the box was taken off.

  • how do most schools turn on fire alarms?

  • When I was in school, I know my regular elementary (1-6), middle and high schools set off the alarms for their drills via the fire alarm control panel (they'd use the "GENERAL ALARM" or "DRILL" switch).

  • Cool! Is that a 9838 towards the end?

  • No it is not

  • Ok, thanks

  • It's another 4051. I remember at least one of them at the K-8 school I went to for kindergarten sounding like that. They tended to sound at different pitches (some would even sound like 4050s!)

  • i like how as soon as they go off, there is all of the sounds of chairs moving, and b.t.w is your job like twoplyboys?

  • I have no idea who that is

  • he works for simplex too i believe, testing alarms, just like you.

  • He's a fire alarm tech from Canada. His vids are very similar to yours.

  • haha 1:03 "How are You"

  • was that a simplex 4251-20 pull Station?

  • yes

  • Good test but why did you have the camera pointed at the floor?

  • to not show the people's faces. read the description.

  • Mostly to avoid any students or other school staff from appearing in the video, due to privacy reasons, I think

  • I like this alarm. Wish the schools in Australia used these.

  • I thought "abrubt" or jarring alarms went out with the 70s! This sounds like my elementary school 30 years ago!

  • Well, this school was built in 1979, SimplexTech said. So it WAS still the 1970s when this system was initially installed (when it had its Simplex 2001 panel). The K-8 school I had kindergarten at was built in 1974 and has the same 4051 horns, but on 4050-80 light plates (the school's Simplex 2001 alarm panel was installed in the 1980s)

  • UPDATE: The K-8 school I mentioned now probably has a Simplex 4005 or 4010 panel installed, but the 4051+4050-80s are still intact to this day, and are now set to Continuous. I honestly think 4051 horns sound cooler in March Time

  • question about the 4005 system. How many zones go hook up the the 4005 panel

  • The 4005 can have up to 36 zones

  • What kind of licensing do you need to install fire alarms because Im an apprentice electrician looking to also get in to this field?

  • How did you pull the fire alarm without getting busted?

  • I approved this comment just to show everyone that this guy is a fucking idiot.

  • Good call!

  • What I say is that pulling the fire alarm when there's a real fire or if you're an alarm technician testing the system or conducting an official fire drill is COMPLETELY legal. Pulling the fire alarm just for fun is not.

  • lol owned

  • nice! XD

  • Is it just me, or is it that whenever you test a system with Simplex 4051 horns, they always cause a reverb sound that shows up as a ringing-like noise on camera? Those two "Simplex 2001" test videos you did with the 4051+4050-80s also caused that ringing-like noise from the loudness of the alarms. Now that I recall, I think the 4051+4050-80s at the K-8 school where I had kindergarten did that too.

  • i really like the marchtime!

  • FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I think I like the sound of the 4051s better than 4050s. The elementary school where I attended kindergarten has Simplex 4051s, and they were LOUD! They were also installed on 4050-80 light plates. That school still has them.

  • How old is that alarm system?

  • The system was installed when the school was built in 1980. The panel was replaced in 2004.

  • The panel was only 4 years old. Why did they replace the whole system? Moreover why did they use Notifier? Notifier is crap!!

  • so do you just pull the fire alarms unauthorized

  • The school principal and the fire department obviously planned the fire drill, and thus since the user is a SimplexGrinnell technician he was most likely called in to set off the alarm system for the drill.

  • Why did you pull it? You could get in trouble by doing that.

  • No I can't - and because it's my job, that's why.

  • Pulling a fire alarm when there is a real fire or when activating the alarm system for an official fire drill is different, AND it's completely legal. Pulling the fire alarm just for fun is not.

  • My school is a simplex system set to continuos but I asked if I can change it to march time. Continuos is really annoying.

  • The elementary school where I had kindergarten had Simplex 4051s too, but they were on 4050-80 light plates. The 4251 pull stations were the break-glass versions, and they have a Simplex 2001 panel and a graphic annunciator in the main lobby. I recall one of the 4051s sounding like the deep one in this video.

  • Are you gonna post any more vids anytime soon? I don't see many of the older horns posted on here except your vids and a few others. Most of them are them newer chirp horns.

  • good job on the video

  • Wouldn't it be logical for there to be a stopper over that 4251?

  • It would vary. If an area was getting frequent false fire alarms or if it were in a gym, Stoppers would be essential. But then again, sometimes in system upgrades they'll just install Stoppers to be safe. They did so at my college when they upgraded some of the alarm systems

  • They have places where you can go and ask for a job.

  • That was the sound of our alarm when I was in high school. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

  • the high school we have is a 4005 system with 9833s

  • what fire alarms are used at school or at a school?

  • Most new schools, or remodeled schools use Wheelock or Simplex systems.

  • my school that i went to had Simplex 4903-9219 horn/strobes and they are loud!

  • my school uses wheelock

  • I agree with coffeeandsugar - Wheelock makes cheap crap

  • No they don't

  • I like Wheelock for the volume, Simplex for everything.

  • But how about Faraday? They even discontinued their own line of signals and now just use Wheelock's stuff. I prefer Simplex over Faraday/Siemens, Wheelock and Fire-Lite/Notifier.

  • by far, ur videos r the best

  • Rumor has it Seimens is making Simplex very rich, because like Notifier, it is too Garbage. That is what another SG Tech near Detroit told me anyways. :)

  • By that time it had become outdated technology.

  • It was ahead of it's time... if I remember correctly, it could be programmed via floppy disk.

  • It was funny when the alarms went off and everyone started talking. at my school, You can't talk during fire drills

  • well same here, but we do anyways

  • you an at my school, the teachers don't give a damn, they talk too!

  • How come the new fire code says code-3 only?

  • No it wasn't.

  • this sounds like our hs's alarm system

  • Another thing I noticed is after a second the fire sounded, you can hear the chairs in classrooms make that rubbing noise on the floor. I knew exactly what that ment to me.

  • dude is that at chesapeke bay middle thats wat r fire drill sounds like ??

  • Are you like one of the school admenastrators or a officer?

  • good vids simplextech :) hope to see more

  • Is there a general "loudness" that is used? I know thats not very technical... but I was wondering if there was a standard for the dB's they push out. Thanks.

  • i want this job. repairing and testing fire alarms for a living(i am sure there is more to it) but i would love to give it a try

  • I love the marchtime horns

  • Was the fire alarm the 4005 in the whole school?

  • Why mechanical horns are vibrating horns, what does it do?

  • There's a shaft surrounded by a coil. The shaft is connected to a metal plate. When electricity passes thru the coil, it produces an electromagnet, causing the shaft to move. When that happens, the metal plate hits the back of the device hundreds of times a second, causing the noise you hear. That's my guess. SimplexTech may have a better explaination.

  • Close. The magnet actually pulls a metal plate to the magnet, disconnecting a switch causing it to move back, reconnecting the switch. It does this over and over again, about 100+ times a second to vibrate the plate and produce sound.

  • What did the horns look like? I'm guessing they were red flush mounts. I've seen them at an airport, and at a university athletic center.

  • good job on the video

  • Simplex rule best fire alarms ever

  • I'd prefer Edwards. They bring back memories cause they were in my elementary school, but now you see Simplex alarms everywhere you go...

  • question: is there a difference between using the key to set the alarm off than it is to pull the lever

  • As far as the system know, no. The only difference is in the actuation.

  • what I meant by that was if one way alerted the fire department and the other way alerted someone else

  • No, the mechanism that causes the alarm happens the same whether you pull the handle down or use the key to open the station.

  • Never pull the fire alarms in real life unless theres a fire People are not aloud to test the fire alarms only the firemen can test the fire alarms.

  • Are you really this stupid?

  • Simplex Tech works for the company that installs fire alarms systems dumbass he can do whatever the hell he wants it is his job to test fire alarms and fix them

  • he tests systems to see if they work. thats why his username is simplextech you dumbass

  • i wish we would have the march time or othe rinstead of the continuous buzzing it drove me crazy we had simplex horns when i was in high school . I would like to have a fire alarm in my home. And get rid of the battery stealing smoke detectors.

  • i agree

  • Another question...So many people i talk to think that ink will squirt on you if you pull the fire alarm...I know this is not true because i have a couple simplex pulls...What is the truth/myths of squirting ink pulls?

  • I am glad to see that you have posted another video. I like your videos!

  • I am from the UK and dont know much about horns, just electronic sounders. How do they work and why is the sound different? is it because there isn't enough power reaching it or is it the EOL device?

  • That has nothing to do with it. That is just how they sound.

  • Wait... Why isn't the security siren going off? Did they take the siren(s) out or the fire alarm system didn't trip the security system.

  • There is not a security system at this school.

  • Awesome sound!

  • Have you been to any places in your area that have 4040 horns? If so, I'd like to see a vid of it.

  • I already have one posted.

  • nice them alarms are loud

  • I love the sound of dozens of students simultaneously sliding their chairs from under their desks to get up.

  • Simplextech - Interesting videos. Are the school practices performed on a regular basis as part of their contract with Simplex, or are you on site in response to a work order due to a problem with the system (with the school having a drill in conjunction with your inspection)?

  • I was there for a service call.

  • r u the principal or a vice-principal @ this school? no offense but the principal @ my school sets off the alarm using a panel instead of a pull station

  • No, I was there working on the fire alarm system. It's best practice to do fire drills by pulling a different pull station each time.

  • he works for Simplex

  • very cool! i hope to work for simplex soon

  • Are there any 2001's that are still working properly

  • Yes, unfortunately. People need to cough up the money to get them replaced.

  • I like the 2001-style march time as well as today's

  • There's still a few Simplex 2001 systems in my town, actually. A Greek Church has one (with Simplex 2903+2901-9806s), and the Davis K-8 school, where I attended kindergarten, has one too (with Simplex 4051+4050-80s). The 2001 system at the Davis K-8 school appears to be in pretty good condition, but it's time will eventually come pretty soon.

  • i love the sound of that horn

    it is sooo deep

  • Cool vid. My high school had Simplex 4040 horns and used Code 4. They skeeerd the crap outta me when they went off!

  • That sound is scary......anyways its better than the one i have at my school...Try a Siemens UMM-T Code 3 Horn with a Separate siren on the intercoms(slow whoop).

  • What school is this? The high school I graduated from replaced the Simplex 4040 horns with Siemens horn/strobes. When I asked why they replaced the system, they replied: The old one didn't work anymore.

  • You can tell by the wiring in the panel if it is monitored. So yes, the alarm could go off and unless someone was inside, no one would know.

  • I felt like being crazy this time.

  • does the fire department ever show up when you pull the alarm

  • No this school is not monitored.