Your business’s fire suppression system is one piece of equipment that you hope you’ll never need, but you need to have.
How effectively it puts out the fire can mean the difference between a localized event and a significant fire that leads to property damage and personal injury. For the following, we’re going to cover how often you’ll need to replace the sprinkler heads on your fire suppression system to help keep your property safe.
What Do Fire Sprinkler Heads Do?
The fire heads are the components within your fire suppression system that actually respond to heat (or smoke) coming from a fire, and then go to work covering the impacted area with water to help extinguish the flames.
So they’re literally part of your system, and broken sprinkler heads can allow a fire to spread faster, increasing the risk to employees and property.
Why Do They Need Replacing?
Fire sprinkler heads don’t last forever. The heads can fail with normal use, minor malfunctions and even collecting dust or spider webs. This will guarantee that your commercial sprinkler heads operate when you have a fire in your building.
When Do They Need to Be Replaced?
Annual inspection by a professional is a requirement from National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) on fire sprinkler heads and quarterly inspection is advised to be done by you. If sprinkler heads are deemed to be damaged, leaking, or defective in any way during routine testing, then those sprinkler systems should be replaced.
You should replace old sprinkler heads as well. According to the NFPA, any sprinkler head manufactured before 1920 should be replaced.
Finally, if sprinkler heads have been painted by anyone other than the manufacturer, replacement is required.
Why Not to Do It Yourself
Do not replace fire sprinkler heads yourself. If you end up damaging the sprinkler head during installation, or install the wrong type, or don’t install one properly, you could incur penalties. Most importantly, you could prevent the sprinkler system from working correctly in a fire situation, which puts you, your employees, and all of your property at even greater risk.
Once a commercial fire sprinkler system has been installed, they require professional maintenance to keep your business safe in a fire.
If you’re looking to replace your current sprinkler heads, install a new system, or schedule a service to inspect your current system, contact one of our fire and life safety specialists today.