FIA fire alarm course.

rattlehead85 · Jan 27, 2013

I would like to know if anybody has attended and completed the fire alarm course offered by FIA and if so how much did it set them back and what was the quality of teaching like they provided. I am looking to take on some alarm work soon but need to improve my knowledge of this type of install as it is very limited at present.

i=p/u · Jan 29, 2013

im starting to enjoy talking about fire alarms....here we go again... any special tools for this job/work? have you any links for smoke /heat testing kit to see some prices..

when you testing mcp's do just insert the black key and drop the glass out or does glass just lean forward...??? lol

accordfire · Jan 29, 2013

i=p/u said:
im starting to enjoy talking about fire alarms....here we go again... any special tools for this job/work? have you any links for smoke /heat testing kit to see some prices..

when you testing mcp's do just insert the black key and drop the glass out or does glass just lean forward...??? lol

Best detector test kit is probably Solo - Welcome to Solo Detector Testers - Solo Detector Testers - kit is not cheap though, but is modular so you can buy bits at a time. Best bet is to trawl Ebay. As a guide, a 4m pole with the smoke detector tester is around £300 plus VAT - a full cordless kit can cost around a grand. Extension poles can push that up too, if you work over 4m - from memory it can go up a fair distance.

Generally, MCP testing is simply a matter of pushing the test key in the slot - that will usually drop the glass away from the microswitch it holds in place, though newer KAC units tend to be what are known as "frangible" - that is, non shattering - a plastic insert which is resettable. The key, in this case generally deforms the plastic and then reinstates it upon removal of the key. If the glass drops out.... that usually indicates a problem, such as the cover not being in place