120VAC Water Flow Switch Circuit vs. Our FCI 7100

Have you ever heard the great "I didn't do it" or "I don’t know how that could have happened" response to an issue you found during a routine service call? Well this time it did not work!

Last week we had a final inspection at a very large fire alarm project for a State University. We have been working on this project for about a year and a half and it has been a nightmare due to the lack of experience with other trades. We were ready to go but when we showed up to the site with the inspector we found that our FCI 7100 Voice Evacuation addressable fire alarm control panel had been blown.

After we canceled the fire alarm inspection (for obvious reasons) we went to work on resolving the issues and locating the cause of this mishap. Once we dug a little deeper we found that the addressable fire alarm panel was showing a ground fault without any wires connected to the boards and a trouble condition on the main control panel showing a missing water flow switch. Well, we found out that the C-16 (fire sprinkler) contractor was onsite the day before replacing the waterflow switch that was showing a fault. We opened up the water flow cover and found burn marks from the hot switch leg going to the fire alarm bell. Now that we have located the problems it was easy to start the change order process.

This is something that we as a company cannot stand dealing with. Even though we have proven the problem to be due to others it still takes a long time to get the paperwork in order, it pushes our fire alarm inspection back, and we are out the money until the change order is approved and paid in full.

It amazes me that companies like this are still in business.