in second grade I was in the bathroom washing my hands and I made the wheelock whoop noise (i was a kid), and all of a sudden the fire alarm (wheelock AS'es) started blasting since it was a fire drill. nonetheless I didn't use the bathroom for quite some time after that
The concept of "overprotection" by putting horns in an bathroom is like asking to piss twice. The only reason of why horns exist in bathrooms is because noise suppression. Though, I agree over how they shouldn't put something too loud in the bathrooms, as demonstrated in the video over 110 decibels can damage hearing. I have a lot of trauma and moments of PTSD over specific fire alarms applied to restrooms. I once had a speaker strobe in my elementary school: the simplex trualert. Now, at my job, we have FAC horn strobes or simplex 2901-9838s on the ceiling. Luckily for us there are only 2 alarms in the large agent rooms, but in the bathrooms are the FACs. I despise looking up. If I remain to stay where I am at my job, I might ask for replacements of the alarms in the bathrooms and have them remote strobe since the door isn't as sealed and is push/pull.
I cannot handle fire alarms ptsd myself I am terrorized by them....absolutely terrorized by them....ughhh I still cannot even go into a bathroom with any kind of fire alarm etc nope....pretty much a heart attack waiting to happen....
at my local bowling alley they have those in bathrooms and i go to the bathroom and wash my hands so fast cause im scared its gonna go off in the bathroom
I'm just scared that the fire alarms will go off in the bathroom, horn or not. If I'm not in an area where I don't see it, I stare that fucker down to make sure it doesn't go off (a watched pot never boils).
Great video I’ve always wanted someone to make a video about this. I totally agree about everything you said in the video. What I would do is I would put a chime strobe in the bathroom so it doesn’t knock someone’s eardrums out but it still gets a notification message in there for blind people. For a one stall bathroom definitely a strobe only.
At my school they use just base sounders (half with beacon half without) for corridors, bathrooms etc. And open area sounders for the sports hall, assembly hall and outside. Its just loud enough to send a message without relieving everyones constipation 😂
I once saw a spectralert classic ceiling horn strobe in a changing room at a Dillards. Another time I saw a EST Integrity mini horn strobe in a really small room that had just hand washing sinks. Also there is an architect that designs the system. Installers install whatever shows up on the plan.
I'm very thankful my school district doesn't get lazy and actually does proper installations. There's fire alarms all over the place, with half the building being Wheelock NS horn srobes (Wheelock RS in the bathrooms) and Gentex Commander 3s. The best part about the Commander 3 section is that everywhere that's not a large room or hallway just has a remote strobe and no horn.
There are tons of small bathrooms I encounter that have horn-strobes in them. And since I have Asperger's Syndrome, it's even louder for me. If I see a horn-strobe in a tiny bathroom I'm using, I just keep my ears covered because I know how loud it is. Even though fire alarms don't really bother me like they used to (in fact, I love them now) I still wish more installers would realize how dangerous this is for people's hearing.
I was locked in a small bathroom during a fire drill with a horn strobe, I was 6. I'm 18 and I get very light headed when I see any type of fire alarm in a bathroom
My school also has Wheelock AS horn/strobes in most restrooms... (however, the small restroom near the chorus room, as well as the single-stall restrooms, have RSS strobes - there's also one Exceder strobe. In addition, the restroom in the newer science wing has an E70 speaker/strobe.) However, the middle school next door has Cerberus Pyrotronics I-SM-series speaker/strobes everywhere - even single-stall restrooms! (There are VERY few U-S-series remote strobes in that building - in a few small offices, though others have speaker/strobes.)
My highschool had Wheelock NS horn strobes and at least the mens restrooms had horn strobes in them and the hallway ones would always activate first and it sounded like a reverse reverb effect I remember one day they activated while I was in the bathroom.
Same goes for when someone pulls a false alarm. I was in the restroom in high school and the est integrity horn strobes were loud in the restrooms. And both times someone pulled a false alarm between classes.
I work on high rise fire alarm systems, and the speaker strobes are so much nicer than the obnoxious horns in smaller buildings. The EST whoop is easy in the ears but gets the point across.
@@MikeSully01 all the old buildings have those horn strobes and especially in small rooms it would blow you out. Another great thing about the speakers is they can give announcements across and sounds soft.
One time I was in class in my school and the fire alarm went off in the classroom and it jumpscare so bad next we went outside but the principal said to everyone to come back in It was really loud in the classroom 2 minutes and finally it silence but it was still flashing for 5 minutes
@@kevinsvlogs8898 they usually hit the silence button before actually resetting the system to make sure anything that was causing the alarm isn't triggering the system.
When I was young fire alarms used to scare me and I was terrified of the possibility that I'd be caught in a bathroom during a fire drill but luckily it never happened. It did happen in the gymnasium once or twice tho, and that was probably almost as bad
I can relate to this! A drill did happen when I was in Kindergarten in the gymnasium and honestly I was never the same after that one psychologically. The fire drills that occurred before this one were surprises but were just fine for me.
@@elevatorsbylexi That is insane! Way too many considering that fire drill in gym for me had just 2 Wheelock AS alarms on the same code and those were loud enough!!
When it comes to bathrooms, I usually put chime/strobe in the urinal and sink areas and remote strobes in the stalls. Then, code the chime/strobe to code 3 and strobes on a sync protocol. But, I never put horn/strobes in a restroom for this exact reason.
My elementary school was like this, there are EST Genesis mechanical horn strobes in every restroom and small rooms such as the copy rooms and such. I would always wonder why they would install such notification devices in such places, but until recently, I overheard talks about the misfortunes of having horn strobes in the restrooms and small rooms, and I’d always dread ever being in the restroom at the wrong time (if the alarms were to go off). When I as in middle school and now in my senior year of high school, the concept of fire alarms in restrooms has significantly changed in terms of systems and types of devices in the restrooms, compared to my elementary school, which had been and still is equipped with an EST Edwards fire alarm system with EST Integrity and EST Genesis horn strobes, was slightly less and more at the same time obnoxious as my middle school and current high school fire alarm systems that both are equipped with System Sensor Spectralert classics and advanced horn strobes with the remote strobes being installed in the restrooms and small rooms as they should be
Oh yes; I remember the Walmart I used to work at had a ceiling-mount SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobe in each restroom, as the Walmart corporation designed the system (a Fire-Lite MS-9600UDLS) to have horn/strobes EVERYWHERE. Luckily the installers were smart and set the horn/strobes in spaces like the restrooms or any other smaller rooms to "Low" volume. I remember when I began working there there was also a Wheelock MT-24-WM from the previous FCI system in one of the mens' rooms, and I remember asking a fire alarm technician that came in the restroom during a routine testing if only the Advance was hooked up, and he said it was, and I said I was glad because having both horn/strobes active in that restroom would be a bad idea! I've also seen a couple buildings at my friend's university with horn/strobes in restrooms. One of them has Simplex 4903-9219 electromechanical horn/strobes in the restrooms (they were installed as part of a Simplex 4100 system installed in the mid-90s; currently they have a Simplex 4100ES with a mix of the 9219s, TrueAlert horn/strobes and even voice-evac!) Another building has Simplex TrueAlert horn/strobes (4100U system) in several of the restrooms; these TrueAlerts are on adapter plates replacing Space Age 2DCD+AV32 horn/lights that were originally in said restrooms! OUCH!
I was in 2nd grade, class bathroom break time. I was one of the last to enter the bathroom, only one other boy in there with me. (We were probably goofing around cause ya know) and that's when it happened. TrueAlert Horn/Strobes in the bathroom. We went running out, where we were met by two girls from our class coming out of the girls bathroom. Only problem was the class was gone, and the bathrooms were in an area with no teachers in sight. We don't know what to do cause we were like, 7 years old. We walked past I think 3 exits before we walked out of the door our actual class would have gone out of from our class room. Thankfully we met up with our teacher and it ended up being nothing (Teacher was mad, we got yelled at) but man. That moment was traumatizing enough that I will forever remember every bit of it. For the longest time I was legitimately afraid of going to the bathroom by myself at school for fear of the alarm going off. Later in life I did the inspection of the system at that school There are NO remote strobes in the building. It's 100% horn strobes, even the single occupancy bathrooms that the teachers use. Every elementary school in the area was like that. Pretty sure Simplex only sold the system that way because they can sell a horn/strobe for more than a strobe, even though it costs about the same for them to produce.. I've got more fun facts about how Simplex has some shady business practices, but that could be a whole video in and of itself!
@@Fahrenheit4051 I mean, you're right, but our immediate response was "let's go out the door we were trained to go out" rather than "Let's go out the closest door" which would've made more sense, but as a 7 year old the common sense isn't always there.
I prefer Honeywell. System sensor remote strobes are 39 dollars and horn strobes are 45 dollars only a small price difference. Their speaker strobes are 65 dollars. The ease of installation on Honeywell fire alarm equipment is amazing. Just mount and wire the base and screw in the notification appliance or twist on the detector. Also, replacing a faulty device is much easier than simplex. Just stick remove the mounting screw, pop off the faulty NA, put in the new NA, and install the mounting screw. No need to deal with wiring or hunt around for a tab to pop off the cover and tediously remove the device. A fire alarm system consisting of System Sensor L series speaker strobes and remote strobes, System Sensor and Notifier modules, System sensor detectors, Notifier BG12 pull stations, and a Notifier Onyx panel with built-in voice evacuation hardware is pretty much the best you can get.
At my school, there are speaker strobes inside of some of the bathrooms. One of them actually has an Integrity remote strobe mounted to the ceiling as well as a Genesis speaker strobe. The speaker strobe that i had in the thumbnail for my fire drill video that I uploaded last Thursday was a picture that i took of a speaker strobe installed in one of the boys bathrooms at my school.
My college has speaker strobes in the restrooms of the larger buildings (student union, library) and TrueAlert HORN strobes on the older in construction, 'graduate' campus. Glad I am not around when those go off; and the Student Union has a beeping tone so its very tolerable (also has bells and horn strobes in the building)
I remember this once. I was in the second grade of school and I was in the restroom. The restroom was very creepy. It was very echo-y, had Bad lighting, and If you were to stay in there for too long the motion sensor lights will go out and you will be in there in pitch darkness. and over all overall just gives you bad vibes. It was very small it only had one urinal, one stall and 2 sinks below 2 mirrors. It had a heavy wood door about 2" thick so any sound out side you would not hear at all. The room was layed out in a square and semi hallway entrance configuration. When you would walk in you would turn left and then right at the very end of the semi hallway into the actual space and again it was very small. You would only be able to fit at least 5 comfortably in there. Anyways I was in there all by my self and the all of a sudden a sound of a Gentex Commander 3 on full volume and full candela sounds. Scared me shitless. I remembered it on the air horn setting doing code 3. It was soo loud. The reverb echo was just awful. And all I could see was the flashing strobe it was very bright so much so that it had to be on the full candela setting. I immediately bailed out of there not even washing my hands. After that I rarely used that same restroom again. I'm older now in the teens and I don't go to that school anymore. I still remember that day as if it happened yesterday.
Well based on some data sheets, the max candela of the commander 3 is 110 candelas.This is way too bright for a small bathroom as in my opinion, 15 is enough for this sort of application. But you are lucky since it is not a true alert or spectralert advance on full volume.These 2 devices are weapons to ears.Much more powerful than the horn setting on commander 3.
@@DCC--vq1ng Oh god if it were a Spectro Alert Advanced or a True Alert. You do have a point about the candela setting in a bathroom fire alarm and that it should not be that bright in a small bathroom but then again, its a horn strobe in a bathroom basically adding insult to injury. I say that it had to have been at full candela. I cannot even put it into words how bright and blinding it was even if you weren't looking at it, it would reflect off the walls as if there were a strobe on the wall.
@@Blixt1000 Well that is already way too much for a small bathroom. Since you said that the door of the bathroom blocks sound, it is right to put a notification device inside.The best option is a horn strobe while remote strobe can be an option.But these devices are for notifying people of danger not scaring people.So I think a mini horn with strobe or an EST genesis (horn set on low volume) with 15 candela strobe is enough. 110 candelas or even more is blinding.
@mr.skellyboy9700 1: The school was built in 2003, and at the time that happened (around 2013-14ish), the school was still practically new. 2: That is a very, very, good question that I still have no idea why to this day.. 3: They literally quite are, as the Women's room next to it (which for the record the only reason I know is because it was the tornado drill shelter spot), had a regular remote strobe... Not only that, but there were a few Commander 3s outside the building that were each doing different tones. One doing chime, another doing the "alternate" sound, and a few doing the horn sound. None of them were synced either... But if you ask me, the system from my Middle School was much, MUCH, worse...
The high school I go to uses hornstrobes in the bathrooms. Good thing they're Cerberus Pyrotronic alarms from the 90's that sounds similar to a Siemens UMMT, somehow my ears are used to the low pitch sounds of those alarms and yet high pitch ones like Wheelock, and Spectralerts hurts my ears a lot.
I once had the misfortune of having one of these things go off with my ear within a couple feet of it. Extremely, extremely painful. The store I used to work at had these things in small spaces and I never really understood the point of it. I love the SpectrAlerts (as well as the new L series), but somebody got carried away and overdid it by a country mile.
I went to a hotel recently that had accessible rooms, and the difference was they had the hallway setup also in the room. Truealerts with the horns in every room, INCLUDING the small 10x10 ft bathroom mounted right above the door. If that went off it would truly be insanely loud, however the case makes sense as this room also has a hearing accessible doorbell. I can see it being useful for those with hearing issues already but still configured to be a loud system. It is possible these were LF truealerts but I couldn’t tell. Posting this as randomly a System Sensor low frequency sounder base woke me up at 1am. I heard faintly the Advances in the hallway. Glad I wasn’t out there.
We’ve got gentex commander 3’s in every bathroom, bedroom and the living room in my dorm this year. That’s 7 fire alarms in one small dorm. We’ve got the accessibility room except none of us have a hearing related disability,, so this should be interesting lmao
Holy shit one of my biggest fears is a horn strobe going off while in the bathroom. Legit if there is a horn strobe in a single stall one I will not use it at like all.
If techs were to install a horn strobe in the bathroom, they should consider installing a mini-horn at least like a GX-90 or something related, or just stick with remote strobes, depending on the size of the bathroom. It’s less ear-splitting than adding a regular horn strobe. That’s just my theory.
Pretty much every Sports Venue I've been in has Horn/Strobes in the Restrooms. Although I'm guessing usually they're more Speaker than Horn with Voice Evac.
We don't get horn strobes in England, what we do get is bells. Very loud continuous bells. In my local shop, they have bells EVERYWHERE. Even on the roof (they are wall-mounted). I believe they are Fulleon Conventional and Solenoid electronic bells. I seem to remember the Solenoid ones being significantly louder, which may have been a problem because in one small bathroom there were TWO. Two of the same bell - I wasn't sure if one wasn't working, but I believed that both were because everywhere you looked in that shop there were bells everywhere. Fortunately, I wasn't in the bathroom when the alarm was going off. But when we got out, my ears were ringing. Just couldn't imagine what the bathrooms would've been like.
Yep. "Ouch" is right. Thankfully, I have never been in a position where a horn has been in a bathroom, but if I ever was, I'd... probably just avoid using that bathroom, to be honest.
One of the buildings at my university has Simplex 4903 horn strobes installed inside all the bathrooms. Fortunately I was never in the bathroom or in the building when they went off but one time they went off & I was in the building in a classroom across the main sidewalk & could hear them nice & darn clear.
I'm so glad to have been fortunate enough to have NOT been in the bathroom back in grade&high school when horn strobes went off, I think maybe one or 2 of them were properly given some sort of cover or something that reduces the noise (I can't for the life of me figure out what they're called) but anyway! yeah I'm both fortunate and lucky this hadn't happened... I think I'd have lost my hearing by the time I was 18 0.0
I'm no alarm expert, but according to Google Lens, there is an Edwards GL1WN horn mounted inside my apartment bedroom, which is a roughly 6x6ft room. I'm not sure if its meant to be mounted in such an enclosed space, but every time it goes off it is incredibly painful, I know this because, for some reason, the fire alarm in my apartment goes off randomly about twice per month for no apparent reason.
At my school, in the main building, there are Rauland speakers installed in the restrooms, as well as CENTEGIX CrisisAlert Strobes in there, but there aren't even fire alarms installed in there. In the building where the band room is, there are System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance Remote Strobes in the restrooms, and in the mobile restrooms, which students aren't even allowed in because of trust reasons, there are EST Genesis signals inside, although I do not know if they are horn strobes or remote strobes, and an EST Integrity horn strobe on the outside.
the sad part is i know multiple places with advanced horn strobes placed right over the urinals and usually they are in the most echoey bathrooms ever i also see a lot of wheelock as in bathrooms in my area. also the highschool that is closest to my house has advanced that are set to high volume mounted outside and when they false over summer you can hear them ring for a good 4 hours before they are silenced and i live a mile away from the school
There’s this local vet that has a HORRIBLE fire alarm installation. SpectrAlert Advances EVERYWHERE. Like literally so many that they’re only a couple of feet apart from each other. Not only that, but the worst part is that there isn’t a SINGLE remote strobe. All horn strobes, even in the bathrooms.
I was working this event and there was this little walk through thing that snaked through the bathroom and it got me pretty close to the alarm and ended up going off during it and it hurt my ears so much! I was practically right up against it
They actually have horn strobes at the learning skills center and at the High School where I graduated from in 2004, I would definitely not be in the bathroom during a Fire Drill. I'd hate that, honestly. In my opinion, a strobe works better.
I was in hospital for a collapsed lung and there was a strobe only fire alarm in the room. It started flashing and I dug my fingers in my ear holes as deep as I could, not knowing they were strobe only because I was so scared I was gonna hear the loud buzzing.
My school actually has two of those exact same fire alarm models in the bathroom and I couldn’t imagine how loud it would be if you were in there and they went off since they’re two in there! Lol.
The Walmart in an area about 20 minutes from my house is less than 4 years old and it has some sort of Wheelock voice evacuation system and the speakers double as the store's PA system and there are speaker strobes in the bathrooms are those ok to install?
Actually There's 2 Differences Between The SpectrAlert Advances. Difference 1: One's A Horn Strobe And One's A Strobe Difference 2: One's Red And One's White.
Our high school had a small one person bathroom in the nurse office about 6 ft by 6 ft. And they have a EST Genesis horn strobe is In there. And thats why I avoid going in that room any day around 11:00- 1:00 the time most of our fire drills happen.
At all of my schools the fire alarms in the bathrooms had speakers, including my elementry school which was the worst once since it had spectralert classics which were really loud
I wouldn’t mind remote strobes, chime strobes, or speaker strobes at the .25 watt setting in bathroom but, if I see a horn strobe in the bathroom, I would find another bathroom the next time I do my business. Horn strobes have their place but a bathroom isn’t one of them.
Hey seriously, a warehouse complex I worked security in had horns in the restrooms. I had to go check out a fire alarm in one of the buildings one morning and went into a restroom to clear it. I couldn't hear for a good half hour after that.
In the college dorm I stayed at in the first year of school there was a Siemens UMMT horn strobe in the community bathroom with all those showers and stalls. It would get everyone's attention if they're in the shower and the alarms happen to sound ha!
Here in the UK at my college, we have this building that used to be a prison and uses a different sounder type to the rest of the college called the Cooper Fulleon Roshni. One thing that bugs me is that they put Roshnis in the toilets. Why? In the other buildings, they put zp755 base sounders which aren't as loud. In my old school, we had Hochiki base sounders even they weren't as bad as one went off and was set on a low volume so everything was fine. The simple solution in the UK is a base sounder works in a toilet, not a big red Roshni or a full on Hornstyle sounder. Some companies are crazy to do this blather. I am even urged to wear headphones so I don't jump from my skin from a loud sweep, continuous or alternating tone in such situation.
As a practice yes you shouldn’t put audibles in a very small space but it depends on the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). The AHJ in Waterloo Region (Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, Ayr, etc in Ontario Canada) REQUIRE Audibles in barrier free or handicap accessible washrooms. Depends on what your local authority or engineer puts down on the drawings
Yet every school I went to did this...SHGs in elementary and intermediate school (set continuous) and GEC4 ceiling mounts in classrooms...hallways and bathrooms set on code 3...and I was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder as a kid If I knew it was the end of the month I avoided bathrooms during class like the damn plague. But...it was a Spectralert Advance that actually helped me remember their importance. In an apartment complex I was in there was a grease fire. Gentex Mini horn inside with advances outside. First thought when I heard them go off was some dumbass pulled a pullstation...till I saw smoke billowing from a unit 2 units across. And I remembered that these horribly sounding horns have a job and sometimes we don't remember how important they are until we see them do their job.
At my middle school there’s nothing but specter alert advances more horn strobes than strobes.edit:my school has specter alert horn strobes in a bathroom with tile in it
Not only did I find a SpectrAlert advance in a bathroom at Chili’s, but I also found a Wheelock MT-24-LSM in a bathroom at Best Buy. If you were to compare loudness between the SpectrAlert Advance, Wheelock AS/MT, and Simplex Truealert, what’s your opinion on those three?
From my real life experience the MTs were louder than the advances I heard. I can't speak for everyone though & it would be a biased assumption because I've only heard MTs go off in one building at one time in my life, as is the same for the Advances & the L-Series.
The Elementary School I went to in Michigan had Horn/Strobe Truealerts in some of the Bathrooms. In the Middle School I went to Where I Live Now Have Commander 4s, and Some Commander 2/3s in Some of the Bathrooms.
When I was a kid back in the 00s there was a large church I played basketball at that if I remember correctly had a Wheelock AS in one of the mens restroom and an EST Genesis in another restroom not sure if the Genesis was a horn strobe or a remote strobe. My high school had horn strobes in the restrooms too.
A Red Robin near me has a System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance horn strobe in the men’s bathroom, before the remodel, there was a Wheelock RSS. Also, a public restroom at a park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has a SpectrAlert Classic horn strobe in it. Good thing neither of those went off while I was in there. Also, the condo complex where my grandpa’s condo is in Maui Hawaii has two Simplex speaker strobes inside the restrooms at the pool. I’ve started to question: why does that restroom need two speaker strobes? All it has is one standard toilet, one urinal, and a shower. Are there two in there because they think whoever is in the shower will not hear alarms from the outside well? I have been at that place while the alarms were being tested, but good thing is when they do test them, they don’t use the Simplex voice evacuation message that would play in an actual emergency, instead they just play music to see if the speakers work. Also, I was not in that restroom at the time that happened, I was inside the condo. Also, when I was at swim meet at a rival high school, the pool there is brand new and when I had to use the restroom, I saw that they had a System Sensor L-Series speaker strobe in that small 2 stall restroom, and keep questioning why to myself. Also, what’s even more stupid is that at my school, they have a Wheelock AS horn strobe in the speech office, a tiny ass room. On low volume the AS is 95 db from 10’ away, on medium it’s 97, and high it’s 99. That room is for sure not 10 feet long. I hope it doesn’t go off when I’m in there, just thinking about that makes me want to wear noise canceling headphones whenever I’m in there, but I can’t do that because I need to listen to the speech pathologist to actually learn. If it ever does go off when I’m in there, I’ll cover my ears right away and I might be scared to go in there ever again
I installed a simple rss in my bathroom. I was thinking of putting a NS in there but I imagined myself in the shower and then the NS just goes off. I think I would break my head open from falling
If anything use a chime strobe for restrooms they aren’t deafening in restrooms. If you think about it what if a blind person was in the bathroom and if there’s a fire and you have a regular strobe Not a good idea…that being said use basically any quite alarm. but not a horn strobe...
There’s only a few places in Massachusetts that I know that have Horn Strobes in restrooms, just in general that would scare the living hell out of me 😂😂😂
If you though that horn was loud, check out a wheellock horn. Those horns are really loud. Louder then that one. I know because there was a time I was in a bathroom with a Wheellock fire horn in it and it went off and that thing was loud.
My school has EST Genesis G1-HDVM Horn Strobes in the bathrooms. The one in the speech room is actually a G1-VM Strobe Only that is floating off the wall, does that G1-VM Strobe Only need to be fixed?
in second grade I was in the bathroom washing my hands and I made the wheelock whoop noise (i was a kid), and all of a sudden the fire alarm (wheelock AS'es) started blasting since it was a fire drill. nonetheless I didn't use the bathroom for quite some time after that
NTekNiklaus lol in my hotel the bathrooms have a horn strobe in them so I always try to leave the bathrooms as fast as possible
@Sovereign Beak yes I literally did
Once in first grade I asked my teacher if we would have a fire drill that day. Immediately after I asked that question, the fire alarm went off.
My school bathrooms are horn strobes. It uses a remote strobe cover with 4 holes in it. Small holes.
Same thing happend to me at a mall 🥲
The concept of "overprotection" by putting horns in an bathroom is like asking to piss twice. The only reason of why horns exist in bathrooms is because noise suppression. Though, I agree over how they shouldn't put something too loud in the bathrooms, as demonstrated in the video over 110 decibels can damage hearing.
I have a lot of trauma and moments of PTSD over specific fire alarms applied to restrooms. I once had a speaker strobe in my elementary school: the simplex trualert. Now, at my job, we have FAC horn strobes or simplex 2901-9838s on the ceiling. Luckily for us there are only 2 alarms in the large agent rooms, but in the bathrooms are the FACs. I despise looking up.
If I remain to stay where I am at my job, I might ask for replacements of the alarms in the bathrooms and have them remote strobe since the door isn't as sealed and is push/pull.
I cannot handle fire alarms ptsd myself I am terrorized by them....absolutely terrorized by them....ughhh I still cannot even go into a bathroom with any kind of fire alarm etc nope....pretty much a heart attack waiting to happen....
at my local bowling alley they have those in bathrooms and i go to the bathroom and wash my hands so fast cause im scared its gonna go off in the bathroom
Trainkid1000 Same here
I'm just scared that the fire alarms will go off in the bathroom, horn or not. If I'm not in an area where I don't see it, I stare that fucker down to make sure it doesn't go off (a watched pot never boils).
I am glad I am not the only one afraid of this
Same its nice to know I'm not alone
Same o-O
Great video I’ve always wanted someone to make a video about this. I totally agree about everything you said in the video. What I would do is I would put a chime strobe in the bathroom so it doesn’t knock someone’s eardrums out but it still gets a notification message in there for blind people. For a one stall bathroom definitely a strobe only.
Or you can put the horn strobe outside the bathroom door so the sound penetrates and still gets the attention needed
Base sounders here in the uk work if set up reasonalbly
At my school they use just base sounders (half with beacon half without) for corridors, bathrooms etc. And open area sounders for the sports hall, assembly hall and outside. Its just loud enough to send a message without relieving everyones constipation 😂
Lol, at my elementary school had horn strobes in the boys and remote strobes in the girls’
What horn strobes did it have?
Evan Nazario LOL XD
My old elementary school that was from 1969 had some VERY loud mechanical horns everywhere, including the bathrooms!
Gary Beltz smartsync truealerts
How on earth do you know what’s in the girls room lolll
I once saw a spectralert classic ceiling horn strobe in a changing room at a Dillards. Another time I saw a EST Integrity mini horn strobe in a really small room that had just hand washing sinks. Also there is an architect that designs the system. Installers install whatever shows up on the plan.
I'm very thankful my school district doesn't get lazy and actually does proper installations. There's fire alarms all over the place, with half the building being Wheelock NS horn srobes (Wheelock RS in the bathrooms) and Gentex Commander 3s. The best part about the Commander 3 section is that everywhere that's not a large room or hallway just has a remote strobe and no horn.
There are tons of small bathrooms I encounter that have horn-strobes in them. And since I have Asperger's Syndrome, it's even louder for me. If I see a horn-strobe in a tiny bathroom I'm using, I just keep my ears covered because I know how loud it is. Even though fire alarms don't really bother me like they used to (in fact, I love them now) I still wish more installers would realize how dangerous this is for people's hearing.
I was locked in a small bathroom during a fire drill with a horn strobe, I was 6. I'm 18 and I get very light headed when I see any type of fire alarm in a bathroom
Awww, tbh idk what the people were thinking adding freakin loud ass fire alarms in the bathroom.
My highschool has wheelock as horn strobes in the bathrooms. I feel really bad for anyone who was in the bathroom during a fire drill lol.
My school also has Wheelock AS horn/strobes in most restrooms... (however, the small restroom near the chorus room, as well as the single-stall restrooms, have RSS strobes - there's also one Exceder strobe. In addition, the restroom in the newer science wing has an E70 speaker/strobe.)
However, the middle school next door has Cerberus Pyrotronics I-SM-series speaker/strobes everywhere - even single-stall restrooms! (There are VERY few U-S-series remote strobes in that building - in a few small offices, though others have speaker/strobes.)
My highschool had Wheelock NS horn strobes and at least the mens restrooms had horn strobes in them and the hallway ones would always activate first and it sounded like a reverse reverb effect I remember one day they activated while I was in the bathroom.
Same goes for when someone pulls a false alarm. I was in the restroom in high school and the est integrity horn strobes were loud in the restrooms. And both times someone pulled a false alarm between classes.
Horn strobes will make you deaf within a few seconds.
Chime strobes and maybe speaker strobes are softer sound.
I work on high rise fire alarm systems, and the speaker strobes are so much nicer than the obnoxious horns in smaller buildings. The EST whoop is easy in the ears but gets the point across.
@@MikeSully01 all the old buildings have those horn strobes and especially in small rooms it would blow you out. Another great thing about the speakers is they can give announcements across and sounds soft.
One time I was in class in my school and the fire alarm went off in the classroom and it jumpscare so bad next we went outside but the principal said to everyone to come back in
It was really loud in the classroom 2 minutes and finally it silence but it was still flashing for 5 minutes
@@kevinsvlogs8898 they usually hit the silence button before actually resetting the system to make sure anything that was causing the alarm isn't triggering the system.
@@KaiBannon apparently they said it was a false alarm
When I was young fire alarms used to scare me and I was terrified of the possibility that I'd be caught in a bathroom during a fire drill but luckily it never happened. It did happen in the gymnasium once or twice tho, and that was probably almost as bad
Because in the gymnasium, there are 4-6 fire alarms.
I can relate to this! A drill did happen when I was in Kindergarten in the gymnasium and honestly I was never the same after that one psychologically. The fire drills that occurred before this one were surprises but were just fine for me.
When I was in Kindergarten, we had a fire drill during gym class. The gym had 7 Wheelock AS horn strobes set on code 3.
@@elevatorsbylexi That is insane! Way too many considering that fire drill in gym for me had just 2 Wheelock AS alarms on the same code and those were loud enough!!
real talk whys there like 8 in the gym the least likely place for a fire.
When it comes to bathrooms, I usually put chime/strobe in the urinal and sink areas and remote strobes in the stalls. Then, code the chime/strobe to code 3 and strobes on a sync protocol. But, I never put horn/strobes in a restroom for this exact reason.
My elementary school was like this, there are EST Genesis mechanical horn strobes in every restroom and small rooms such as the copy rooms and such. I would always wonder why they would install such notification devices in such places, but until recently, I overheard talks about the misfortunes of having horn strobes in the restrooms and small rooms, and I’d always dread ever being in the restroom at the wrong time (if the alarms were to go off).
When I as in middle school and now in my senior year of high school, the concept of fire alarms in restrooms has significantly changed in terms of systems and types of devices in the restrooms, compared to my elementary school, which had been and still is equipped with an EST Edwards fire alarm system with EST Integrity and EST Genesis horn strobes, was slightly less and more at the same time obnoxious as my middle school and current high school fire alarm systems that both are equipped with System Sensor Spectralert classics and advanced horn strobes with the remote strobes being installed in the restrooms and small rooms as they should be
Oh yes; I remember the Walmart I used to work at had a ceiling-mount SpectrAlert Advance horn/strobe in each restroom, as the Walmart corporation designed the system (a Fire-Lite MS-9600UDLS) to have horn/strobes EVERYWHERE. Luckily the installers were smart and set the horn/strobes in spaces like the restrooms or any other smaller rooms to "Low" volume. I remember when I began working there there was also a Wheelock MT-24-WM from the previous FCI system in one of the mens' rooms, and I remember asking a fire alarm technician that came in the restroom during a routine testing if only the Advance was hooked up, and he said it was, and I said I was glad because having both horn/strobes active in that restroom would be a bad idea!
I've also seen a couple buildings at my friend's university with horn/strobes in restrooms. One of them has Simplex 4903-9219 electromechanical horn/strobes in the restrooms (they were installed as part of a Simplex 4100 system installed in the mid-90s; currently they have a Simplex 4100ES with a mix of the 9219s, TrueAlert horn/strobes and even voice-evac!) Another building has Simplex TrueAlert horn/strobes (4100U system) in several of the restrooms; these TrueAlerts are on adapter plates replacing Space Age 2DCD+AV32 horn/lights that were originally in said restrooms! OUCH!
A fire lite system at a Walmart. That what you don’t see every day.
@@SomeDudeWithAnExitSign The Bosch/Radionics systems that Walmart usually uses don't meet code requirements in some jurisdictions.
@@randompersonFire that’s interesting. I wished that Walmart used Fire Lite (or basically any other brand) instead of Bosch/Radionics.
I was in 2nd grade, class bathroom break time. I was one of the last to enter the bathroom, only one other boy in there with me. (We were probably goofing around cause ya know) and that's when it happened. TrueAlert Horn/Strobes in the bathroom. We went running out, where we were met by two girls from our class coming out of the girls bathroom. Only problem was the class was gone, and the bathrooms were in an area with no teachers in sight. We don't know what to do cause we were like, 7 years old. We walked past I think 3 exits before we walked out of the door our actual class would have gone out of from our class room. Thankfully we met up with our teacher and it ended up being nothing (Teacher was mad, we got yelled at) but man. That moment was traumatizing enough that I will forever remember every bit of it. For the longest time I was legitimately afraid of going to the bathroom by myself at school for fear of the alarm going off.
Later in life I did the inspection of the system at that school There are NO remote strobes in the building. It's 100% horn strobes, even the single occupancy bathrooms that the teachers use. Every elementary school in the area was like that. Pretty sure Simplex only sold the system that way because they can sell a horn/strobe for more than a strobe, even though it costs about the same for them to produce.. I've got more fun facts about how Simplex has some shady business practices, but that could be a whole video in and of itself!
I never had a fire alarm go off in the bathroom, and I'm still scared of it.
@@Hyperb2002 Me as well.
You were seven years old and didn't know the way out of your own school? Sorry, but yeesh...
@@Fahrenheit4051 I mean, you're right, but our immediate response was "let's go out the door we were trained to go out" rather than "Let's go out the closest door" which would've made more sense, but as a 7 year old the common sense isn't always there.
I prefer Honeywell. System sensor remote strobes are 39 dollars and horn strobes are 45 dollars only a small price difference. Their speaker strobes are 65 dollars. The ease of installation on Honeywell fire alarm equipment is amazing. Just mount and wire the base and screw in the notification appliance or twist on the detector. Also, replacing a faulty device is much easier than simplex. Just stick remove the mounting screw, pop off the faulty NA, put in the new NA, and install the mounting screw. No need to deal with wiring or hunt around for a tab to pop off the cover and tediously remove the device. A fire alarm system consisting of System Sensor L series speaker strobes and remote strobes, System Sensor and Notifier modules, System sensor detectors, Notifier BG12 pull stations, and a Notifier Onyx panel with built-in voice evacuation hardware is pretty much the best you can get.
At my school, there are speaker strobes inside of some of the bathrooms. One of them actually has an Integrity remote strobe mounted to the ceiling as well as a Genesis speaker strobe. The speaker strobe that i had in the thumbnail for my fire drill video that I uploaded last Thursday was a picture that i took of a speaker strobe installed in one of the boys bathrooms at my school.
Spectralert advances may be loud, but I have to admit, it is pretty satisfying to listen to when they are in sync.
My college has speaker strobes in the restrooms of the larger buildings (student union, library) and TrueAlert HORN strobes on the older in construction, 'graduate' campus. Glad I am not around when those go off; and the Student Union has a beeping tone so its very tolerable (also has bells and horn strobes in the building)
Very nice. I get jumped scare if that happened
If I see a noisy fire alarm in the restroom, I avoid it at all costs.
I'm the same way if I'm alone. The thing is if someone else is with me peeing I'm ok if it goes off but I can't be alone. It terrifies me.
I remember this once. I was in the second grade of school and I was in the restroom. The restroom was very creepy. It was very echo-y, had Bad lighting, and If you were to stay in there for too long the motion sensor lights will go out and you will be in there in pitch darkness. and over all overall just gives you bad vibes. It was very small it only had one urinal, one stall and 2 sinks below 2 mirrors. It had a heavy wood door about 2" thick so any sound out side you would not hear at all. The room was layed out in a square and semi hallway entrance configuration. When you would walk in you would turn left and then right at the very end of the semi hallway into the actual space and again it was very small. You would only be able to fit at least 5 comfortably in there. Anyways I was in there all by my self and the all of a sudden a sound of a Gentex Commander 3 on full volume and full candela sounds. Scared me shitless. I remembered it on the air horn setting doing code 3. It was soo loud. The reverb echo was just awful. And all I could see was the flashing strobe it was very bright so much so that it had to be on the full candela setting. I immediately bailed out of there not even washing my hands. After that I rarely used that same restroom again. I'm older now in the teens and I don't go to that school anymore. I still remember that day as if it happened yesterday.
Well based on some data sheets, the max candela of the commander 3 is 110 candelas.This is way too bright for a small bathroom as in my opinion, 15 is enough for this sort of application.
But you are lucky since it is not a true alert or spectralert advance on full volume.These 2 devices are weapons to ears.Much more powerful than the horn setting on commander 3.
@@DCC--vq1ng Oh god if it were a Spectro Alert Advanced or a True Alert. You do have a point about the candela setting in a bathroom fire alarm and that it should not be that bright in a small bathroom but then again, its a horn strobe in a bathroom basically adding insult to injury. I say that it had to have been at full candela. I cannot even put it into words how bright and blinding it was even if you weren't looking at it, it would reflect off the walls as if there were a strobe on the wall.
@@Blixt1000 Well that is already way too much for a small bathroom. Since you said that the door of the bathroom blocks sound, it is right to put a notification device inside.The best option is a horn strobe while remote strobe can be an option.But these devices are for notifying people of danger not scaring people.So I think a mini horn with strobe or an EST genesis (horn set on low volume) with 15 candela strobe is enough. 110 candelas or even more is blinding.
@mr.skellyboy9700
1: The school was built in 2003, and at the time that happened (around 2013-14ish), the school was still practically new.
2: That is a very, very, good question that I still have no idea why to this day..
3: They literally quite are, as the Women's room next to it (which for the record the only reason I know is because it was the tornado drill shelter spot), had a regular remote strobe... Not only that, but there were a few Commander 3s outside the building that were each doing different tones. One doing chime, another doing the "alternate" sound, and a few doing the horn sound. None of them were synced either...
But if you ask me, the system from my Middle School was much, MUCH, worse...
The high school I go to uses hornstrobes in the bathrooms. Good thing they're Cerberus Pyrotronic alarms from the 90's that sounds similar to a Siemens UMMT, somehow my ears are used to the low pitch sounds of those alarms and yet high pitch ones like Wheelock, and Spectralerts hurts my ears a lot.
I once had the misfortune of having one of these things go off with my ear within a couple feet of it. Extremely, extremely painful. The store I used to work at had these things in small spaces and I never really understood the point of it. I love the SpectrAlerts (as well as the new L series), but somebody got carried away and overdid it by a country mile.
one time, we had a fire drill at school, and i was sitting under an est genisis XD
I went to a hotel recently that had accessible rooms, and the difference was they had the hallway setup also in the room. Truealerts with the horns in every room, INCLUDING the small 10x10 ft bathroom mounted right above the door. If that went off it would truly be insanely loud, however the case makes sense as this room also has a hearing accessible doorbell. I can see it being useful for those with hearing issues already but still configured to be a loud system. It is possible these were LF truealerts but I couldn’t tell.
Posting this as randomly a System Sensor low frequency sounder base woke me up at 1am. I heard faintly the Advances in the hallway. Glad I wasn’t out there.
We’ve got gentex commander 3’s in every bathroom, bedroom and the living room in my dorm this year. That’s 7 fire alarms in one small dorm. We’ve got the accessibility room except none of us have a hearing related disability,, so this should be interesting lmao
Holy shit one of my biggest fears is a horn strobe going off while in the bathroom. Legit if there is a horn strobe in a single stall one I will not use it at like all.
Same. I will pee outside in front of people before I go into an enclosed space with a horn fire alarm by myself.
What would you do if there was a speaker/strobe?
One time I saw a fire alarm in a small bathroom, the bathroom had a tub
@@ItsCoreyLynxxYall me too. my mom says im crazy but its just terrifying
@@randompersonFire The same
In the UK, fire alarms you can get sounder bases, which are basically quieter sounders, and they still use regular, extremely loud sounders
@@deadaccount2048 that's what I mean
I saw horn strobes in the bathroom at a water park.
If techs were to install a horn strobe in the bathroom, they should consider installing a mini-horn at least like a GX-90 or something related, or just stick with remote strobes, depending on the size of the bathroom. It’s less ear-splitting than adding a regular horn strobe. That’s just my theory.
Or they should use chime strobes
Pretty much every Sports Venue I've been in has Horn/Strobes in the Restrooms. Although I'm guessing usually they're more Speaker than Horn with Voice Evac.
We don't get horn strobes in England, what we do get is bells. Very loud continuous bells. In my local shop, they have bells EVERYWHERE. Even on the roof (they are wall-mounted). I believe they are Fulleon Conventional and Solenoid electronic bells. I seem to remember the Solenoid ones being significantly louder, which may have been a problem because in one small bathroom there were TWO. Two of the same bell - I wasn't sure if one wasn't working, but I believed that both were because everywhere you looked in that shop there were bells everywhere. Fortunately, I wasn't in the bathroom when the alarm was going off. But when we got out, my ears were ringing. Just couldn't imagine what the bathrooms would've been like.
I know what it's like for you mate.
Yep. "Ouch" is right. Thankfully, I have never been in a position where a horn has been in a bathroom, but if I ever was, I'd... probably just avoid using that bathroom, to be honest.
One of the buildings at my university has Simplex 4903 horn strobes installed inside all the bathrooms. Fortunately I was never in the bathroom or in the building when they went off but one time they went off & I was in the building in a classroom across the main sidewalk & could hear them nice & darn clear.
Electronical or mechanical?
I'm so glad to have been fortunate enough to have NOT been in the bathroom back in grade&high school when horn strobes went off, I think maybe one or 2 of them were properly given some sort of cover or something that reduces the noise (I can't for the life of me figure out what they're called) but anyway! yeah I'm both fortunate and lucky this hadn't happened... I think I'd have lost my hearing by the time I was 18 0.0
I'm no alarm expert, but according to Google Lens, there is an Edwards GL1WN horn mounted inside my apartment bedroom, which is a roughly 6x6ft room. I'm not sure if its meant to be mounted in such an enclosed space, but every time it goes off it is incredibly painful, I know this because, for some reason, the fire alarm in my apartment goes off randomly about twice per month for no apparent reason.
A long time ago, when I was a 1st grader, they went off when I was in the bathroom. Now I'm scared to use a public bathroom
Back in December 2013 I was at a High School Basketball game and the school had horn-strobes in the Restrooms. The horns were Simplex 9838s.
Epic intro! It reminds me of the fire alarms at school Except that they don’t seem as terrifying in the intro. It has a nice beat
They put horn strobes in bathrooms so you can get the crap scared out of you and get out of the bathroom faster... duh..
At my school, in the main building, there are Rauland speakers installed in the restrooms, as well as CENTEGIX CrisisAlert Strobes in there, but there aren't even fire alarms installed in there. In the building where the band room is, there are System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance Remote Strobes in the restrooms, and in the mobile restrooms, which students aren't even allowed in because of trust reasons, there are EST Genesis signals inside, although I do not know if they are horn strobes or remote strobes, and an EST Integrity horn strobe on the outside.
You may be able to get away with a chime/strobe or speaker/strobe in a restroom, but putting a horn/strobe in a restroom is a big no-no!
the sad part is i know multiple places with advanced horn strobes placed right over the urinals and usually they are in the most echoey bathrooms ever i also see a lot of wheelock as in bathrooms in my area. also the highschool that is closest to my house has advanced that are set to high volume mounted outside and when they false over summer you can hear them ring for a good 4 hours before they are silenced and i live a mile away from the school
There’s this local vet that has a HORRIBLE fire alarm installation. SpectrAlert Advances EVERYWHERE. Like literally so many that they’re only a couple of feet apart from each other. Not only that, but the worst part is that there isn’t a SINGLE remote strobe. All horn strobes, even in the bathrooms.
at my high school, in one of the bathrooms they had a Wheelock ZNS in EVERY. SINGLE. STALL!!!
Now that's pure evil.
That’s so crazy
Well I D K why I'm watching this @ 12:23 am....
RaccoonAlarms 57 hey I’m watching this at 3:30 AM
I was working this event and there was this little walk through thing that snaked through the bathroom and it got me pretty close to the alarm and ended up going off during it and it hurt my ears so much! I was practically right up against it
They actually have horn strobes at the learning skills center and at the High School where I graduated from in 2004, I would definitely not be in the bathroom during a Fire Drill. I'd hate that, honestly. In my opinion, a strobe works better.
I was in hospital for a collapsed lung and there was a strobe only fire alarm in the room. It started flashing and I dug my fingers in my ear holes as deep as I could, not knowing they were strobe only because I was so scared I was gonna hear the loud buzzing.
I KNOW THAT A BATHROOM IN DENVER INTL AIRPORT THER IS A ALERT HORN IN THE RESTROOM
My school actually has two of those exact same fire alarm models in the bathroom and I couldn’t imagine how loud it would be if you were in there and they went off since they’re two in there! Lol.
That should be a crime.
The Walmart in an area about 20 minutes from my house is less than 4 years old and it has some sort of Wheelock voice evacuation system and the speakers double as the store's PA system and there are speaker strobes in the bathrooms are those ok to install?
I'd say so because its not an electric horn, its a speaker, and the sounds aren't as harsh as a horn strobe would make.
My local Walmart has those
my walmart has the same
@@jonathanstarling1082 have you ever heard the system go off? What message and tone does it have?
@@GaryBeltz i haven’t heard it go off but it’s a white big speaker storbe in the bathroom and it also plays music
Actually There's 2 Differences Between The SpectrAlert Advances.
Difference 1: One's A Horn Strobe And One's A Strobe
Difference 2: One's Red And One's White.
Thank goodness that the school that I go to has remote strobes in the bathrooms... otherwise I'd be having anxiety :p
Our high school had a small one person bathroom in the nurse office about 6 ft by 6 ft. And they have a EST Genesis horn strobe is In there. And thats why I avoid going in that room any day around 11:00- 1:00 the time most of our fire drills happen.
They need to do away with those screeching loud alarms in small rooms such as classrooms.
Interesting information, I would like to learn more about these strobe fire alarms.
That fire alarm looks like the ones in my science building, except those ones are notifier fire alarms
This is off topic but the dog in your pfp looks very similar to mine
The bathrooms in one of my grocery stores uses speaker strobes set to voice. I’ve been there when it went off, and it’s not that loud.
I been to a school where the alarms were replaced, and the school now uses spectralert advances, and in the bathroom, horn strobes.
Could you put a chime-strobe?
Yes
It's basically identical to a speaker strobe
At all of my schools the fire alarms in the bathrooms had speakers, including my elementry school which was the worst once since it had spectralert classics which were really loud
At my school they only have the strobes in the bathrooms because you can hear the outside alarms from in the bathrooms
In my bathroom they have horn strobes just like that
When I was in Kindergarten, there was a continous strobe from like 1956 sounding like a Barber shop razor on an amplifier!
Fire alarms from 1956 didn't have strobes
@@exoticcar5482 I know I was just pointing out a Fire Alarm I had back then. Not to be off topic or anything.
I wouldn’t mind remote strobes, chime strobes, or speaker strobes at the .25 watt setting in bathroom but, if I see a horn strobe in the bathroom, I would find another bathroom the next time I do my business. Horn strobes have their place but a bathroom isn’t one of them.
Hey seriously, a warehouse complex I worked security in had horns in the restrooms. I had to go check out a fire alarm in one of the buildings one morning and went into a restroom to clear it. I couldn't hear for a good half hour after that.
ya thought we wouldn't notice that joke about Cole burning popcorn. We noticed.
My 2nd elementary school had a Simplex 4903-923x in the TINY BATHROOM. We had a fire drill, of course it was at that time when I was on the throne.
In buildings in the uk, they stick really loud sounders in lavatories!
ZLD Smogless I feel bad for you guys
@@deadaccount2048 or a gent MKI S3
You should've looked at the dosimeter after each test! Can you do it next time Wheelove Fire Alarms? It would be great if you could!
I would have a heart attack if I was in the rest room and the fire alarm went off inside! That is just so wrong on so many levels
The fire alarm went off once when we were silently working
In the college dorm I stayed at in the first year of school there was a Siemens UMMT horn strobe in the community bathroom with all those showers and stalls. It would get everyone's attention if they're in the shower and the alarms happen to sound ha!
New fear unlocked: Level 1,000!
My school has always had a strobe without the horn. Expect for when I was in elementary school
Where I work, each of the restrooms has a ceiling-mounted Simplex TrueAlert horn strobe.
Here in the UK at my college, we have this building that used to be a prison and uses a different sounder type to the rest of the college called the Cooper Fulleon Roshni. One thing that bugs me is that they put Roshnis in the toilets. Why? In the other buildings, they put zp755 base sounders which aren't as loud. In my old school, we had Hochiki base sounders even they weren't as bad as one went off and was set on a low volume so everything was fine. The simple solution in the UK is a base sounder works in a toilet, not a big red Roshni or a full on Hornstyle sounder. Some companies are crazy to do this blather. I am even urged to wear headphones so I don't jump from my skin from a loud sweep, continuous or alternating tone in such situation.
As a practice yes you shouldn’t put audibles in a very small space but it depends on the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). The AHJ in Waterloo Region (Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, Ayr, etc in Ontario Canada) REQUIRE Audibles in barrier free or handicap accessible washrooms. Depends on what your local authority or engineer puts down on the drawings
My middle school had horn strobes in the bathroom. Thank FUCK it never went off when I was there.
Yet every school I went to did this...SHGs in elementary and intermediate school (set continuous) and GEC4 ceiling mounts in classrooms...hallways and bathrooms set on code 3...and I was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder as a kid
If I knew it was the end of the month I avoided bathrooms during class like the damn plague.
But...it was a Spectralert Advance that actually helped me remember their importance. In an apartment complex I was in there was a grease fire. Gentex Mini horn inside with advances outside. First thought when I heard them go off was some dumbass pulled a pullstation...till I saw smoke billowing from a unit 2 units across.
And I remembered that these horribly sounding horns have a job and sometimes we don't remember how important they are until we see them do their job.
It's not the best idea to install a horn in a classroom either
At my middle school there’s nothing but specter alert advances more horn strobes than strobes.edit:my school has specter alert horn strobes in a bathroom with tile in it
All the hospitals I’ve done rotations in including the one I work at all have chime strobes or old milky white strobes with a tap chime bell alarm.
My old dorm had horn strobes (SpectrAlert Classics) in the bathrooms
Not only did I find a SpectrAlert advance in a bathroom at Chili’s, but I also found a Wheelock MT-24-LSM in a bathroom at Best Buy.
If you were to compare loudness between the SpectrAlert Advance, Wheelock AS/MT, and Simplex Truealert, what’s your opinion on those three?
Loudest to softest: MT/AS, Truealert, Advance.
From my real life experience the MTs were louder than the advances I heard. I can't speak for everyone though & it would be a biased assumption because I've only heard MTs go off in one building at one time in my life, as is the same for the Advances & the L-Series.
The Elementary School I went to in Michigan had Horn/Strobe Truealerts in some of the Bathrooms.
In the Middle School I went to Where I Live Now Have Commander 4s, and Some Commander 2/3s in Some of the Bathrooms.
in my high school we have that same exact fire alarm and the horn strobe is in some of the bathrooms!
When I was a kid back in the 00s there was a large church I played basketball at that if I remember correctly had a Wheelock AS in one of the mens restroom and an EST Genesis in another restroom not sure if the Genesis was a horn strobe or a remote strobe. My high school had horn strobes in the restrooms too.
A Red Robin near me has a System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance horn strobe in the men’s bathroom, before the remodel, there was a Wheelock RSS. Also, a public restroom at a park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has a SpectrAlert Classic horn strobe in it. Good thing neither of those went off while I was in there. Also, the condo complex where my grandpa’s condo is in Maui Hawaii has two Simplex speaker strobes inside the restrooms at the pool. I’ve started to question: why does that restroom need two speaker strobes? All it has is one standard toilet, one urinal, and a shower. Are there two in there because they think whoever is in the shower will not hear alarms from the outside well? I have been at that place while the alarms were being tested, but good thing is when they do test them, they don’t use the Simplex voice evacuation message that would play in an actual emergency, instead they just play music to see if the speakers work. Also, I was not in that restroom at the time that happened, I was inside the condo. Also, when I was at swim meet at a rival high school, the pool there is brand new and when I had to use the restroom, I saw that they had a System Sensor L-Series speaker strobe in that small 2 stall restroom, and keep questioning why to myself. Also, what’s even more stupid is that at my school, they have a Wheelock AS horn strobe in the speech office, a tiny ass room. On low volume the AS is 95 db from 10’ away, on medium it’s 97, and high it’s 99. That room is for sure not 10 feet long. I hope it doesn’t go off when I’m in there, just thinking about that makes me want to wear noise canceling headphones whenever I’m in there, but I can’t do that because I need to listen to the speech pathologist to actually learn. If it ever does go off when I’m in there, I’ll cover my ears right away and I might be scared to go in there ever again
My school has insanely loud Simplex TrueAlert Horn Strobes in all the bathrooms,
Including the Single-Stall Bathrooms
I installed a simple rss in my bathroom. I was thinking of putting a NS in there but I imagined myself in the shower and then the NS just goes off. I think I would break my head open from falling
If anything use a chime strobe for restrooms they aren’t deafening in restrooms.
If you think about it what if a blind person was in the bathroom and if there’s a fire and you have a regular strobe
Not a good idea…that being said use basically any quite alarm. but not a horn strobe...
Our school bathrooms downstairs have semiens remote strobes but the upstairs bathrooms have semiens UMMTs set on code 3 horn
Our school had an addition and there are p2rl horn strobes in rooms 5-foot by 5-foot and it is too loud
There’s only a few places in Massachusetts that I know that have Horn Strobes in restrooms, just in general that would scare the living hell out of me 😂😂😂
I saw a spectralert ceiling mount horn strobe in a bathroom at a state park.
I live in a neighborhood state ran group home and my city code requires hornstrobes in the bathroom
That's in public places to
If you though that horn was loud, check out a wheellock horn. Those horns are really loud. Louder then that one. I know because there was a time I was in a bathroom with a Wheellock fire horn in it and it went off and that thing was loud.
we have remote strobes in our bathroom at school of the volume is cut by about 70%
The bathrooms in my school have remote strobes however the bathroom in the second grade wing in elementary school had horn strobes
My school has EST Genesis G1-HDVM Horn Strobes in the bathrooms. The one in the speech room is actually a G1-VM Strobe Only that is floating off the wall, does that G1-VM Strobe Only need to be fixed?
There was a wheelock AS in a tiny bathroom at a gas station, and worst of all, it was right over the toilet
In an elementary school, they have a Wheelock NS Horn/Strobe in the Pre K, Kinder and 1st grade hall has a small restroom, Causing Hearing loss
Most of the smaller bathrooms at my former high school have Remote Strobes in there.