Fire sprinkler heads are invaluable because they’re designed to quickly shower a room with water in the unexpected (and unfortunate) event of a fire. But at the same time, irresponsible use of these sprinkler heads could render the entire system ineffective for the one job it was expressly designed to do. At that point, it’s more than just a minor inconvenience – lives are literally at risk. That, in essence, is why a sprinkler shut off tool is so important.
You can’t expect every last person in a business to know exactly where the fire sprinkler room is. Even if they do, they probably don’t know how to find the right value to shut off the sprinkler head in question. The room itself may be locked – leading to a situation where time is being wasted when every moment counts.
But thankfully, a sprinkler shut off tool is a lot easier to use than most think. You just need to keep a few key things in mind along the way.
Using a Sprinkler Shut Off Tool: Breaking Things Down
The most important thing to understand about these types of tools is that most – including the Shutgun – work with a wide variety of activated sprinklers that you may find in a place like an office. This includes but is not limited to not only semi-recessed sprinkler heads, but also pendent heads, horizontal sidewall heads and upright heads, to name a few.
To disable your fire sprinkler head, first insert the adjustable jaws of your shut off tool into the frame of the head that has been activated for whatever reason. As you do so, take care to make sure that the rubber pad of the tool engages with the orifice in a full and secure way.
At that point, all you have to do is pump the trigger on the shut off tool until the water stops flowing out of the head. Then, you can engage the proper employees to get into the fire sprinkler room to shut the system down in a more appropriate manner.
If you’re using something like a concealed head shut off tool, the process will be slightly different. Here, you’ll need to insert the probe on your tool into the head of the sprinkler at an angle. Then, rotate the tool so that the pressure jaw is positioned inside the head’s diffuser arms. The probe itself should be pointing towards the orifice of the sprinkler and the pistons should be parallel to the diffuser arms.
So long as the pressure jaw has engaged the diffuser, you can then pump the trigger so that the probe enters the sprinkler head. Continue to pump the trigger until the water stops flowing. If you’d like to find out more information about how to disable a fire sprinkler head using a sprinkler shut off tool, or if you’d just like to discuss your own needs with someone in a bit more detail, please don’t delay – contact us today.