Is it a "Sprinkler" or "Sprinkler Head"?

3/20/2020

Well? What do you think?

Is it a "Sprinkler" or a "Sprinkler Head"?

[Editor's note: there's nothing like a nice Friday release of all that pent-up virus frustration, right!? Have a safe & great weekend everyone]

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10 Comments

Wayne Ammons

3/20/2020 07:41:55 am

What a great Friday morning question!

I am a firm advocate of referring to NFPA standards when considering proper sprinkler terminology. Both "sprinkler" and "sprinkler head" can found throughout NFPA 13. IMHO, both are correct!

P.S., there's a difference between "hazard" and "commodity classification"...

P.P.S., it's ordinary hazard group "1 or 2"...not "I or II" and it's class "I-IV" not "1-4"...

P.P.P.S., I hope everyone is staying safe and practicing all of the recommended safety procedures and protocols as we all work together to overcome the COVID-19 threat. Happy Friday!

Wes

3/20/2020 10:15:25 am

This ^^^ is awesome.

Have to disagree on sprinkler "head" though. Sprinklers don't have heads...

NFPA 13 only uses the term "sprinkler head" in Chapter 22 in cabinet installation for nitrate film protection, at least in the 2016 edition. My guess is that's not intentional but just left in there.

Anyone on the committee that could clean that up for us all? : )

Jiayur Hsu link

3/23/2020 01:20:14 am

Sprinkler is for the calcutaion on volume, distance of intakes.
Sprinkler head is the distance/ radius for the layout. Mostly adopted in the design/ dd/ cd process of detailing.

Jesse

3/20/2020 10:19:34 am

I agree with Wayne!

I came up in HPR engineering for large insurers. My mentor is a 13 committee member and stressed that words have meaning. We are not "lay" people so we need to use the right words. I instill this among my staff and the sales people.

Sprinkler and sprinkler head are acceptable. Flammable and Combustible have different meaning. OH 1 and OH 2 and then Commodity Class I-IV.

Maybe in semantics. I dunno. But I do expect my staff to use the right words because, words have meaning.

Happy Friday all! Stay healthy

Franck

3/20/2020 11:14:43 am

My guess (but I'm European, so probably wrong) is that the old terminology was more for "sprinkler head", in particular when we are speaking of the individual device, not the system made of numerous "sprinkler heads".
But then, the habit has dropped the "head" so that only "sprinkler" remains, whatever if we are speaking about a sprinkler system or an individual sprinkler.

In French, we are still using "tête sprinkleur" (translation of 'sprinkler head') when we speak about one specific device, but use the more generic "sprinkleur(s)" when we are speaking about the systems or many "devices" at the same time. Probably because it was initially translated from sprinkler head and we kept it that way.
In Canada (the French speaking side"), they are using their own word, that looks like "French" to translate sprinkler into "gicleur". Which is a more correct translation, from a dictionary point of view, but sounds strange to me when speaking about sprinkler systems as "gicleurs" are normally used for gardens, and "sprinkleurs" for fire protection purposes. I don't think they are adding "tête" (head) to "gicleur".

As a conclusion, my best guess would be that both can be used, even though sprinkler, alone, is more the habit nowadays. And there is little use of the term head anymore (except by old French guys).

Thank you for this interesting discussion that took me a bit out of my "confined" situation as we are now all confined at home in France (if we don't have a serious reason for going out).

Keep safe and away from the virus

sean

3/20/2020 12:24:31 pm

I use them for different audiences. I say sprinkler to some people not involved in the industry and they think lawn sprinklers.

Louie Lincoln

3/20/2020 01:17:41 pm

I am not a committee member but I have been in the business for 50 years. I have seen many changes in the industry in that time. it has always been referred to as both. So i guess I will continue to use both, it is too late to change now.

Mike L

3/20/2020 02:29:02 pm

Seems that all the manufacturers refer to the devices as Sprinklers. Sprinklers for industry professionals. Sprinkler heads for the rest.

Stay Safe everyone!

Vinnie

3/20/2020 04:07:52 pm

Let me go ahead and clear this up for you guys......Sprinkler heads save your grass......Fire Sprinklers save your ass!!!!!

Wayne Ammons

3/20/2020 05:16:56 pm

LOL, nice!

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