Does anyone have any pressure maintenance pumps installed on their sprinkler systems without having a fire pump?
In other words, having a pump on the sprinkler system that is only there for the purposes of preventing a false alarm (due to pressure ebbs and spikes in the water supply) instead of boosting the water pressure like a traditional fire and jockey pump combination. We have some legacy jockey pumps installed like this and it runs into a grey area for maintenance as they don't affect the performance of the sprinkler system they are connected to. Any thoughts? Submitted anonymously and posted for discussion. Discuss This | Submit Your Question | Subscribe
8 Comments
Connor Ross
6/25/2020 10:09:31 am
On legacy systems, I've always seen this handled using a retard chamber in between the sensing line and the water gong. In modern systems, a delay can be programmed in for a flow switch to prevent nuisance alarms from pressure fluctuations. If you can put in a new flow switch, wouldn't it be easier than maintaining a jockey pump?
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LC
6/25/2020 10:17:42 am
We have a client with a lot of these (on a campus of multiple buildings). I'm not sure what they are doing for maintenance, but they are working on changing them out to flow switches with a delay as Connor suggested.
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Matt
6/25/2020 10:27:12 am
Are you sure what you've got is a jockey pump and not an excess pressure pump? It's very common for pressure maintenance of wet systems. Most common setup in USA and Canada in my experience is an Albany 1/3HP with a pressure relief valve. They can be set up to run both automatically off a pressure switch and manually.
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VC
6/25/2020 10:34:23 am
The only time I have ever seen them is in a older mall with an 8" lead-in for each building serving pipe scheduled systems. As far as maintenance, as long as the excess pressure pump works how it is supposed to we leave them installed.
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Cliff
6/25/2020 12:34:01 pm
We used to call that a Watchman. It was made by Gamewell and was common 20-30 years ago. Haven't seen too many installs lately though.
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Matt
6/25/2020 01:52:21 pm
I swear I'm not a crazy person! I've installed quite a few in the last few years, and replaced a bunch of them too - I didn't do the one in the one photo - but it's the standard automatic setup I mentioned above with a low pressure switch connected to the fire alarm system (Potter PS120) and a pressure switch to control the EPP (Potter PCS300)
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Jonathan Joseph
6/25/2020 05:23:31 pm
I would treat the pumps as a pressure switch and an alarm device and would inspect the pumps quarterly and test annually. If impaired I would replace it with another pump that is rated the same so it is restored to its original design.
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6/29/2020 07:28:43 pm
Excess pressure pumps are the gold standard for preventing unwanted alarms caused by pressure surges in wet sprinkler systems.
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