I formerly had fire alarm phobia as a young kid years ago due to my Autism-but now I’m in the life safety hobby and collect fire alarms thx to the people on RU-vid who share this interest. Regardless of my former alarm phobia-hearing protection is always a must when testing alarm devices for prolonged time and in close quarters (e.g. the bedroom of your house).
I have Autism too. In my elementary school, we had the est genesis, which are as this video proves very loud for there damned small size. I had (and probably still do) have fire alarm phobia. When I am informed we are having a fire drill, I clench my teeth real tight. But I'm also genuinely interested in them. I hate spectralert advances though. They are way to fricken loud. There are two at my current high school, and they're both in bathrooms. Glad I haven't heard one of those suckers go off
All my schools had Wheelock ZNSs, and some had a mix of ZNSs, UMMTs, and speaker strobes. I was also afraid of loud noises back in the day, but that changed shortly after I became into outdoor warning sirens
I always felt sick every time a drill was announced (sometimes we'd have 2 drills in a single day). My old elementary school had Simplex 4051s on continuous before the system got overhauled, while my high school had old Edwards horns (the system there later got updated to I think Spectralert classics). I always had to cover my ears every time they went off because they were so freaking loud
On the hearing protection: It's also important to note that the average you took is of data 10ft away. Most enthusiasts are not 10ft away. Pull stations are typically placed nearby notification devices, notification devices are often stationed near the panel, and demo boards obviously put you real close and personal with your alarms. Therefore it's even more important that you wear hearing protection if you're an enthusiast.
As a person who lives in Chicago, my old Elementry/Middle school had Spectralert Advances and my High school has Simplex Mechanical Horns, Remote Strobe TrueAlerts (I think a Horn Strobe TrueAlert in the main office), 4903s, and 1 Spectralert L-series and 1 Gray Edwards Intergrity Amber Horn Strobe as a CO alarm.
I'm amazed the TrueAlert wasn't number one. We had those at a brand new Elementary school back in the early 00s (it had just been built, some of the fire alarms had plastic wrap still on them), and they are the reason I hate fire alarms to this day. I've always had sensitive hearing, always covering my ears for sounds "loud" to others, but not normally intolerable as they are to me. Fire alarms gave me so much anxiety at my Elementary school because they were so damn loud. I remember on multiple occasions I pissed myself because I refused to go to the bathroom, because I was so damn scared the alarms were going to randomly go off. It's kind of interesting that, while I don't like fire alarms in general, most of the time I'm okay to be around them, but I still won't set foot anywhere near a TrueAlert because how much they scared the hell out of me as a kid. I see a building that has them in place, I don't go in there unless I have to. I see a room that has one, I actively avoid that room. Yet I'm strangely enough fascinated by the things that I hate, searching up videos on them. But man, my skin crawls hearing the familiar, shrill beeping of a TrueAlert.
My school has those truealarts and I remember having a fire drill and these truealarts where so loud I was 10ft away from them when I walked past one my ears where ringing
Sounds about right. I know at my old Elementary school, which was brand new at the time, they had these things absolutely everywhere, and the acoustics of those hallways was something else. I'm telling you, those things echoed. Nothing about it was great for a kid with sensitive hearing.
@@maas1208in the basement level floor of the northshore mall in Peabody there used to be singular bathrooms near the escalator with 9838 or 9846 horns on whatever the gentex rebranded strobe plates are
I never would've guessed that the NS is louder than the Advance. I personally find the NS to not be loud at all but the Advances to be really loud (even though the ones on my collection testing board are set on low volume). It's crazy how different people's hearing vary and the decibel system works!
I have the advance at my work, and the halls have a heavy echo. (Hospital) It was actually a code red drill, and being stuck in the hallway that re-triggered my research into fire alarms. With my research, I've come to learn that my preference is a voice evacuation system. As plain alarms will now spike my anxiety to nearly cardiac arrest senarios. Not because I fear a fire, but because the sound of the alarms cause PTSD in me. (Childhood trauma in a school fire drill that caused a concussion) Now hospital security will come find me where I'm at to give me earplugs. However, I will not like to find out what would happen to me in a real emergency.
@@alexandersalarms5380 Guess not, even though that’s what they are supposed to have generally. I had a similar phobia of fire alarms when I was younger, due to my Autism and an extreme sensitivity to loud noises. Nowadays, even the mention of anything related to them (like when people came in to do a fire safety inspection at my local grocery store while I was on register and I heard them say it) causes a micro panic attack within me. Even though the people who came to inspect the store didn’t actually test the alarms (they just checked the extinguishers and made sure they were up to code, but not the alarms), I still felt a sudden rush of fear within me and I tried hard to hide it while I continued to cash out customers. But if I have control over when they sound (such as when I’m watching videos of them here on RU-vid), I’m perfectly fine. It’s when it happens outside of my control that scares me. And advance warning only makes it worse, because then I know it’s coming, and the panic starts to build ahead of time.
@@alexandersalarms5380 My middle and high schools had a combination of horn/strobes that I don’t know the brand of and EST Genesis alarms. Luckily, about 75% percent of the school used those unknown horn/strobes (they could have been Wheelock, but I’m not sure), and they were much quieter to my ears and easier to listen to. It was when I happened to be in that other 25% of the school that I had issues, because the Genesis alarms were FREAKING LOUD! And in my middle school, they had Genesis disc-shaped alarms on the ceiling too, so that just made it even _worse_ to be in those hallways.
@@mbcommandnerd My elementary school and both of the high schools I went to (I transfered) Have voice evac and are mostly quiet and thankfully not too bad and annoying,.
My middle school had the weirdest system. We had a mircom panel ( don’t remember which one) spectralert low frequency sounders, spectralert classics, wheelock mt’s, and gentex commander 3’s. I remember hating drill day because where I was in the building had the mt’s on continuous. My school now just has gentex commander 3’s ( boring).
@@FireAlarmDude5967 My Elementary school has Spectralert Advances in almost every room and I had and still have a Fire alarm phobia because I have ADHD [I live in Chicago btw] and at my High school has mostly has Simplex devices (the majority being strobe only Truealerts attached to a separate horn in the hallways and the classrooms had the strobe only version of the Truealerts) however there's only 1 Spectralert L series and only 1 Edward Integrity and both of them are in hallways on the Northwest and Southeast corners of the building respectively.
I never guessed the NS would be LOUDER than the Advance by 6.3db, probably because the horn's pitch was a bit deeper. I agree what you had mentioned about everyone's perception of hearing, probably because the Advance has the most shrill sound in my opinion is why it seems the loudest. I've noticed that mechanical horns such as the Simplex 9838 you had tested here seem quieter to me...to my ears, the mechanical horns are a bit deeper in pitch compared to the piezo-based devices, but find it interesting it was pretty close in terms of the decibel rating it emits. For sure, I would have thought the bell would have been the loudest of the bunch, that's surprising it was the quietest out of the bunch. Great video!
You can hear higher pitches better than lower pitches. Like I can hear my 105dB MT very clearly over my 120dB 7002T and the MT seems like it is louder, but but the 7002T is louder and more painful
1:49 I knew I wasnt trippin. I was in a building with True Alerts, and they weren't even loud to me. I was scarred by spectralert advances when I was in kindergarten, and I always thought they were the loudest fire alarms out there, and I kept getting told that the true alerts were louder than the advances. They weren't too far off, but the advance still ends up beating the True alert. I'm not afraid of the advances anymore as an adult, and they sound cool when they echo in sync together, but it's the jump scare I haven't mentally prepared myself for, lol
As a person who lives in Chicago, my old Elementry/Middle school had Spectralert Advances and my High school has Simplex Mechanical Horns, Remote Strobe TrueAlerts (I think a Horn Strobe TrueAlert in the main office), 4903s, and 1 Spectralert L-series and 1 Gray Edwards Intergrity Amber Horn Strobe as a CO alarm.
My school has the SpectrAlert Advances. Many students there are definitely opposed to the sound of them and I honestly don’t blame them for that because the Advance was already notorious for being loud. Technically my school is generally for kids with learning disabilities. And to be fair the fire alarm technician who inspects the school’s alarm system is aware of the SpectrAlert Advance and their reputation.
When I was in Preschool we had one of those in the classroom (yes, the horn strobe). I was so traumatized by that thing, and it took me years to get over it. I would shudder whenever I would even walk past a fire alarm on a normal day.
My Elementary school has Spectralert Advances in almost every room and I had and still have a Fire alarm phobia because I have ADHD [I live in Chicago btw] and at my High school has mostly has Simplex devices (the majority being strobe only Truealerts attached to a separate horn in the hallways and the classrooms had the strobe only version of the Truealerts) however there's only 1 Spectralert L series and only 1 Edward Integrity and both of them are in hallways on the Northwest and Southeast corners of the building respectively.
I’d think the school would swap out the alarms with speaker strobes of the less harsh horns if many kids with special needs are frightened of the Advance.
At my elementary school, I discovered that there was a old simplex speaker in the music room, the rest of the school was just spectralert classics, there are a few wheelock miz’s at my junior high
My Elementary school has Spectralert Advances in almost every room and I had and still have a Fire alarm phobia because I have ADHD [I live in Chicago btw] and at my High school has mostly has Simplex devices (the majority being strobe only Truealerts attached to a separate horn in the hallways and the classrooms had the strobe only version of the Truealerts) however there's only 1 Spectralert L series and only 1 Edward Integrity and both of them are in hallways on the Northwest and Southeast corners of the building respectively.
@@pakboimsal8498 I have fire alarm phobia as well, my school portables have advances of the most part and some of them have classics. Main building has a mixture of different old horns (set to continuous) as well as SpectrAlert horns (set to code 3), and the annex has simplex horn strobes that are also continuous. I do have an unlisted video the main building ones going off if you would like to see that.
@@michaelgrahamwongacutemadness in my dads apartment there are ESTs. They are in every room excluding bedrooms. Idk but I get nervous thinking it’s gonna go off
Same dude-Gentex Commander 3s from my former elementary school, formerly had fire alarm phobia as a young kid because I have ASD, and I’ve categorized the Commander 3 horn tones as loud and startling! …but now I collect fire alarms! 😃
My Elementary school has Spectralert Advances in almost every room and I had and still have a Fire alarm phobia because I have ADHD [I live in Chicago btw] and at my High school has mostly has Simplex devices (the majority being strobe only Truealerts attached to a separate horn in the hallways and the classrooms had the strobe only version of the Truealerts) however there's only 1 Spectralert L series and only 1 Edward Integrity and both of them are in hallways on the Northwest and Southeast corners of the building respectively.
And people say “the advance is so painful in continuous”. My MT can easily reach 112dB at 10 feet on the highest volume, and 105dB on the lowest. My 7002T however, is so loud that it is not only over 120dB at 10 feet, and can get louder depending on the voltage, but it is so loud that I can’t come into my room with it going off with no hearing protection or having to cover my ears. Very comparable to a Thunderbolt 1000T siren when it faces you
That doesn't surprise me! I experienced very-loud variants of Wheelock 7002Ts in a new installation, when I lived in Rutland, Vermont. 1989-1990? Only some seemed quiet and the strobe on those weren't right. I remember one where the strobe clearly needed to be adjusted to pass regulation, because it was so fast, that it looked like a flutter! I noticed that one when outside, when looking in one of the upstairs windows, one night in 1991, IIRC. In 1992, I saw that the same one was taken down from the wall! It possibly got replaced with an identical model in 1992.
As a person who lives in Chicago, my old Elementry/Middle school had Spectralert Advances and my High school has Simplex Mechanical Horns, Remote Strobe TrueAlerts (I think a Horn Strobe TrueAlert in the main office), 4903s, and 1 Spectralert L-series and 1 Gray Edwards Intergrity Amber Horn Strobe as a CO alarm.
Compare them to old school vibratone horns like the Simplex or IBM 4030 or Simplex 4050 it would crush the modern day alarms lol. That's what I wanna see next. Good luck powering it they require weird AC voltages to power them. I believe the 4030 uses 12VAC and the 4050 uses 24VAC.
I personally like the last one best. I wish my condo had those instead of the ones we have - not sure which one it is but it kind of sounds like the Genesis and looks like the NS.
I think the fact that I'm autistic and used to be terrified of the fire alarm at my nursery (one of those level crossing sounding ones, more common in the uk I think) is the reason why I'm a little interested in it today.
literally 4 days ago I heard the Wheelock AS at my high school; I thought it would exceed the NS since it was at a higher pitch. I guess it didn't apparently
@@alexandersalarms5380 My Elementary school has Spectralert Advances in almost every room and I had and still have a Fire alarm phobia because I have ADHD [I live in Chicago btw] and at my High school has mostly has Simplex devices (the majority being strobe only Truealerts attached to a separate horn in the hallways and the classrooms had the strobe only version of the Truealerts) however there's only 1 Spectralert L series and only 1 Edward Integrity and both of them are in hallways on the Northwest and Southeast corners of the building respectively.
My Elementary school has Spectralert Advances in almost every room and I had and still have a Fire alarm phobia because I have ADHD [I live in Chicago btw] and at my High school has mostly has Simplex devices (the majority being strobe only Truealerts attached to a separate horn in the hallways and the classrooms had the strobe only version of the Truealerts) however there's only 1 Spectralert L series and only 1 Edward Integrity and both of them are in hallways on the Northwest and Southeast corners of the building respectively.
