Saw a master electrician use zip ties on a fire alarm loop last Tuesday

Guy from ABC Electric was running a new Honeywell panel at a school in Austin and he zip tied every single wire bundle tight as a drum. Got me wondering if anyone else has a hard rule about never cinching down sensor loops or if I'm just being too picky about signal interference.

3 comments

3 Comments

felixlane2d ago

Wait, is it really true that fire alarm loops are basically immune to signal issues just because they're low voltage? I mean, I've seen plenty of addressable systems throw weird ghost troubles that ended up being traced back to bad wiring practices, not the voltage level. The whole "it's only 24 volts so it doesn't matter" thing feels like it misses how sensitive the data communication part of the loop actually is. Maybe it's just me but I've had loops that worked fine until you cinched them tight and then suddenly the panel was losing devices on the far end. I'd rather leave a little breathing room and never have to guess if it's the zip tie causing the problem.

murray.robert3d ago

Oh it's really not that serious. Yeah zip ties tight as hell can mess with cat6 or whatever but fire alarm loops are running 24 volts and a couple milliamps. That's like worrying about whether your garden hose kinks and slows down when you're just trying to water the lawn. The only real issue is if you're crushing the jacket so bad it eventually shorts out. Even then it'd take years and some temperature swings. Seen plenty of panels running perfectly with the bundles cinched down like a tourniquet.

nancy_king292d ago

@murray.robert makes a fair point about the voltage being low, but I've seen enough intermittent ghost troubles on addressable loops to stay paranoid. A tight cinch can crush the insulation just enough where moisture creeps in later, especially in a humid school basement. Better to leave a little slack so the wires can breathe and you don't chase a ground fault at 2 AM next August.