The Benefits of Venting Wet Pipe Sprinkler Systems

Posted by Experts in Nitrogen Generators and Automatic Air Vents on Dec 12, 2017 6:26:19 AM

Fire Sprinkler Vent

The engineers at ECS know if you eliminate 50% of trapped gas in a system corrosion activity will be reduced by 50%. ECS has pioneered the use of a fire sprinkler vent for wet pipe fire sprinkler systems. The original purpose of air vents was to reduce internal oxygen corrosion caused by excessive gas trapped in a system. Every molecule of oxygen removed from a system is one less molecule that will react with metal piping.

The fire protection industry recommends installing a fire sprinkler vent on wet pipe fire sprinkler systems and NFPA put into effect the 2016 edition (section 7.1.5) mandating a means of venting air will be required on all new wet pipe systems.

Contractors select automatic vents on wet pipe fire sprinkler systems as a cost-effective corrosion control solution and to mitigate risk in their environments. When less air is trapped in the system water delivery time to an activated sprinkler head will decrease and improvement in water delivery time is optimized providing a significant life safety advantage where every second counts.

Submit Your Corrosion Question

NFPA 13 also requires the use of a relief valve on all wet pipe sprinkler systems to alleviate thermal expansion problems. Increases in ambient temperature often cause trapped gasses to expand inside a closed sprinkler system and cause static pressures in the system to exceed the 175 psi maximum allowable pressure. This phenomenon causes false alarms due to the compression of trapped air creating a water flow event past the flow switch.

Although this requirement prevents the system from exceeding 175 psi and potentially damaging system components, it does not resolve the underlying problem – excessive trapped air in the piping network that provides a large cushion for pressure swings in the system as the temperature changes. Automatic air vents prevent systems from exceeding the maximum allowable pressure and from experiencing false alarms.

The ECS Advantage:

  • Corrosion Control
  • Patented redundant design to remove trapped gas
  • No plumbing to drain required
  • Prevent False Alarms
  • FM Approved Assembly