Peter, Under the wrong conditions, it's possible for sprinklers to activate and the dry valve would never open. What little water that comes from the open sprinklers would likely be worthless.
Example: a common differential type dry valve (manufacturer not to be named) has an air/water pressure ratio of 1 to 5.5. If the supply side water pressure on the dry valve is 55 psi, then it only takes 10 psi pressure (air or water) above the clapper to hold the clapper shut. If the sprinkler that operates is 24' above the clapper, the pressure that remains on the clapper (due to the weight of 24' of water) is more than 10 psi. The valve wouldn't open. So there's a number of variable that come into play. Bottom line, be cautious! Ed Kramer Littleton, CO > Forum Members: > > If a dry pipe valve trips and "goes wet", is there any reason why you > couldn't leave the system piping filled with water assuming that the > weather is not cold enough to freeze it? I am assuming that the > clappers have been reset externally and that the alarm connections > remain dry since they don't seem to be having problems at this time. > > Why would they want to use an alarm valve in place in liew of just > leaving the dry pipe valve? > > Thanks in advance. > > Peter Larrimer > VA _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
