Home Fire Spinkler Testing -- How Often?

[Chupa Chupa]

For those of you that live in a townhome w/ fire sprinklers do you have them tested every so often? I've been in mine for almost ten years now (bought it new) and never really thought about it until I noticed the ones in the garage were turning green.

[shadow]

If it's just a standard wet pipe installation, I don't think there is a way to test them.

Commercial is usually dry-pipe with pre-action: the pipe is pressurized with air and there is a valve connected to a control system.

Some event (heat trigger, fire alarm pull, etc) MUST occur before the system will open the valve (hence the name "pre-action". At that point, the water still will not rush in because of the trapped air. If and when a head it activated, the air will be released and the water will flow.

"Testing" is simply monitoring the air pressure. If any leaks develop, the in-pipe pressure will drop.