Quick Review On Silent Knight’s 5820XL And Why It’s A Great Choice For Your Building’s Fire Alarm System

Having been in the fire alarm business for over twenty years, I’ve seen a lot of different products come and go. One of the more recent systems we’ve installed is the

Silent Knight 5820XL

.

A couple of month ago, Houston Fire Safety was completing an installation for the Aldine School district at one of their elementary schools. The school decided to go with the Silent Knight 5820XL as their preference and specification, so we were obligated to use this fire alarm system.

To say the least, I was thoroughly impressed!

Silent Knight’s 5820XL Has Super-Fast Programming

One of the things that shocked me was how quick and easy this system was to program (including the components). Some of the devices were programmable with dip switches on the units themselves, while others, such as intelligent smoke detectors and heat detectors were done right at the panel using a wire attached to the motherboard.

As fast as you put in the address at the main annunciator, the device is programmed. Pop a smoke head into the hard-wired base, punch in the number and voila, it was programmed. It literally takes half a second to attach an address to each device.

If you match this up with the Siemen’s line of addressable equipment programming, there’s just no comparison.

Another nice feature is the auto-program feature as well

Being able to autoprogram a fire alarm system is nothing new as I have programmed Notifier panels and  Firelite panels in the past, but it’s nice to know this feature is available at the time of initiating the system.

With auto-programming, all one has to do is install all the addressed devices on the system and push a few buttons at the main fire panel and you’re on your way. One of the benefits of going this route is that you can determine whether all your devices are on the loop. If you do an auto-program and notice not all of the devices match in number with the fire alarm drawings, you know whether there is a missing link in the wiring.

In other words, if you use the auto-program feature and discover not all devices are responding, you simply go out in the field (with drawings in hand) and look for a wire that is not attached between devices. Once you’ve determined the missing link, simply make the necessary wire attachments and repeat the procedure until all your devices are responding at the main fire alarm panel.

Free Programming Software!

Another nicety to Silent Knight’s 5820XL is that you can download the easy-to-use fire alarm system programming software directly from Silent Knight’s website. I believe it also comes with complete instructions on how to use this software. All you need is a laptop and a USB or nine-pin cable to upload the program.

You can also use this software for uploading/downloading, event history, detector status, test reports and more!

More and more agencies, businesses, and school districts are making this “intelligent” choice.

In recent months, there seems to be an upswing in sales of this particular panel because many end users are begining to realize how easy it is to use. But, it’s not just the ease of use…

Too many times, a business will hire a fire alarm company to install a system and find out later that the system installed was a proprietary system, which can only be serviced by licensed dealers for that particular product.

The results can be a nightmare for the business owner as some systems (Siemens brand, for example) have a limited amount of dealers in the area that are licensed to work on them.

In the coming months, I will describe some real-life stories of business owner who got the short end of the stick by using proprietary software systems… stay tuned.

If you need assistance in finding the right fire alarm system for your business, please feel free to use the “contact us” button at the top of this page or simply give us a call. We’ll be more than happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have.