Oh look at that this video is brought to you by spore limb, quality, integrity and tradition, really quick. I wanted to start this off by saying we're gon na be talking about duck smoke detectors in this video. I actually just created a new. How duck detectors work? Video, so if you guys need an understanding on duck smoke detectors, do me a favor and watch the video first I'll be popping it up in the card right now on the top of the screen.

Alright, we have kind of a multiple service call. Today the customer called and said that they've got a duck detector or a test and reset station in their office. That has a red light on it, which is essentially a remote test and reset station for a duck. Detector there's actually a duck detector right there.

That's one of them, but so they think they have an AC, that's not working, and they also have kind of like a sewage smell. They think and they think their building might be negative, meaning the exhaust fans are pulling too much air and put or not putting enough makeup air back in the building. Whether any of that is the actual case, I don't know we're gon na dive into this and we're gon na see what we can find again, because I don't completely understand, what's going on, I'm starting on every AC looking to see if we have a digital display On the prodigy board and going through that first to see if we have any indication of duck, detectors trip so far, none all so I went through to every exhaust fan made sure that they were all running. I have not checked the make of air units, yet all of these units are rather new, so it's really easy just to go to the prodigy board and see that you have a display now, duct detectors.

I can tell you just from experience. These duct detectors are located inside the unit. What got to be careful here, a lot of these units have been changed and the installing contractor. Just because I know it's not me, but the installing contractor left the existing duct detectors in the ductwork and controlling the thermostats.

So these units potentially have double smoke detectors, so you see there's one right there now, just because the duct detectors there doesn't mean it's hooked up, but from looking at these ACS, I can tell you see how this one has a duct detector. Here too, this one is controlling the prodigy board that one theoretically is controlling the thermostat. Now I can tell you that every one of these units has got power to the prodigy board and there's no duct detector trip signal going to any of them. So that tells me, but yet we have a blank thermostat downstairs and we have a test and reset station light.

Illuminated basically telling us that we have a trip duct detector. So that confirms my suspicions that the installing contractor that did these ACS left, the existing duct detectors controlling the thermostats. So that means that we're gon na have duct detectors down below the roof deck in the actual of ductwork, and we got to figure out where that problems at all right, I started by going to every a/c make sure the belts are relatively tight. I mean I didn't Tek proper tension, but just to make sure the belts were there, nothing was frozen up.

Nothing was stuck as far as blower motors or anything like that. I don't want to reset a duct detector downstairs if there's potentially a bad motor right. So I did everything I could just to test them checked every a/c, most of them. Actually the blowers are running, except for a few now the a/c that is labeled that is down is AC one.

I I'm assuming that this one right here, but I don't know for sure, because I don't know if the labeling is correct, so we're gon na go downstairs and attempt to reset this test and reset station and see what happens. The other thing I also did was went to every make of their unit made sure they were running they are and it like. I already said I made sure every exhaust fan is running so once I get all the ACS running, we'll check the air balance and get the outdoor air fan or outdoor air dampers opening up we'll check the balance and see, if there's an issue with that. But we were just doing kind of preliminary checks before we reset a duck detector.

This is my test and reset station and nothing's happening when I turn it. So we got to go up to the duck detector either. This is bad or there's a problem with the duck detector we'll find out in a minute. This duck.

Detector is supposed to be water-resistant, but I already see a problem there supposed to be a rubber gasket right here, and this is the test and reset station that rubber gasket isn't there. I've had many times where I open these waterproof out door detectors up, and this one also has heat cracks all over in there full of water. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if that's our situation here before I started anything. I went ahead and had the manager call their fire alarm company and put the system on test, and then I also instructed her that she may have to reset the fire alarm because oftentimes, depending on how these detectors are wired up, it can set off the fire Alarm sometimes they just send a trouble signal.

Sometimes they turn on the annunciators yeah and I can see water damage inside here all over the place. We have a red LED light for a trip detector right now and we definitely have water damage. Let's go ahead and open up the the sensor cabinet and see what happened in here. Oh, look at that go figure.

That's going to be our problem full of water. Okay, so we got to figure out a way to reset this guy get it operating like. I said: there's redundant smoke detectors, so what I think we're gon na do is we're gon na recommend that we use the smoke detectors in the rtu unit and we wire up the fire alarm to those. In fact, I can probably do that today.

Let's see we'll see, let me see what I can figure out right now. I need to work on bypassing this def detector. We know that's an issues, that's funny. All the water comes out all right, so what we need to do is figure out which wires are which and then we'll go from there.

So from the looks of it, the arcs a is going to be my thermostat normally closed in common. That's how they turn off the thermostat, and then we have an alarm contact over here. This thing is wired up for a trouble condition, so we've got the alarm contact over here on the right-hand side, I'm pretty comfortable with these smoke detectors. So I kind of know what's going on here: let's go ahead and test, we do not have 24 volts coming into the detector, he knows what's going on and they got all kinds of crap tricks.

Essentially, if I jump these two together, we should be able to turn my alarm. I mean my thermostat back on, so if we test these bad boys, I think that's my 20 yeah there's my 24 volts to ground and this should be getting 24 volts. So if we put these two together, we should have a thermostat operating. So now we should have a thermostat.

I would think, and then the rest of this is just going to be test and reset stations, and then we have an alarm contact right here. So we have another smoke detector right here, so you know this one has the black cap, let's see what's going on in this one, this should be wired in series with the other one or tied in together. I guess what you could say: it's like water damage and this one too not like the other one though yeah, though there's lots of condensation in here too, that's not good, there's our resistor and a line resistor right there. This basically proves the circuit, so I'm trying to make sense of this and from the looks of it we have looks like an annunciator right here.

I bet go into a horn. Basically, in our alarm is my assumption and then we have one alarm wire coming up going into the detector one alarm wire coming out of that detector. Going to the other DS Hector, that's happening right here, so each detector should have a test and reset station wire. So you need the test and reset station and then you have an alarm main wire and then it's going to tie the detectors together and then there's an end-of-line resistor that we showed over there.

So I could make this work and wire it into the unit. It's just a matter of do I have all the materials to do the conversion, and I might need to quote this too, because the new duct detectors that are in the unit the test and reset stations that are downstairs might not work with those. So I might have to let's see I'll have to figure that out. I might have to bypass well right now I have the detector running and remember.

We still have the smoke detectors in these units, so we have redundant detectors here. So it's not like we're cutting out a safety. We're still gon na, have the safety in there so all right! Well, I got to think about this for a minute and decide what I'm gon na do all right. We still have a test and reset station.

That's triggered, but now we have a display on the thermostat, so I bypassed it and got the thermostat running now. I've got to figure out how to turn off the alarm, because right now it's signaling a fire condition to their fire alarm. So I got to do that too, and figure that problem out. Obviously, the detector is gon na need to be bypassed.

Like I said or hooked up to the new detectors when it comes to smoke detectors, sometimes they can be a little confusing because you have so many jackets a wire coming up. It's always pretty safe to assume that if you have a red jacket, it has something to do with the death detector or the fire alarm system. The way that I like to break down duck detectors is just look at the wires and, typically typically, you will use a single jacketed wire for one function, not always, but typically okay. So in this function right here, this red jacket is going strictly to the test and reset station it's using four wires and that test and reset station requires four wires.

So we can mark this test and reset like label at number one and then figure out. You know right what colors go to what and we can completely unwire this and then be able to figure everything out. That's how I break them down and it makes a lot more sense. That way, then I can look at the next jacket and I can say this back jacket right here: there's one going to the power source and then they're going to the alarm contact.

So this is actually this jacket right here that my fingers touching back here is the fire alarm company's wiring and they're landing right here and right here and then it looks like it's running over to the other detector, because the end aligned resistors over there and then The last jacket looks like power, maybe for the other duct detector, because we've got we've got a power source coming in. We have two Reds and two blacks, which means that one detectors more than likely powering the other. So when you break it down that way, it really makes these things make more sense and it makes it a lot less confusing. What I'm doing is I labeled each jacket jacket, one with one hash tag, hash mark two and three, and I'm gon na unwire them systematically and then figure out what's going on and what I'm gon na end up doing is temporarily running the alarm contacts over to The rtu unit, so that way we have a functioning duct detector that signals the fire alarm company and then well quote to come back and do it permanently.

So I'm gon na use their existing conduit. It won't look pretty but it'll, be something and then we'll come back and put a new test and reset station, so for now I'm actually going to unwire the test and reset station. So that way we have a functioning duct detector that actually signals the alarm company. You can see what I'm talking about so I broke it down.

Jacket number two essentially was power to the detector and the alarm, contact and jacket. Three was also power to the detector in the alarm contact. So my assumption just from looking at this is one of these is just jumping over to the other unit. Now, once I eliminated those wires and marked them, so I knew what they went to.

We only have four wires left. These two aren't hooked up. That's just your test and reset station so see these detectors really aren't that bad when you break them down like that now, once I've identified, which ones are which I pulled it away from there, I'm identifying them in this junction box and I'm gon na end up Cutting them, so what I found is is that three, I believe to be well anyways. I don't remember what three is, but I'm just identifying I'm gon na cut them wire nut them over here.

So that way, I can run a new wire directly into the rtu duct detector, all right, so I've completely disconnected the other detector, oh yeah, and this this speaker wire, annunciator wire. It wasn't going to anything. I traced it all the way over to the old fire alarm annunciator on the outside of the building. It was just the audible speaker and it was just laying on the ground, so I went ahead and disconnect to that.

So now we got essentially, if you break it down in its simplest terms, you have one jacket coming up, that's going to the fire alarm panel, that's it and you have one jacket going to each test and reset station. That's that's all we got and then everything else was happening in the detectors. So what I'm gon na try to do is I'm trying to harvest the red jacket in wire and if I have one that's long enough I'll use it to run in that conduit right. There that goes directly to the AC will use that temporarily we'll bring it right to here and then we'll hook.

This thing out, we may not even have to come back to be honest with you. If I get it all set up right, all right, I'm not gon na say who the installation part installing contractor these units. Is you guys know who you are because you watch my videos, it's kind of ridiculous. So I'm checking out this thermostat wire going from the duct detectors and look at these guys.

They just shoved it into a hole in the freaking ductwork and are just running it through the unit come on guys. So if you look over here, maybe this Y is just sitting out, I'm like where's that coming from just sitting there going look, I'm not perfect and I make mistakes but come on guys, that's ridiculous! All right I've got the new conduit. I was able to use the old conduit and if you guys didn't already know you can use, I mean again, I mean to bash the other guys, but it's kind of frustrating when they do shady stuff, like that. Okay, but I'm gon na point out a little tip these Linux units.

They have a perfect chase to run conduit in it, secures the conduit, nice and sturdy. Look at that. So anyways I've got my new. Why I ran okay, they never even the installing contractor.

Never even started up this unit properly. The duck detectors never been put into operation and for the protection of the installing contractor. I took their sticker off, but the red dust caps are still on there. So this duck detectors never even done anything but we're gon na.

Do a start-up on this thing, so I'm getting ready. I've got my wires ran coming into here. I pulled two thermostat wires through and I marked them before. I pulled them so that way I knew which ones going to be the test and reset station, which ones going to be the alarm contact.

I'm gon na try to utilize the existing test and reset station. If I can so that's why I pulled the canta wire, so when doing an initial startup on these guys, you've got to remove these red plugs. These units have been operating for like two years now or year now, but you know you got ta, remove those red plugs because that's what forces the air through the duct detector sensor with those in there, these duct detectors, aren't doing anything. So this guy won't reset from the test and reset station.

So I happen to have one of these in the van, so I'm gon na go ahead and replace it real, quick all right. So here's a new one. This one doesn't use a key, but you can see you use a magnet and then use a button push to reset it. So this one's working, but we need to make sure that it's actually transferring up to the roof.

So we're gon na go ahead and put it in an alarm condition and then we'll go up there and make sure the duct detectors tripped up there. So I come up to the roof and we're tripped on the prodigy board. Smoke detector and we're tripped on the red LED hit that button and a resets. So we now have a correct test and reset function now.

Last step, I need to hook up the fire alarm now I disconnected the fire alarm through my testing, just because I didn't want to set off the fire alarm. The fire alarm is simply a contact with a resistor. Now this resistor is an end-of-line resistor. This just proves that there's nothing wrong between these two wires.

It's a proving circuit! That's all it's doing it's telling the alarm company that they have a good set of wires and if they get a direct short across the wires that says, there's a fire. If this resistor disappears, it signals a trouble condition, meaning that hey, maybe a mouse, came up and ate a wire or maybe something got severed. And it's warning them that if there's a fire you're not necessarily going to get a fire alarm condition because there's a problem with this circuit right here between these two wires. So this is just an end-of-line resistor to prove the circuit.

So what I need to do now is get the manager involved. Put the alarm back on here and then we're going to trigger it from downstairs. Make sure that we get an alarm condition, make sure that it resets and then we're going to call the fire alarm company and walk through all these steps with them to triggering a fire alarm condition and resetting it to make sure that the circuit is all connected. Correctly and everything is good to go now.

This happened because I broke the circuit. I pulled that resistor out and they got a trouble condition, so we're gon na real silence. It reset it and then we're gon na call the alarm company and go through the setup right now. All right, I don't have any sheet metal to cover up the old hole for the duct detector, so I left the duct detector there cleaned up all my messes.

I still need to get a cap for that ga box, I'm gon na bring it up right now and then yeah same thing. On the other side. Don't have a cap, I mean, I'm sorry, don't have a sheet metal for the duct detector. So it's just there, but I picked up all my messes.

These drives me nuts, but they have a filter, changing company and they always take out the dang filter, pullers, all the AC units. I went through and adjusted the outdoor air dampers for building air balance. Building air balance is much better now now that the ACS are working and then also when programmed all their thermostats to run the fans continuously when they're in the occupied mode set. All that back up, everything else is working.

Make repairs we're all working. Exhaust fans are working so this one's good to go as far as where the smell was coming from, it's possible that the AC not working and then the other AC is not being programmed right, was causing the building to be negative air balance. I'm not seeing the problem right now, so we'll just tell him to keep an eye on it. They also have some other issues that they want me to address.

They need a door closure on their walk-in cooler, so I will be back within the next week and I'll follow up with them, but yeah that's pretty much it on this one. We had to take this call one step at a time. The initial thing was: they had a test and reset station that had a red LED light on it. They had a blank thermostat, they thought they had a funny small in the restaurant.

On a side note, I never really found the funny smell, but I did end up adjusting the air balance, which more than likely was the source of the smell. If the building's air balance is negative, then the exhaust fans, the negative suction pole on the building, can start to pull things from weird locations. It can dry out p-traps, they can do all kinds of stuff, so it can pull smells from weird places. So that was my best logical guess on what potentially the smell could have been, but the smell wasn't there.

I was there okay, so anyways back to the call. I took it one step at a time. I tried to walk you guys through the whole thought process of where I was going with everything. I do have to say that you need to be very, very careful in certain places and certain municipalities duck smoke detectors can be considered a life safety device.

So you need to be cautious, know what you're allowed to work on. Don't get involved in something that you can get in trouble for working on. Okay, in my area, I am allowed to work on duck smoke detectors. My insurance company covers me on it and the the fire alarm company oftentimes - won't touch them.

If there's an electrical issue within the duck smoke detector, the fire alarm company and myself usually show up and troubleshoot it together. Anyways we went through this step-by-step. Okay, I took I made some assumptions based off of experience like having an idea that that duck detector might have been full of water. You know, but I tried to make the best logical decisions.

I tried to eliminate a second visit and I did because I was able to go ahead and utilize everything. Okay, you know as far as talking about the contractor how they ran that conduit. I I kind of felt a little bad for bringing it up, but I left it in the video because genuinely that is the incorrect way to run a conduit. You don't just push it in through the ductwork and then just leave it dangling.

You know through metal pieces inside the unit, that's just kind of silly okay, but it is what it is: I've made mistakes, probably similar or worse than that in my career. You know we just got to understand that everybody makes those mistakes. Okay, just because I vented my frustration at the particular contractor doesn't mean that I feel like I'm any better than them. I've made mistakes just like that, but it just pisses me off.

You know it is what it is. You know just it's there, so hopefully you guys understand the sequence of operation of these duck detectors. I've also just created another video with the whole breaking down of the duck detectors. I said in the beginning of this video, but you know, hopefully you guys can watch that if you want a little bit more of an understanding of how these duck detectors work.

Okay, I really really appreciate you guys taking the time to watch this video. Do me a favor leave me a comment. Give me a thumbs up me a thumbs down whatever you feel necessary. I do live streams Monday evening 5:00 p.m.

Pacific time, where I discussed these videos work permitting. Of course, please come check them out and that's going to wrap this one up. Okay, I really appreciate it and we will catch you guys on the next one.