# Residential fire sprinkler systems - anybody have one in their house?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residential-fire-sprinkler-systems-anybody-have-one-in-their-house/515521>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 28, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residential-fire-sprinkler-systems-anybody-have-one-in-their-house/515521 "2009-10-28T23:21:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residential-fire-sprinkler-systems-anybody-have-one-in-their-house/515521/1 "2009-10-28T23:21:43Z")

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And has it ever given you any trouble?

-rainy

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residential-fire-sprinkler-systems-anybody-have-one-in-their-house/515521/2 "2009-10-28T23:48:15Z")

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Assuming you’re referring to fire sprinklers as opposed to lawn sprinklers.

My house has them. Haven’t had a moment of difficulty with them once, other than nervousness of working near the heads and pulling off their trim rings for painting the ceiling. AFAIK, ours is a wet pipe system, so breaking off a head would mean an instant mess.

I do know that homes in the neighborhood were built with some particular model of head that had been recalled a few years back. Fortunately for us, the previous owner dealt with replacing them.

The lawn sprinklers, though… just horrid things to keep repairing. Seems like every year, I’m replacing one or two valves and six heads that got stepped on or mown off.

ETA: amusing name vs subject!

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**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residential-fire-sprinkler-systems-anybody-have-one-in-their-house/515521/3 "2009-10-29T00:14:13Z")

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Oh yes I mean fire sprinklers. I apologize for the ambiguity.

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**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residential-fire-sprinkler-systems-anybody-have-one-in-their-house/515521/4 "2009-10-29T01:26:02Z")

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\<mod\>

Clarified title at OP’s request.

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**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/residential-fire-sprinkler-systems-anybody-have-one-in-their-house/515521/5 "2009-10-29T02:00:53Z")

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I’ve got one in my vacation condo. I’ve yet to have a fire or a false sprinkling so I don’t know anything about it’s efficacy. I don’t have a ton of valuable stuff there, maybe 8 grand worth of crap and nothing of sentimental value, so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal except for the damage that I might do to the business downstairs. It was installed by the HOA, so if it works or doesn’t work, I hope my liability will be muted.

It’s kind of a dirtbag partying snowboarder kind of place, but I hardly ever rent it out. I suspect that the random people who do rent it out might be more prone to catching the place on fire than some middle class middle America family, but I can’t really worry about it.