The Siren Board

Here is a news video that shows all the trouble the Whelen sirens are giving this one town with speaker driver problems.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/torna ... 1522608035

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/cost- ... 1277885835

I remember when that happened because I got a phone call from a friend of mine saying we had a tornado warning back home (I was on my way to Illinois to move into my college room). That problem came about because someone at one of the auxiliary activation points other than the EMA in Westerville activated the sirens continuously during the 45 minute warning without any breaks, frying a bunch of the speaker drivers. Although this news story was pretty critical of the whole thing, the EMA really did a good timely job of fixing all of their equipment.

Also, the Smokey Row Rd. Thunderbolt 1000T was replaced completely with a new Whelen 4004 after that all went down. When it was installed, it was the closest Thunderbolt to my house and you can hear it in the distance in my tornado warning videos from home in Columbus.

Interesting story. I never knew that the drivers needed a resting period. We have never had driver problems in the 9 years we have had the sirens here in Tullahoma. The only problem we ever had was battery failure late last year, problem was fixed and all 7 of the VortexR4 sirens here have brand new batteries. We do allow the sirens to rest for 3-4 minutes before sounding them again during warnings though.

Whelen Rules wrote:Interesting story. I never knew that the drivers needed a resting period. We have never had driver problems in the 9 years we have had the sirens here in Tullahoma. The only problem we ever had was battery failure late last year, problem was fixed and all 7 of the VortexR4 sirens here have brand new batteries. We do allow the sirens to rest for 3-4 minutes before sounding them again during warnings though.

Yes, I've actually read another thread somewhere on this site about Whelen drivers needing a resting period.

ver tum wrote:

Whelen Rules wrote:Interesting story. I never knew that the drivers needed a resting period. We have never had driver problems in the 9 years we have had the sirens here in Tullahoma. The only problem we ever had was battery failure late last year, problem was fixed and all 7 of the VortexR4 sirens here have brand new batteries. We do allow the sirens to rest for 3-4 minutes before sounding them again during warnings though.

Yes, I've actually read another thread somewhere on this site about Whelen drivers needing a resting period.

Same, I read somewhere that the sirens need to rest after 5 to 9 minutes of continuous activation. I didn't know it was as short as 3 minutes, though.

Most of the time that wouldn't be a problem, though. The sirens here in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, being new ASC Tempest T-128's, are programmed to sound for three minutes than shut off. They seem to let them sound for 3 minutes than rest 3 minutes before sounding them again.

Yea that is the same set up here, they activate them they sound for 3 minutes and the sirens timer shuts them off.

I didn't know it was the same for both mechanical and electronic sirens. But in this news thread they had activated the Whelens for an hour continuous! Im surprised the siren didn't blow up. But what is interesting is that the chief in that video said it was no where in the manual that they had to let them cool down. I have seen the manual and he is right there is no section stating that. Shouldn't that be a liability covered by Whelen then?

Alasiren1977 wrote:I didnt know it was the same for both mechanical and electronic sirens. But in this news thread they had activated the Whelens for an hour continuous! Im surprised the siren didnt blow up. But what is interesting is that the chief in that video said it was no where in the manual that they had to let them cool down. I have see the manual and he is right there is no section stating that. Shouldnt that be a liability covered by Whelen then?

I definitely agree! Whelen should be held responsible for the driver failures, since they didn't state anything in the manual about them needing to cool down.

Maybe it's just common knowledge that sirens shouldn't be run continuously? Even electro-mechanical sirens as early as the 1950's could only run up to 15 continuous minutes before they'd begin damaging their motors.

I checked the Installation and Operating manuals for the Vortex and WPS 4000 series and it doesn't indicate anywhere that the sirens need a cool down period. So you'd think Whelen would be responsible for replacing those damaged drivers, as they should indicate that these sirens can only run for 3 minutes before needing a cool down period. Than again, like I said, maybe it's supposed to be common knowledge not to run a siren continuously like that. I don't remember reading anywhere in the Federal Signal manuals for the Thunderbolt or 2T22/3T22 that they need a cool down period, even though you're not supposed to run them for over 15 minutes without risks of damaging the motors.

Edit:

Come to think of it. Is there really ANY siren that's designed to run anywhere between 30 minutes to 60 minutes continuously without causing any damage to itself? Since most tornado warnings are issued for a half hour basis.

Edit:

If a cool down period is necessary, wouldn't the Discontinuous Airhorn be best for a Whelen? Since it's 2 seconds on, 2 seconds off, repeat? Would it even require a cool down period than?

Here is the same area showing them testing the decibels on a WPS-4004 and not getting the full 129dbc they should be:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/torna ... 2806225773