Frequently Asked Questions

It is important that any installation be done by a qualified professional, and that all modifications to the system be done with the approval from a design engineer.

Yes! One Salamander Control System can support over 75 ‘devices’. The devices can be mixed-and-matched between wet reservoirs, dry reservoirs, other sensors, and heat relays.

Salamander Reservoirs communicate wirelessly to the Control System over an encrypted Radio Frequency (RF) connection. A great benefit to that architecture is that devices can communicate through walls, and don’t need line of sight. In fact, sensors can be over 1,000 feet away from the Control System and still connect over the secure RF connection. This bank-level security, features a 256-bit exchange to establish a global unique key, and an AES-128 CTR for all data messages so security is maintained at all communication points from the Reservoir to the Control System, the Control System to the notification back-end, and back again.

No; The Salamander Reservoirs communicate wirelessly to a Control System unit. There is a 1,000′ distance maximum between a Salamander Reservoir and its Control System. The connection is secure using bank-level AES encryption. The Control System is a cellular gateway which uses a secure AT&T network for all communication and data transmittal.

Since we are monitoring a life safety device, this method is much preferred over using an on-site customer network.

The notifications are customizable, and will include specific information to get you to the signaling reservoir (i.e. property address, building number, floor, location, etc…) By default, the Salamander Control System can send out the following notifications (via email and SMS):

Water Detect Alert: the primary alert for a dry sprinkler system, this will alert when water has been detected in a reservoir in the dry system. This is a ‘persistent’ notification, meaning that it will continue to alert until resolution.

Low Temperature Alert: the internal water temperature of the wet system is below 48°F (9°C)^*. This is a ‘persistent’ notification, meaning that it will continue to alert until resolution.

Device Offline: This alert will notify if a device has been offline for over 3* hours. This is a ‘persistent’ notification, meaning that it will continue to alert until resolution.

Low Battery Alert: This will alert when battery levels drop to 15%^* or lower. This is a ‘persistent’ notification, meaning that it will continue to alert until resolution.

Heat Relay (status on and status off): if integrating with a heat relay, this notification will let you know that local heating has been initialized. Additionally, when the internal system temperature has been satisfied (≥50°F^*), it will notify that the heat is turned off because the system has restored.

High Temperature Alert: the internal water temperature of the wet system is higher than 165°F (74°C)^*. This is a ‘persistent’ notification, meaning that it will continue to alert until resolution.

The Salamander Reservoirs are designed, fabricated and tested to the standards set by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Additionally, Salamander Reservoir has an ‘exemption’ status from Factory Mutual (FM).

Should a design professional, installer or municipality desire signed and sealed engineering drawings for the Salamander Reservoirs, they are available upon request – please contact us using the form below.

Salamander Reservoirs are recommended to be installed throughout the system at ‘strategic’ locations or those vulnerable to pipe freeze, such as:

Due to their design, Salamander Reservoirs can be easily relocated when, for example, a vacant space becomes occupied and another vacancy emerges.

It is important that any installation be done by a qualified professional, and that all modifications to the system be done with the approval from a design engineer. While there are many ways to install a Salamander Reservoir on a wet system, the following illustrates a typical installation on a wet sprinkler riser.

No; integration with a heat relay is completely optional. The primary function of the Salamander Reservoir and Control System is to alert to low temperatures within the wet system. However, our solution can integrate with an on-site heater (via a relay) to initialize the local heat to remedy a low temperature situation.

By default, the heat is set to initialize when the water temperatures hit 48°F/(9°C) and to turn off when the water temperatures reach 50°F (10°C). These thresholds can be changed depending on user preference and conditions.

On Dry Fire Sprinkler Systems, we recommend, at a minimum, one Salamander Reservoir immediately after the dry pipe valve and before the first sprinkler head to serve as a first indication alert of a potential compromise of the dry pipe valve.

Additionally, we recommend installing one Salamander Reservoir at each low point in the system (often at the auxiliary drains) to detect accumulation of condensation.

It is important that any installation be done by a qualified professional, and that all modifications to the system be done with the approval from a design engineer. Each dry fire sprinkler system is a little different, and as such, there are many options to install the versatile Salamander Reservoirs into one. We recommend installing Salamander Reservoirs after between the Dry Pipe Valve and the first dry sprinkler head to serve as early detection of a compromise of the Dry Pipe Valve. Additionally, we recommend installing a Salamander at each low-point drain (drum drip or auxiliary drain) to detect accumulation from condensation within the dry fire system. At the low point drains, Salamander Reservoirs should be installed ahead of the condensate relief valve to detect the first amounts of condensation accumulation.

In 2014, James Seip and Jonathan Epstein were full-time professional commercial real estate property managers working for Berger-Epstein Associates, Inc. in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Like most property managers, winterizing buildings including making sure sprinkler rooms and vacant spaces were adequately heated to reduce the risk of pipes freezing.

Our sprinkler rooms, like so many others, had uncalibrated wall-mounted heaters designed to turn on when the ambient air temperature got low enough to trigger the mechanism.

The following spring, we received an electric bill for about $2,000: the heater malfunctioned and continued to run – a significant waste of money and energy! We wondered why heating wasn’t being initialized when the water temperature was low, since air temperature is an incredibly volatile metric.

In the next years, we met with many sprinkler engineers, technicians, design professionals to see if the industry had a solution for us.

When it was clear that they didn’t, we patented our idea and brought it market. This story was covered by Lehigh Valley Business (link here: https://www.lvb.com/new-sprinkler-management-device-aims-save-money-lives)

Salamanders are ectothermic, which means that they can’t control their own body temperatures: when their environment gets cold, they get cold (just like a life safety fire sprinkler system!)

There is also mythological lore around a Salamander’s ability to thwart fire. “Named from the Greek meaning fire-lizards, salamanders have a long mythological history of holding the power to thwart fire. Thomas Bulfinch, of Mythology fame, notes that “…the authority of numerous sage philosophers, at the head of whom are Aristotle and Pliny, affirms this power of the salamander. According to them, the animal not only resists fire, but extinguishes it, and when he sees the flame charges it as an enemy which he well knows how to vanquish.” Some attributed these powers to the salamander’s cold-bloodedness, others to fire-proof skin, while still others say the myth began when salamanders were seen emerging from the charred remnants of fire logs. Such powerful myths often have some truth at their root, and, in the case of the salamander, it is the last reputed power that holds some foundation. Some salamanders’ natural habits as semi-aquatic creatures enabled them to avoid the wildfires that threaten other forest dwellers. Other species, such as the both the Clouded salamander and the Flat woods salamander, thrive in the conditions created after a fire when loose moist debris covers the forest floor.” (source: https://enviroliteracy.org/special-features/creature-feature/salamanders/).