Safety

How Fire Sprinkler Heads Actually Work

Name: How Fire Sprinkler Heads Actually Work
Uploaded: 2026-01-26T17:16:39Z
Duration: 2 min 19 s
Description: Fire sprinkler heads are rated by temperature, not smoke. This video explains how the glass bulb activates at 155 degrees, how water is distributed, and why proper pressure matters at the sprinkler head. Learn how much water a sprinkler can release and why keeping heads clean and paint-free is critical during maintenance and renovation work.

Fire sprinkler heads are rated by temperature, not smoke. This video explains how the glass bulb activates at 155 degrees, how water is distributed, and why proper pressure matters at the sprinkler head. Learn how much water a sprinkler can release and why keeping heads clean and paint-free is critical during maintenance and renovation work.

Best Practices

Preventative Maintenance

Diagnostic

Mark Sharp

How did you like this video?

Very Good

Good

Not Good

Transcript

Sprinkler systems in residential homes, apartments are all rated differently. You can tell they're rating by the color of the bulb. This bulb is red, which means the liquid inside this bulb will start to boil at 155 degrees. Which will cause it to break this glass bulb and that will release the water.

It will release a cap inside here. Then the water will come out of the sprinkler head. This is the distribution, so water comes straight down, hits this plate and gets dispersed in all different directions. Most sprinklers handle a 12 foot by 12 foot space, a full system. Can operate or has between 160 and 180 PSI.

But at the sprinkler head itself it's designed to have much lower pressure. It's anywhere between seven PSI and 40 PSI, depending on where it is in your home, how close it is to the riser, but anywhere from seven to 40 like at the head itself. And once this glass bulb does break and water starts to flow, this can distribute up to 30 gallons of water per minute.

But that's really crucial. Why it's important to maintain your sprinkler heads in apartments. They have magnetic covers. You can cover them so painters can spray around them. But you really wanna make sure you keep paint off of this because that can keep the bulb, keep everything from working correctly.

So please make sure you are covering your sprinkler systems, your sprinkler heads whenever you're doing work or especially having a ceiling painted, or if it's mounted on a wall, you have this covered because again, this ball breaks. Or the liquid boils at 155 PSI, which causes that glass to break.

So keep those nice and clean.