Last Updated on 6 March 2023.
Fire alarms are essential for protecting commercial and residential buildings against the dangers of fire. One of the leading manufacturers of fire alarm systems is Gent Fire Alarms.
Gent was started by John Thomas Gent back in the 19th century – 1872 is often the date given for the company’s formation, but it could have been even earlier.
Back then though, the focus was electric clocks, used in public buildings and railway stations worldwide.
Fast forward to late in the 20th century, and their emphasis had changed significantly, focusing on fire detection and alarms.
In 2005, Gent was acquired by Honeywell, a multinational that produces a wide range of commercial and consumer products.
Now a brand under the Honeywell umbrella, Gent operates in the Leicester area and continues to be one of the most popular choices for fire alarms in the UK.
Popular Gent Fire Alarms Used in Commercial Buildings
Gent Fire Alarms offer a wide range of fire alarm systems for commercial and industrial buildings. Their systems can be broadly split into two categories:
- Addressable Control Panels
- Non-addressable Control Panels
Addressable Control Panels:
Legacy control panels
3400 Panel – The Gent 3400 panel was a versatile system that is suitable for small and medium-sized buildings. It can support up to 8 loops and up to 254 devices per loop.
34000 Panel – The Gent 34000 panel was an upgrade on the 3400 and designed for larger buildings supporting up to 12 loops and up to 254 devices per loop. These systems could be networked to cover larger premises and would work in areas or across the whole site as one larger system. The cause and effects matrix of these systems were impressive in what they could achieve, but complex to formulate and commission.
32000 Panel – The Gent 32000 panel was an entry level flexible and scalable system that can support up to 2 loops and up to 254 devices per loop.
Modern Gent Systems
Vigilon – The Vigilon is a facelift on the 34000 system and for many years ran the 34000 detectors before moving on to the S-Quad detection range.
It was and still is a powerful fire alarm system that uses advanced technology to detect fires quickly and accurately. It can support up to 8 loops and up to 254 devices per loop. The system by its nature inherited the best bits from the 34000 system and has been widely installed across many large sites in major cities in the United Kingdom.
Vigilon Mini – The Vigilon Mini is a compact version of the full Vigilon system fire alarm system that is ideal for small buildings. It’s a single loop system and produced at a specific price bracket. For a small system it offers a lot of features, but can’t be networked with other panels, which is the domain of its bigger brother the Vigilon, or Vidgy as its known in the trade.
Detection:
3400 Optical Heat Detectors
The Gent 3400 optical heat detectors are designed to detect smoke and heat. They were designed for the 3400 system and were ahead of their time, using algorithms to determine a ‘real’ fire and particularly useful in areas where traditional smoke detectors may be prone to false alarms. The 3400 detectors came with loop isolation as standard, which at the time was absolutely groundbreaking as it meant it was the most robust system on the market.
34000 Optical Heat Detectors
The Gent 34000 optical heat detectors were similar but an upgrade of the 3400 detectors but much smaller in diameter and used surface mount technology therefore were cheaper and quicker to produce.
S-Quad Detection Range
The S-Quad detection range is the current range of Gent detectors and combines multiple elements for sensing and sounding: smoke, heat, carbon monoxide detection, electronic sounders or voice alarm speech, all in the one efficient and low powered device.
Non-Addressable:
Legacy
The Gent 3260 is a conventional fire alarm system designed for small and medium-sized buildings. It can support up to 32 devices per zone.
Current Range
Xenex
The Xenex is the current long-standing non-addressable fire alarm system that is easy to install and maintain. It is ideal for small buildings and can support up to 20 detectors.
Gent Fire Alarm Design & Installation
WFP is a leading provider of Gent Fire Alarm systems, and we can help you with every element of selecting and fitting your fire alarm system.
Our team of highly experienced engineers have been working with Gent fire alarms for many years, which means that when you work with WFP, you’ll get a fire alarm system that meets the specific needs of your building.
From the initial design, through to the installation, we can be involved throughout the whole process, so you can get on with doing with you do best.
Once your system is designed and installed, we’ll also ensure it’s fully tested and certified, so you can rest assured that you’re fulfilling your legal obligations AND doing what you need to do to keep everyone in your building safe.
If you’re looking for the right suppliers to provide you with a Gent fire alarm, who can design and install the right system for your needs, WFP can help.
Gent Fire Alarm Maintenance & Repairs
At WFP, we also provide comprehensive maintenance and repair services for Gent Fire Alarms.
Our experienced engineers can provide regular maintenance to ensure that your system is always in good working order, with a regular service helping to reduce the chances of faults, call outs and that beeping alarm that does your head in!
By offering a regular service plan, this helps to reduce costly call outs – the better the maintenance, the less the likelihood of it going wrong.
If your Gent fire alarm system does develop a fault, we offer fast and reliable repair services to get it up and running again as quickly as possible, as well as having a range of spares to ensure that if any part does fail, we can quickly source and fit a replacement to reduce downtime.
Should you choose a Gent fire alarm?
In summary, Honeywell Gent Fire Alarms are a leading provider of fire alarm systems for commercial and industrial buildings, and if you’re looking for an expert team of engineers to help you with the design, installation, maintenance, or repair of your system, then you’re absolutely in the right place.
At WFP, we’ve been in the world of fire alarms for decades, and we’re hugely experienced when it comes to working with Gent fire alarms.
We offer the full range of services you’d expect, from fire alarm maintenance to fire alarm servicing; monitoring through to fire safety training – we see it as our responsibility to help you keep your premises safe, and we’ll work tirelessly to help you achieve that objective.
If you’re looking for help with a Gent fire alarm, whether that’s selecting and implementing a new system, or you need support with your existing system, then WFP Fire and Security can definitely help – give us a call today on 01277 724 653, or email us at help@w-fp.co.uk and we’ll be very happy to help you in any way we can.
