Fusible Link Lifespan

[Chris Chapman]

Digging through the archive here, I'm seeing discussions that fusible links in fire curtain systems should be replaced every 3-5 years. Is that still (or even is) the consensus on this issue? I have a PMI coming up.

 

[egilson1]

The manufactures say 1 year. That being said I've done inspections with links over 20 years old. The issue is as they age the effective temperature they will hold a given weight at is significantly reduced.

 

[Footer]

I've had old ones fail before, causing our firewall to come in. Luckly it happened when the building was empty... but took a bit to realize what had happened when we couldn't take the firewall out the next morning. I've also had cut-lines fail. So, I replace both of those every 5 years. Its cheap and easy to do.