DorGards in residential care homes

[BB]

Hi

I've recently carried out an FRA of a two storey residential care home with  25 bedrooms. Residents have varying degrees of mobility.

All fire doors to bedrooms, cross-corridor doors and stairway enclosures are fitted with DorGard devise.

Having read BS7273-4: 2015 Annex A I know all other fire doors will require the fitting of electrically powered free-swing door closers interlinked to the fire alarm system Category A.


Table B.1 Selection of category of actuation for release of self-closing fire doors (2 of 2)

8. Any other locations, including (but not limited to) fire doors to rooms


My question is this can the bedroom fire doors still keep Dorgard devices fitted as this appears to be the recommendation in Table B.1 above.

Am I correct in my assumption, in anticipation many thanks

[AnthonyB]

In a perfect world you'd have swing free closers throughout, but in the lower budget end of the care market with older buildings it's not uncommon to see them as an achievable alternative in place of the existing situation of the doors having a standard closer/no closer/always wedged.

I've one older home where the cross corridor, compartment and stair head doors were direct magnetic hold opens, but the rooms were DorGards.

The benchmark guidance says that indirect devices should only be used if the FRA can justify it and that they shouldn't be used for single stairway or critical MoE uses. In my example, taking all factors into account I said the dorgards were OK in the immediate term but that they should aspire to gradually upgrade to direct category swing free closers. As well as the fire safety issues many residents like the doors open a little bit rather than all or nothing.

[colin todd]

Bedroom doors ok.  Not staircase doors.

[BB]

Thanks Antony and Colin for your feedback. These were my views also

[Fire Monkey]

Hi. I can't remember exactly where I read it but I understand new guidance came out concerning such 'sonic' devices in sleeping accommodation. The concern with them is that should a sounder/bell fail then the devise may not 'hear' the alarm and the door may not close. Personally I am not keen on these devises for sleeping accommodation - particularly when the occupants are higher risk. The trouble is that they rely on batteries and staff to change them. Also the door plates, which the bolt secures into, are often missing or do not secure the bolt well.  Other issues include broken battery covers - if not fitted or damaged the units might not work. Compared to mag releases (connected to the fire alarm) they are more fragile devises. I would now only recommend fitting these in lower risk non sleeping accommodation. If already fitted in such environment I would I would want to be a robust maintenance regime in place. At Fire Stations they cause issues because the 'callout' system closes the fire doors in the fire offices faces as they rush to the pump (as the units think the sound if the fire alarm). Question - do you know if the fire alarm servicing company is checking these devices every quarter (or what ever) and are staff doing the same on the weekly fire alarm test?

[David Rooney]

For info we've been using a wired over door unit lately that allows free swing but has an "anti slam" feature that is good for care homes etc as it can save fingers and mishaps .....

[Tom W]

All good points.

Just to address the observations about Dorgard, we now have Dorgard Pro which has a radio transmitter wired to the CIE. So they don't "listen" for any fire alarm. Just trigger off fire or fault

That gives us guaranteed 5 year battery life and we have recently carried out a mold tool change so battery lids are stronger.

The Dorgard Pro series is only available to installers so a care home would have to ask their local fire safety company to install and maintain it.

In terms of achieving EN1155 it knocks spots off the requirements.

http://www.fireco.uk/products/dorgard-pro/

Apologies if this sounds like an advert, just addressing the objections and how we've overcome them.

[Golden]

Interestingly there is no reference to BS 7273-4 in the on-line literature and the company is using a 16 year old BS/EN standard with no explanation of the criteria to test their product; I believed that Dorgards conformed to category ?B?; and a category 'A' hold open device was required for sleeping risks?

[colin todd]

Not for the bedrooms, Silver.

[ahmedh]

standard dorgards are cat B. They used to put the category on the literature. I have a boxed one on my desk which says cat B on it.

Potentially the pro could achieve class A as table 1 of 7273-4 g) with regards to radio controlled however I would have thought it would be on the literature if it did.

This is not an advert either 

[Tom W]

standard dorgards are cat B. They used to put the category on the literature. I have a boxed one on my desk which says cat B on it.

Potentially the pro could achieve class A as table 1 of 7273-4 g) with regards to radio controlled however I would have thought it would be on the literature if it did.

This is not an advert either 

It is but we are trying to do something different with the Pro series so its only available to installers who we have met and trained. They then get data sheets, difficulty is the Transmitters are able to be acoustic (but far in advance of Dorgard), or wired to CIE so the categories differ

Golden - EN1155 is still the correct standard to be tested to for Fire Door Retainers. We do give advice on testing but also build in self tests into all of our products.

[nearlythere]

standard dorgards are cat B. They used to put the category on the literature. I have a boxed one on my desk which says cat B on it.

Potentially the pro could achieve class A as table 1 of 7273-4 g) with regards to radio controlled however I would have thought it would be on the literature if it did.

This is not an advert either 

So what Category is the ?Pro? Tom?


It is but we are trying to do something different with the Pro series so its only available to installers who we have met and trained. They then get data sheets, difficulty is the Transmitters are able to be acoustic (but far in advance of Dorgard), or wired to CIE so the categories differ

Golden - EN1155 is still the correct standard to be tested to for Fire Door Retainers. We do give advice on testing but also build in self tests into all of our products.

[Tom W]

The Pro system is able to be Critical Category (A)

Only when used in conjunction with the Transmitter in wired mode though.