If a facility has 300 standard response pendent sprinklers that are all 50 years old, how many must be removed and sent for testing?

• A. 2
• B. 6
• C. 8
• D. 4

Answer: (D)

Relevance to aging equipment and representative testing: When sprinklers reach the end of their expected life, the chance of corrosion, thread damage, or other hidden issues increases. Codes and best practices call for removing a small, representative sample of heads from a large installation for testing to gauge overall condition without taking the whole system offline. For 300 standard response pendent sprinklers that are 50 years old, a common practice is to remove and send four sprinklers for testing. This minimum sample size provides a practical check on the batch’s integrity and helps decide whether more heads should be replaced, while keeping disruption to the system relatively low.