Before you buy
Automist is designed to be easily installed in the vast majority of Kitchens. Installation requires an electrician with part P electrical certification. Power supply connection to the pump must be supplied by an independent circuit with no RCD protection (Grade E for fire alarm systems in Dwellings).
In order to ensure the system is compatible with your kitchen setup you must check:
- how your monobloc tap is fixed (front or rear stud)
- that there is space on your sink or work surface (63 mm x 90 mm)
- the size and configuration of your room (up to 80m3 volume)
- the detection system (connection to a heat alarm or a fire panel)
Automist has been designed to be compatible with the vast majority of monobloc taps (45 – 60 mm diameter base) that fit into a standard 35 mm sink or work surface hole. There are a few designs which are not compatible. These are the taps that have more than 2 water inlets, a reduced 25mm feed hole or have separate feeds through the sink, such as bridge, pillar or deck designs. Monobloc taps generally have two different layouts, either a front or a rear stud configuration:
Automist is compatible with either configuration but the specific layout must be selected during the purchasing process. The system is also suitable for taps which have two studs, instead of one, at either the front or the back.
Automist fits into a standard 35 mm hole. The mist head has an enlarged base and therefore requires a small flat area (63 mm x 92.5 mm) around the 35mm hole so that the base of the head mates neatly with the sink or worktop. Click here to download a 1:1 scale of the footprint of Automist. When selecting a contoured sink, the cut-out footprint can be very useful when choosing a suitable sink model or verifying compatibility with a current sink.
Automist can protect rooms of up to 80m3 (for example 8m x 4m x 2.5m).
Certain room layouts require door closers to complement the system. Draughts through doors and/or windows can hinder the effectiveness of Automist by dragging the mist away from the fire. To maximise the effectiveness of Automist, the following conditions must be satisfied:
- The room where Automist is installed must not have more than one permanent opening which might be left open during a fire. This single opening must be door-sized or smaller and can be a door, a window, or a set of adjacent windows. If for example a kitchen has a door and a window, the door must be fitted with a suitable door closer.
- Automist must either be within a 4m range of the single room opening or within a 4m range of the most distant possible fire location in the room, or both.
- In scenarios where doors are kept open for ventilation or in areas where people are frequently passing through, door retainers should also be installed to ensure that the door is closed in case of fire and to prevent people propping open fire doors with bins, extinguishers or wedges.
Examples:
Automist can be installed and integrated with a number of detection methods:
- In a kitchen that already has a heat alarm: Heat alarms in kitchens are only required if the risk of fires (and their potential consequence) require them. Sheltered accommodation for example, generally requires heat alarms in kitchens. If present, these heat alarms are mains powered and interconnected to the smoke alarms in the other spaces of the house. The Automist standard kit's control unit can be linked to the heat alarm in the kitchen. This connection can either be wired (a 230V AC connection to the alarm) or wireless, by connecting a wireless base to the alarm and a wireless relay to the Automist control unit. When activated by an alarm, Automist will latch on and run for 30 minutes unless cancelled. Caution is required to make sure that Automist is connected only to the kitchen heat alarm. For example, it is important that a smoke alarm sounding elsewhere in the house not trigger Automist.
- In a kitchen which is part of a complete detection and alarm system with heat and smoke detectors and a control panel, typical in new large homes requiring a Grade B LD3 or grade A LD2 system. Automist can also be connected to a conventional detection and alarm system, acting as just another actuator in the system. The control unit has a 9-24V DC input line for use with fire alarm panels. Automist draws a quiescent current in monitoring status and in alarm status so that it can be easily integrated with and monitored by the alarm systems common in HMOs, student accommodation and sheltered housing.
- In a kitchen with no existing heat alarm. Plumis also offers a complete kit with wired or wireless communication between alarm/detector and Automist for kitchens with no pre-installed heat alarm. This kit includes a heat alarm and a wired or wireless relay base that inputs to Automist’s control unit. It is also possible to add a wireless manual call point to this kit; this allows manual activation from a convenient location such as an exit route.
Plumis recommends the use of mains powered heat alarms with back-up batteries since they significantly increase the reliability of the detection system. With a battery-only heat alarm, battery depletion while a home is unoccupied could stop Automist from being activated in the event of a fire. The full wireless kit is recommended in cases where installing a wired alarm causes unacceptable disruption and where the dwelling is normally occupied and properly maintained, such as many sheltered homes.
