Do you test fire suppression with the heads in place? I would not think so.

Why not? How do you plan to get all the water out and everything dried out if you took the heads off?

Obviously the heads remain in place... because systems require periodic testing WHILE the space is equipped and furninshed and occupied... not just during the install process. You might want to clarify WHAT you are testing it for?

If this is a wet system, you do a 2" drain test. It is the 2" pipe that goes outside. If you have a central alarm, you call the monitoring company or FD, run the 2" test and then check that the alarm signal indeed made it to the monitoring company. Your insurance company should help you with this. I spent almost 20 years with Travelers Ins engineering and we required all sprinklered buildings to have a 2" test done yearly and documented. If it is a dry system you need to test differently since you don't have water in the piping. If it is a Halon system, you do not test them, only monitor the pressure gauge.

I don't care what type of system you are installing, wet, dry, or halon, etc. you ALWAYS test the main piping system for leaks prior to installing the heads!

You can test using air and that test pressure will be dependent on what your local fire department or fire inspector requires.

After you have confirmed that there are no leaks in the pipe system you can install the heads and do the next test, again, dependent on system (wet, dry, halon, etc.).

Good luck!

Mark

Exactly... I think there are important bits of info left out... like is this a newly installed system or an existing one being retested.