Complete alarm kits
Monitor, sensor, display and audible alarm as a matched set. The straightforward option where an old unit has failed outright or a cupboard never had one.
Supplied · fitted · calibrated
Fume Cupboard Alarms & Airflow Monitoring
The most frequently replaced item on a fume cupboard. Full alarm kits, sensors and sash actuators, fitted by our own engineers and calibrated on site.
The only part of the cupboard that tells the user something is wrong
A fume cupboard gives almost no warning when its performance drops. Airflow can fall well below the design face velocity while the cupboard looks, sounds and behaves exactly as it always has. The person working at it has no way of knowing.
The monitor is what closes that gap. It measures continuously and alarms when flow drops out of specification, which is why it is the single most important component after the extract itself, and why a monitor that has drifted out of calibration is worse than none at all — it reports safety that is not there.
Monitors are also the item we replace most often. They are electronic, they are switched on permanently, and they age faster than the cupboard around them.
- Detects airflow drops Continuous measurement against the unit's design velocity, catching gradual deterioration as well as sudden failure.
- Warns the person at the sash Audible and visual alarm at the point of use, so the warning reaches whoever is exposed rather than a facilities inbox.
- Flags an unsafe sash height Sash position alarms catch the most common everyday cause of containment loss: a sash left too high.
- Supports the COSHH record A functioning, calibrated monitor is part of demonstrating that control measures are maintained in efficient working order.
What we supply
Full kits, individual components, and the engineer to fit them
Available in different configurations. We will specify against the cupboard you have rather than sell one model for everything.
Sensors & transducers
Replacement sensing elements where the display and wiring are sound. Often the cheapest route back to a working alarm.
Sash actuators & position alarms
Automatic sash actuators, position switches and height alarms, fitted and set to the cupboard’s designated working aperture.
Control panels & interlocks
Panels, switchgear and interlocks that tie the monitor to the extract, so a fault does more than illuminate a light.
Included as standard
Engineering installation
Sensor positioning is the whole job. Put it in the wrong place in the duct or the aperture and the reading is meaningless however good the instrument. Our engineers site it, wire it and prove it.
Recalibration of existing units
Where the monitor is sound but drifting, recalibration is included in a service visit and costs a fraction of replacement.
On-site calibration
A factory calibration does not know your ductwork
Every monitor arrives calibrated. That calibration was performed on a test rig, against clean reference conditions, with none of the things that actually determine airflow in your building.
Your duct run has bends, length, shared manifolds and a fan that has aged. The room has doors, walkways and general ventilation moving air past the aperture. The cupboard sits where the building put it, not where a laboratory designer would have chosen. None of that was in the factory figure.
Calibrating in situ is the only way the alarm threshold corresponds to the real face velocity. Anything else is an instrument reporting confidently about conditions it has never seen.
REAL CONDITIONS
Set against measured face velocity at the working aperture, with the room’s own air movement in play.
CERTIFIED
Detailed calibration certificate issued for your records, referenced to the unit’s asset number.
ANY MAKE
Extensive experience across the monitor types found in UK laboratories, not only the ones we supply.
NATIONWIDE
Our own qualified engineers travelling to your site, so calibration is not a reason to ship equipment away.
Calibration is carried out as part of annual testing or on its own.
Where we fit them
Monitors specified for the setting
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University research lab
Universities
Mixed-age estates where a single monitor type across hundreds of units simplifies training and spares.
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Commercial analytical lab
Laboratories
Contract and analytical labs where a documented calibration trail is part of accreditation.
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Pharmaceutical production
Pharmaceuticals
Validated environments where alarm thresholds and certificates must match the process documentation.
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School science laboratory
Schools & Colleges
Clear, unambiguous displays that a technician or teaching staff can read at a glance and act on.
COSHH requires that control measures are maintained in efficient working order, and BS EN 14175 expects fume cupboards to have a means of indicating that airflow is adequate. In practice, a cupboard in regular use without a working monitor is very difficult to defend.
Not necessarily. It may be a genuine drop in airflow, a sash left too high, or a monitor that has drifted and is alarming at the wrong threshold. All three need measuring to tell apart. Do not silence a persistent alarm and carry on — call us and we will establish which it is.
At every thorough examination, so at least annually. We recalibrate as part of the test visit rather than treating it as a separate job, and after any work that changes the airflow — a new fan, altered ductwork, replaced filters.
Almost always. Retrofitting an alarm to a sound older cupboard is one of the most cost-effective safety improvements available, and considerably cheaper than replacing the unit. We will confirm feasibility from the make, model and duct arrangement.
We will supply to a competent in-house team, but we would advise against it on this particular item. Sensor placement determines whether the reading means anything, and a monitor fitted in the wrong position gives false reassurance that is worse than an obvious fault.
Request a quote
Alarms, monitors and calibration
Tell us the make and model if you know it, or photograph the existing monitor and we will identify what fits.