The Weekly and Monthly Smoke Vent Test: What to Do and Record

A caretaker with a test key, a panel on the wall and no written instruction on what “finished” looks like. That is the routine test in a lot of buildings. The maintenance contract covers the 6-monthly and annual visits, the fire risk assessment says routine testing is in place, and somewhere in between sits a weekly and monthly job nobody has ever set down properly.

This is the step-by-step version: who is allowed to do it, what happens and in what order, what a pass actually looks like, and what goes in the logbook so the entry still means something two years later. For the frequency question on its own, Smoke Control Inspection Schedules covers every interval from daily to annual.

Who Is Allowed to Run the Routine Test

Three roles do this work, and they are not interchangeable.

The nominated person does the daily check. They are nominated by the building representative, trained on the system in that building, and responsible for looking at the panel, reporting faults and keeping basic records. No electrical qualification is needed. A concierge, caretaker or estate officer covers this.

The competent person does the weekly, monthly and 3-monthly work. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 defines a competent person as someone with sufficient training and experience, or knowledge and other qualities, to assist properly in undertaking preventative and protective measures. SCA guidance puts a sharper edge on it: they must have sufficient training on the layout of the system installed in the building they are inspecting. Generic fire safety awareness training does not get you there. Somebody has to have walked them round that building and shown them the zones, the vents, the air inlet, the panel and the cause and effect.

The competent maintainer does the 6-monthly service, and an SDI 19 certified organisation does the annual. Flow rate measurement, cause and effect verification against the original design, battery testing, actuator condition, cable inspection. Different skill set, different equipment, and out of scope for site staff.

The dividing line cuts both ways. A building that only gets the twice-yearly visit has no routine testing regime at all, and a competent person running weekly tests is no substitute for the periodic service however diligent they are. Who Is Responsible for Smoke Ventilation Maintenance? sets out how the duties sit together.

The Weekly Test Is a Functional Test

Here is the most common misreading of the guidance. Daily is the visual check: the panel shows a clear indication of normal operation and the fire alarm system is active, and that is it. Weekly is where the system actually gets operated. Plenty of buildings run it the other way round, with a weekly glance at the panel and a functional test once a month, and that regime sits below what BS 9999, BS 7346-8 and the SCA guidance all describe.

You are not testing the whole building every week. BS 9999 Annex I, quoted in the SCA maintenance guidance, has the actuation of all zones simulated at least once every three months, with tests run each week. That gives you a rotating schedule. The SCA’s worked example runs 1 zone per week in a 1 to 5 storey building, 2 zones per week up to 10 storeys, 3 per week up to 15 and 4 per week up to 20. Count zones, not floors. A single floor can contain more than one zone, and the arithmetic only works if you start from the zone schedule.

The sequence for one zone:

1. Check the panel first. Look at the smoke control status panels and the firefighter switches for fault indication before you touch anything. Testing on top of an existing fault muddies the result and can mask a second problem.
2. Check what else the test will move. If the smoke control system is interfaced with the fire alarm, door access, lifts or a BMS, an assessment of the effect on those systems should have been done and written into the test procedure. Smoke ventilation that also runs corridor environmental ventilation is the usual complication.
3. Actuate the zone as the system provider recommends. For most residential systems that is a test key or test switch at the panel. Some designs want the input simulated at the detector or the manual point instead, which is a decision for the system provider, not for the person holding the key.
4. Watch and listen. Dampers for the triggered zone open, natural exhaust ventilators open, smoke curtains move into position, fans run. Can you see or hear the vents and dampers moving? Can you hear the fan? Any unusual noise? Has the air inlet, whether that is a vent, window or door, opened as well as the exhaust? On a shaft system, is there air movement towards and into the shaft through the damper?
5. Reset and confirm standby. Fans off, dampers and vents fully closed, panel back to a healthy display with no residual fault. A test is not complete until the system is back in its standby state.
6. Read the logbook before you close it. Any fault recorded previously and still open gets chased. If a fault is compromising system performance, the building representative reviews the fire risk assessment and acts on it.

What the Monthly Test Adds

Monthly is the weekly test plus a physical inspection and a power supply test. The functional side does not change.

The physical inspection covers the rooftop equipment and the panels: debris ingress, wear, corrosion, tampering, signs of vermin, overgrown vegetation, combustible material stored where it should not be, anything obstructing a vent. This is the check that catches the pigeon nest, the scaffold tie through the vent, the new satellite dish and the bags of rubbish on the roof.

Door hold-open devices on the system get tested once a month by simulating mains power failure or by operating the fire detection and alarm system. On mechanical systems, duty and standby fans should each total 20 minutes of run time over the month, which can be a single test run or accumulated across several.

The power supply test is the one people skip, and it is the one that finds real problems. Simulate failure of the primary supply and run the system on its secondary supply. For mechanical and pressure differential systems the SCA guidance runs that for at least one hour. Where the secondary supply is a standby generator, check the fuel tank holds enough for 72 hours of standby operation plus 3 hours at full load, top it up, and check the generator controls for fault indications. Where it is a UPS, check the UPS controls for fault indications. At the end, confirm every supply has been restored to its standby position.

For high-rise residential buildings in England, the monthly check is not optional practice. Regulation 7 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 requires monthly routine checks of essential fire-fighting equipment, and regulation 6(7) lists smoke control systems among key fire-fighting equipment. Regulation 7 defines a routine check as one confirming the equipment is in efficient working order and in good repair, carried out in accordance with the relevant industry standard or the manufacturer’s recommendations in the operator’s manual. That last clause is why the O&M manual matters: it is part of the legal test, not background reading.

What to Look For While It Runs

A pass is not “it moved”. Six things separate a genuine pass from a test that gets signed off and fails four months later.

Partial opening. The vent starts, then stops short. Common causes are an actuator reaching the end of its useful life, a stroke length that has drifted out of adjustment, a hinge or restrictor binding, or ice and debris. A vent that opens to two thirds of its travel is not delivering its design free area, and free area is the number the fire strategy relies on. Anything short of the full open position is a fail, not an observation.

Slow operation. Actuators degrade before they seize. If a vent that used to take 30 seconds now takes 60, nothing has failed yet but something is going. Recording the opening time each test turns a vague impression into evidence, and it is the cheapest early warning available. If your logbook has no field for it, add one.

Fault LEDs and fault codes. Note the exact indication, not “fault light on”. Line fault, actuator fault, battery fault, detector fault and comms fault send an engineer to completely different places. On an addressable panel, record the device address as well.

Battery indication. A panel showing a battery fault should never be left as a diary item. The standby supply is what runs the system when the mains goes, which is exactly what a fire can do to a building’s power. Panel batteries are also on a clock independent of any fault indication: SCA guidance has them no more than three years from the date of manufacture unless the manufacturer’s datasheet says otherwise, replaced and labelled with the installation date if they are undated.

Reset behaviour. A system that operates but will not return cleanly to standby is a fault in its own right. Vents left cracked open cause water ingress and wind damage, and a panel sitting in an activated state is not monitoring anything.

Anything that changed since last time. New noise, a different smell from a fan, a vent that used to be quiet and now bangs. Site staff running the same test every week are the only people who will ever notice this. It is the single biggest advantage routine testing has over the periodic service, and it only works if there is somewhere to write it down.

What a Defensible Record Looks Like

“AOV tested, OK” is not a record. It proves nothing about which zone was tested, by whom, against what criterion, or whether anything was found.

The example logbook in the SCA guidance, based on Figure C1 of BS 7346-8:2013, uses these fields: date, nature of works (planned maintenance or call out), engineer or tester name, activation cause with the location or device reference, whether system operation was satisfactory, signature, remedial action required, date remedial works were completed, and a second signature against that completion. Add the time of the test, because Regulation 7 record keeping and the SCA guidance both ask for date and time, and add the specific zones covered so the 3-monthly full coverage can be proved by reading back through the entries.

The front of the logbook should carry the building address, the building representative and their contact details, the system type and what it covers including linked systems, useful contacts such as the competent maintainer and managing agent, the location and function of the controls and override controls, a list of installed components and a system schematic. One record log per system.

Two failures show up repeatedly in real logbooks. The first is a run of consecutive “satisfactory” entries with no zone references, which cannot demonstrate that every zone was covered in three months. The second is a fault entry with no closing entry, which reads as a fault that was found and then ignored, whatever actually happened. The 6-monthly service includes a logbook review to confirm regular user checks have been done and that recorded faults got attention, so both gaps end up on the maintainer’s report.

For high-rise residential buildings, the record of the monthly checks must also be made accessible to the residents of the building. That changes how it should be written. Assume a resident will read it.

On retention, no single statutory period exists for smoke control test records, and anyone quoting one as law is guessing. Three overlapping expectations do exist. Regulation 7 requires the record of monthly checks to be made and kept accessible to residents, with no stated expiry. The Building Safety Act 2022 golden thread expects information about a higher-risk building to stay available and current for the life of the building, which effectively rules out disposal. And the civil limitation period for claims is six years, so older records stop being useful evidence in most disputes without becoming worthless. A workable policy: current logbook on site and accessible, the last six years archived somewhere retrievable, and commissioning, handover and asset documentation kept permanently. Golden Thread and Smoke Ventilation covers how the routine test record feeds the wider building safety case.

The Routine Test Checklist

Print this, or rebuild it in whatever system you use. W marks weekly, M marks the additional monthly items.

Zones on a rotating schedule: 1 per week up to 5 storeys, 2 up to 10, 3 up to 15, 4 up to 20, so that every zone is covered within three months. Adjust to the actual zone count, and take the system provider’s schedule for anything complex.

When the Test Fails

The SCA guidance uses three outcomes, and the distinction matters. A pass is a pass. An advisory means the system is functional but issues have been identified that may affect performance within 12 months. A fail means the system does not achieve the required performance criteria in any single smoke zone, and therefore cannot do its job in that building.

One zone is enough. A 12-storey block where 11 zones work perfectly and the 8th floor damper will not close is a failed system, not a system with a minor defect.

On a routine test the immediate actions are: log it with the detail set out above, report it to the maintenance provider, and if the fault compromises system performance, get the fire risk assessment reviewed and act on the outcome. For high-rise residential buildings, a fault that cannot be rectified within 24 hours of being identified must be reported to the local fire and rescue authority by electronic means under Regulation 7, and the rectification reported once it is done. Twenty-four hours from identification, not from when someone got round to raising a job.

Interim measures are a judgement call based on the nature of the fault, the building and the fire risk assessment, and they run until the remedial work is complete. Our Smoke Ventilation System Failed Its Last Test. What Now? works through that decision in full, including documentation, root cause diagnosis and re-test.

Where Remote Testing Changes the Job

Networked panels can run and log parts of this automatically, which changes who does the work rather than what the work is. The O Range platform’s Vent Net full monitoring service includes a monthly testing mode that runs the monthly function test remotely and logs it automatically, along with a 6-month test that can be run remotely, event notification within seconds, and off-site access to all logs and tests.

Two honest limits on that. Remote actuation proves the panel commanded the vent and that position feedback reported back. It does not prove there is no pigeon nest on the roof, that the vent reached its full free area, that the intumescent seal is intact, or that somebody has not stacked cardboard against the inlet louvre. The physical inspection part of the monthly check still needs someone on site with eyes on the equipment.

And automated logging removes the excuse for a thin record, not the responsibility for one. The duty under article 17 and Regulation 7 sits with the responsible person either way. What remote testing genuinely fixes is consistency: tests that happen whether or not the caretaker is on leave, logged in a format nobody can lose.

Practical Takeaway

Write the procedure down for your building, with the zone schedule attached, and make sure the person holding the test key has been trained on that specific system rather than on smoke ventilation in general. Run the functional test weekly on a rotating zone schedule that covers everything within three months, and add the physical inspection and the secondary power test monthly. Record the zone reference, the time, the opening behaviour and the exact fault indication, rather than a tick. Treat any vent that does not reach full open, any system that will not reset cleanly, and any single failed zone as a failure of the system. And if the building is a high-rise residential block in England, put a 24 hour clock on every fault from the moment it is identified.

Further Reading

• Smoke Control Inspection Schedules: Daily to Annual
• Our Smoke Ventilation System Failed Its Last Test. What Now?
• Who Is Responsible for Smoke Ventilation Maintenance?
• How to Build a Smoke Control Asset Register
• Smoke ventilation glossary
• Remote Monitoring for Smoke Control: What It Can’t Replace
• Battery Backup for AOV Systems: Sizing, Testing and Replacement

Sources

Official guidance and standards referenced in this article:

• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, article 17, legislation.gov.uk
• Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, regulation 7, legislation.gov.uk
• Check your fire safety responsibilities under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, GOV.UK
• SCA Guidance on Maintenance of Smoke Control Equipment (PDF)
• Smoke Control Association
• Fire Safety England Regulations 2022, London Fire Brigade

Need a Panel That Makes the Routine Test Easier?

Clear status indication, readable fault codes and a straightforward test function turn the weekly job from a guessing game into a two-minute task. We supply smoke control panels and AOV controls with UK stock in Poole and next-working-day despatch on most lines, and our technical team can talk through what a legacy panel is and is not telling your site staff.

Call 01202 725 689 or email info@vent-trade.co.uk.