Alarm reset (alarm triangle with a return arrow)
The standard’s wording, as the sources below reproduce it:
“To identify the control by means of which the alarm circuit can be reset to its initial state.”
IEC 60417-5309 · IEC 60601-1-8 alarm systems
What it means for you
This is the key (or screen button) that resets the alarm system, and on a monitor screen it shows that alarms have been reset. What a reset does is up to the device: in Mindray’s monitor manual, resetting silences the sound and marks current alarms as acknowledged, while an alarm whose cause is still there keeps showing. Resetting does not fix the cause.
Whether a device is right for you is a question for your pharmacist, nurse or doctor.
- What it looks like
- The alarm triangle with its sound arc, and on its left an arrow pointing back to a small dot, joined to a line that runs down into the triangle.
- Where you see it
- On the alarm-reset key of patient monitors and central stations, and in the alarm area of the screen after a reset. IEC 60417 calls it “alarm system clear”; monitor makers label it Alarm Reset.
- Other names
- alarm system clear; reset alarms; alarm acknowledge; alarm reset key
What it does not tell you
It does not say the problem that set off the alarm has gone. Which alarms a reset clears, and for how long, is in the device’s instructions.
Often confused with
To indicate an alarm on a control equipment.
More symbols in “An alarm triangle or a bell”
Sources
IEC 60417 and IEC 60601-1 are paid standards, so the wording above is quoted as 2 publishers’ public documents reproduce it; our drawing is not the IEC artwork. Each was fetched and read on the date shown:
- Hillrom: Symbols Glossary (80022945 Ver. J) — Row “Alarm system clear — To identify the control by means of which the alarm circuit can be reset to its initial state.”, IEC 60417-5309, drawn as the alarm triangle with an arrow back to a dot. Checked 2026-09-28.
- Mindray: iPM 12/iPM 10/iPM 8/iPM 7/iPM 6/iPM 5 Patient Monitor Operator’s Manual — Section 1.2 “Equipment Symbols” shows the same drawing labelled “Alarm Reset”; section 7.3.5 says it “indicates alarms are reset”. Checked 2026-09-28.
Plain-language parts are in our own words; quotations are the sources’ wording.