Well like I said, when it goes off, the one that set them off should be flashing, the other ones will not. Once you find out which one did it, you can just replace that individual one. I do that all the time. I usually have 7 or 8 interconnected. I've even gone back after installing them and replacing a bad one out of a batch of 7 or 8 after a few months. Luckily those are easy because you don't need the receipt at Home Depot when you throw it on their credit card, they can just look it up. I just use Kidde because Home Depot is everywhere and they've been stocking that model for years. I change them out all the time when getting smoke certificates for real estate sales and of course my own rentals. You do have to replace them all when they're old and you can no longer find the old ones. That's what happened with FireX alarms I once had, once you wired in a different brand, all the alarms would go off, different signaling by each company.
Smoke Alarm
- Thread starter dkryan
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those arent 3 wire so not interconnected? any should do just change the connector.
Last few I replaced with kidde this style for kitchen hallway and basement with CO detector
https://www.amazon.com/Kidde-KN-COS...029&sprefix=smoke+detector,aps,94&sr=8-6&th=1
Reg non-co smoke detectors
I just use these cheapo kidde.. I never get false alerts except SUPER SENSITIVE to overheated bacon in skillet and occasionally if I have the oven on 425+ after a wife accident I dont notice (oven spill)
https://www.amazon.com/Kidde-i4618A...e+detector+kidde+hardwired+4618,aps,67&sr=8-6
Last few I replaced with kidde this style for kitchen hallway and basement with CO detector
https://www.amazon.com/Kidde-KN-COS...029&sprefix=smoke+detector,aps,94&sr=8-6&th=1
Reg non-co smoke detectors
I just use these cheapo kidde.. I never get false alerts except SUPER SENSITIVE to overheated bacon in skillet and occasionally if I have the oven on 425+ after a wife accident I dont notice (oven spill)
https://www.amazon.com/Kidde-i4618A...e+detector+kidde+hardwired+4618,aps,67&sr=8-6
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I just had to replace a combo smoke/CO the other day. It was a Kidde dated 2013. House was built 2014. Made it 7 years which was the old norm, as Wolf359 said, the new ones are 10 years. $39 at HD I believe. Had a high school classmate and his parents all die from CO from a car left running in the garage. I’ll pay the extra to make sure I have a CO detector on each level.
Those are ionization alarms. Code now calls for photoelectric alarms in my state so that's all I put up these days.
Code also requires carbon monoxide alarms on every level and within 10 feet of a bedroom. If you have two bedrooms right next to each other, you can just put one in the middle and that covers both. Carbon monoxide alarms you used to be able to get for $15 and when you bought those photoelectric alarms in bulk, they were close to $15 so cheaper than an all in one. Plus I always randomly get either a smoke or a carbon go bad on me after just a couple of years so cheaper to just replace an individual alarm than to have to toss a combo. Also a bunch of the ones I install are for real estate sales so I don't worry how it will cost more in batteries. For my own properties, I just use lithium 9v batteries in my smoke alarm so I don't have to change the batteries that often. Even those I find sometimes fail after 2-4 years instead of lasting 10 years, but I've gotten 10+ years out of lithium batteries. Plus I get tenants that will remove the batteries in the alarm, usually only one will go off so they just remove the battery in one, not both. That's the advantage of those 10 year ones, can't remove the battery. I also have carbon monoxide alarms that have lasted well past 7 years because at some point the tenant took out the battery and they only last 7 years while they're powered on, if no power, they last longer...
the photo electric require vacuuming and high false in middle of the night(had a set of those).. wont be using those until they pry mine out of my hands.
IF I do switch to photo electric there is no way I will ever interconnect them.. not much worse than waking upto 5 smoke alarms going off at 2am when you are getting up at 4 or 5 for work.
OTOH is there some new model of photo electric that does not stink?
IF I do switch to photo electric there is no way I will ever interconnect them.. not much worse than waking upto 5 smoke alarms going off at 2am when you are getting up at 4 or 5 for work.
OTOH is there some new model of photo electric that does not stink?
Photoelectric tends to not false alarm as much as ionization which is why they're preferred.
You don't really have a choice in my state, needs to be photoelectric and they need to be interconnected depending on the year built.
Is this installation order correct?
1) Find the circuit breaker for the smoke alarms and turn it off
2) Verify that none of the smoke alarm has green light
3) Remove all the alarms
4) Put adapters on the existing pigtail
5) Hook up all new ones
--- Do they activate as soon as I click them to the ceiling plate?
--- Do they start immediately beeping because they have no AC power (because my breaker is still off?)
6) Turn on the breaker
7) Will they all go nuts?
Or it is better to put all the correct adapters while breaker is off (just as precaution) and then have the breaker turned on without any detector plugged in and then plug in one detector at a time making sure it does NOT go nuts before moving on to next?
1) Find the circuit breaker for the smoke alarms and turn it off
2) Verify that none of the smoke alarm has green light
3) Remove all the alarms
4) Put adapters on the existing pigtail
5) Hook up all new ones
--- Do they activate as soon as I click them to the ceiling plate?
--- Do they start immediately beeping because they have no AC power (because my breaker is still off?)
6) Turn on the breaker
7) Will they all go nuts?
Or it is better to put all the correct adapters while breaker is off (just as precaution) and then have the breaker turned on without any detector plugged in and then plug in one detector at a time making sure it does NOT go nuts before moving on to next?
Well normally I just use one of those non contact voltage testers but yeah in theory it's ok.
https://www.amazon.com/KAIWEETS-Non-Contact-Electrical-Breakpoint-Finder-HT100B/dp/B09FX5GC12
I actually just picked up this voltage meter that also does non contact voltage detection. It was new a few days ago and they were offering 50% off so just about $15 for me, now just 30% off. I guess that's how new stuff gets reviews, gets heavily discounted when they first come out.
https://www.amazon.com/Keeptop-Digital-Multimeter-Counts-Tester/dp/B09KKTP4MW
As for the rest of your order, you have to put the battery in before you hook them up and that's when they're live. But they won't start beeping because there's no ac power, you just won't get a green light. If you did everything correctly, there will be no noise once you turn on the power, the lights will just go green. At that point, I usually test them by pressing the button and making sure that you can kinda hear all the other ones go off. Sometimes when doing smoke certificates, the fireman checks them all in case you were sneaky and didn't interconnect them all.
I usually do the first because I know what I'm doing. If any were to go nuts, you would just look to see which one was flashing red, that would be the bad one. Never actually had that happen to me so far that one was bad out of the box. Like I said, if they went bad later, it was usually months or years later when exposed to dust/insects etc.
If you don't want to be woken up at night by a beeping dead battery, I would suggest getting some lithium 9v batteries on eBay. They usually include some cheap carbon batteries that only last a year or so before they go bad. Regular alkalines can go about 2 years.
I do have non-contact voltage indicators; two of them of different types! Given that I have ordered adapters, so I will NOT be touching any wire nuts and could do all of this live butt to be 100% safe, easier to turn the breaker off.
As long as a disconnected one does NOT cause rest to start beeping (they should NOT) I can re-connect one at a time but I will have to move the ladder twice aka first to disconnect them all and get everything prepared and I will connect each up to live feed one at a time. Still little bit riskier than connecting all while power is off.
As long as a disconnected one does NOT cause rest to start beeping (they should NOT) I can re-connect one at a time but I will have to move the ladder twice aka first to disconnect them all and get everything prepared and I will connect each up to live feed one at a time. Still little bit riskier than connecting all while power is off.
Oh yeah, those adapters are a pain. Should be ok, used them once, sometimes it's a tight fit in the box.
It's pretty straight forward, I would just do each one while the power is off and when they're all set, your final test is to flip the breaker on. They won't beep if the power is just on or off. If you're not changing the pigtails, then you don't even need to shut the power off. I always replace the smoke alarm batteries without shutting off the power but you do have to stuff the extra length back into the box so you should be fine to just shut the power off.
Finally, replaced them all. The adapter plug set for about $20 was worth every penny I paid for them! One electrical box had very little room to squeeze the adapter but I managed it. After the 1st one, I did all other 8 of them live without turning off the breaker.
Also guessed which one was the faulty one as that used to faintly beep every morning and I started with that. First I installed the new one there and with the power off. I did NOT pulled the battery insulator out yet. Then turned the breaker on. It was chirping once every minute; still much better than going nuts!
Once I pulled the battery insulator out, I had stable chain of smoke detectors, one new and others old with nobody complaining. At that time I knew that there was NO wiring fault as I had initially thought and asked about here.
That give me hope and confidence to go after the other eight of them to do old to new swap, one at a time, without turning off the breaker.
Heck, the call I had made to electrician was never returned back and I was willing to pay big bucks to get the monkey off my back. I bet he would have charged at least $100 per detector (probably even more with his mark up etc). With that consideration, NOT having to remove 27 wire nuts and then putting those 27 wire nuts back was easily worth the $20 bucks to me. At this stage in my life, I am willing to pay to minimize hassles.
I highly recommend to stay with the same quick connect plug and if that is not possible, just get a set of adapters.
Thanks all of you who provided the tips on how to tackle this.
Also guessed which one was the faulty one as that used to faintly beep every morning and I started with that. First I installed the new one there and with the power off. I did NOT pulled the battery insulator out yet. Then turned the breaker on. It was chirping once every minute; still much better than going nuts!
Once I pulled the battery insulator out, I had stable chain of smoke detectors, one new and others old with nobody complaining. At that time I knew that there was NO wiring fault as I had initially thought and asked about here.
That give me hope and confidence to go after the other eight of them to do old to new swap, one at a time, without turning off the breaker.
Heck, the call I had made to electrician was never returned back and I was willing to pay big bucks to get the monkey off my back. I bet he would have charged at least $100 per detector (probably even more with his mark up etc). With that consideration, NOT having to remove 27 wire nuts and then putting those 27 wire nuts back was easily worth the $20 bucks to me. At this stage in my life, I am willing to pay to minimize hassles.
I highly recommend to stay with the same quick connect plug and if that is not possible, just get a set of adapters.
Thanks all of you who provided the tips on how to tackle this.
Special thanks to you for virtually helping me out here!
You're welcome. There's actually companies out there that will swap out the smoke alarms to bring the place up to code, I don't think they're too outrageous, a few hundred dollars in the 2 or 3 range I think for the whole job and I think that includes waiting around for the firemen to show up to test the system and the fee plus detectors. I'm not sure if they're electricians but I get their emails sometimes as a real estate broker. One less hassle for a real estate broker to swap out old alarms. At one point some towns were very particular that you get an electrical permit even if all you were doing was changing the pigtails but they seem to have dropped that now.
That DMM is back on sale and I almost bought it but it only goes up to 600mA current measurement. Need Amps for measuring flashlight current.
Most meters only go up to 10 amps and I never use that function anyway. Never tried to check flashlight voltage.
Ive had great luck with Gentex Photoelectric detectors
They're pretty pricey, but they're commercial grade. The amazing thing with them is that you can dunk them in a bucket of soap and water and clean them, at least some of the older models had that. The newer ones are cheaper but still about double the price of a regular Kidde photoelectric detector and they only come with a one year warranty. I only see Gentex in higher end condos. Most residential condos are typically Kidde or 1st Alert or BRK, basically the residential grade stuff.
https://jmacfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/9000_Series_Manual.pdf
That was what I was expecting i.e. 10 amps limit instead of 600 mA limit. What is peculiar about this DMM is that it uses different terminal for all current measurement. Most meters use standard voltage/ohm/current port up to an amp but use different port for over 1 amp.
Adapters are pretty lame. Two or three wire nuts to attach the new adapter that comes with the smoke alarm is super easy.
When I change the batteries yearly, I wrote down the manufacture date on the smoke alarm. I added that to my house maintenance spreadsheet. That way I know to replace the smoke alarms every ten years on schedule.
I tried the ten year lithium battery only (not hard wired) smoke detectors a few years ago and they lasted 18-24 months before the batteries died. I will never buy those again. Trash.
When I change the batteries yearly, I wrote down the manufacture date on the smoke alarm. I added that to my house maintenance spreadsheet. That way I know to replace the smoke alarms every ten years on schedule.
I tried the ten year lithium battery only (not hard wired) smoke detectors a few years ago and they lasted 18-24 months before the batteries died. I will never buy those again. Trash.
I am trying to find hardwired & interconnected ones that also communicate with Samsung SmartThings. Not sure that exists. Halo made some a few years ago and then went out of business.
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