Thanks! That connector looks pretty darn close too.
Smoke detectors and time change.
- Thread starter Rat407
- Start date
Thanks! That connector looks pretty darn close too.
One potential reason your smoke detectors aren't giving any warnings is they may be dead. Or the batteries may have been removed.
We have hard wired smoke detectors that have batteries. We replace the batteries every 18 months or so.
We replaced our 2 hard wired smoke detectors with Kidde brand units a few years ago. One is a smoke detector and the one near our (for use in prolonged power failures) wood stove is a combined smoke and carbon monoxide detector. They may have been original - hard to say.
Our house was built in 1987.
I use a BRK AC-plus-battery unit with voice. So it'll go beep-beep-beep, "Fire in the Hallway", beep-beep-beep. Wife got mad that the old one (of several in house) started chirping its end-of-life siren song and she couldn't figure out which one it was so she ran around upstairs disabling all of them. 
Hopefully the voice location thing works also when the batteries die.
Hopefully the voice location thing works also when the batteries die.
FIRE FIRE FIRE .... FIRE FIRE FIRE Carbon monoxide detected.
That's the self test along with the screeching.
All mine are hardwired + battery. at 10 years they beep.. just buy new ones same line and they usually plug in.
or use one of the adapters.
These were the 5 I bought as replacements
The bottom one was a mistake(CO only despite description) I had to send it back
.. IIRC I also bought one at home depot (5 in house)
That's the self test along with the screeching.
All mine are hardwired + battery. at 10 years they beep.. just buy new ones same line and they usually plug in.
or use one of the adapters.
These were the 5 I bought as replacements
The bottom one was a mistake(CO only despite description) I had to send it back
.. IIRC I also bought one at home depot (5 in house)We just replace all the batteries if one dies. Saves getting woken up 2 nights/weeks/months later when the next one dies. They always die at night.I use a BRK AC-plus-battery unit with voice. So it'll go beep-beep-beep, "Fire in the Hallway", beep-beep-beep. Wife got mad that the old one (of several in house) started chirping its end-of-life siren song and she couldn't figure out which one it was so she ran around upstairs disabling all of them.
Hopefully the voice location thing works also when the batteries die.
Nope. Carbon monoxide is not heavier than air. It is 3% lighter and is so close it mixes freely. The reason the detectors are often close to the ground is the convenience of a wall plugin.
Now add French to that and report back!FIRE FIRE FIRE .... FIRE FIRE FIRE Carbon monoxide detected.
That's the self test along with the screeching.
All mine are hardwired + battery. at 10 years they beep.. just buy new ones same line and they usually plug in.
or use one of the adapters.
These were the 5 I bought as replacements
The bottom one was a mistake(CO only despite description) I had to send it back
View attachment 328166
None of ours have replaceable batteries.
I was a resident of the Hoosier state for over fifty years. To time my spring/fall oil changes, I'd do them at race time (Indy 500) and the weekend of the Old Oaken Bucket football game (Purdue v Indiana).
The 10 year battery ones cost less than an old fashioned detector and the 9 battery changes it will require.
You may still have 120v power on those wires, so be careful if you do end up having to splice them. Don't want to get bit when you're not expecting it!!
As I went down this rabbit hole I found that they are now making wirelessly-interconnected smoke alarms, rather than the wire-interconnected ones. This is allowed by the newest version of UL 217. I think @97prizm was alluding to this in an earlier post. Kind of cool and I might actually do this when my smoke alarms expire (I think I have 2 more years): https://www.homedepot.com/p/X-SENSE...-Light-2-Pack-SC07-W-SC07-W/340949050#overlay
I was responding to SShooterz.
I am not sure if it was a requirement, but I bought a home built in 2007 that had these smoke detectors which were interconnected with wires. I assume that means it was part of UL 217 by that time (since electric code requires using only UL-listed devices). However it looks like the newest versions of UL 217 allow for wireless interconnection of devices (see link above)
The issue is when one dies, it pings one half-second ping every three minutes, or something annoying. You have to be within line of sight to figure out which one it is. I don't want to disable the entire household, either, if one goes bad.
Hopefully it blurts out "hallway low battery."
I have spare batteries, but there are other faults that can shut these things down... or make them beep.
When the battery of either one fails, they both start making noise - one beeping and the other talking. I just replace both batteries to get it over with. And it's always in the middle of the night.
Although they're the same brand they have completely different battery installations. With one you access it from the front and (in theory) don't have to take it down. I say in theory because I always have a bit of trouble figuring it out, being overhead, in the middle of the night, with a tricky "battery in place" arm that gets in the way, with small print as to which end of the batteries is positive, etc. It takes a couple of AA batteries. Sometimes it's easier to just take it down. The other one has to be taken down because battery access is from the back and it's set up so you have to remove a (hard to remove) connector that keeps the battery compartment cover closed. It takes a rectangular 9 Volt battery.
All this while they're loudly beeping and talking. And did I mention this always happens in the middle of the night.
Batteries for me seem to go 3+ years
Here’s a couple of shots of mine. They are Kidde smoke and carbon monoxide, with 10 tear batteries and were wired in with plug and play pigtails.
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