We have a Kiddie KN-COSM-1B smoke detector. Of the past few months since the basement rebuild we have slowly been replacing our old hardwired alarms with the Kiddie models. The Kiddie model has CO/Smoke detector built in. They are apporximately $50 at HD each.
Today I went to replace the third smoke alarm near the attic room, when all the alarms went off. I removed the new alarm, but could not get it to stop beeping and saying "Fire, Fire." I can only shut it up by taking the battery up. When I put the battery back in it continues to beep. At this point it is not connected to any AC, just the battery. This happens will all 3 of the Kiddie alarms. The last remaining regular AC alarm is not beeping or making any noise.
Would could be wrong, how can I shut the alarms up and put them back? The batteries are new, as are the detectors.
AS STATED IN THE DIRECTIONS SHEET, smoke and CO alarms are NOT sold as lifesaving devices. Read the small print. The companies (Kidde in particular) states that 35% of the units will fail to detect smoke. Per National Fire statistics, it is more like 55%.
They are not subject to some rules, as they are all made outside of the US because they contain a very small amount of radioactive materials. This gives them huge loopholes to drive their Corporate Cadillacs through. If you notice, you will see MANY stories of smoke alarms that failed to go off, or see film of melted detectors. It's a travesty. And it costs human lives. And generally, they will blame the family with two toasted tots for not changing the batteries. It happens every day somewhere in the US.
Toss those Kidde alarms and get some real alarms. I just did four houses of mine for just under $7,000 with MasterGuard smoke, heat, and CO detectors. The company makes the units in Texas, and are based on a different principle than the radioactive ones. They use photoelectric principles. They also have fusible links to sense heat. They are guaranteed for life, and can be washed by dipping into soapy water whenever the clean beep pattern is heard.
Their claim to fame is that they detect a slow smoldering fire very easily, whereas the Kidde and others will only detect a heavy smoke fire. On a slow smoldering fire, you just die from lack of oxygen, or pass out, and that's it.
Kidde alarms and every other one you can buy at the Borg stores are pieces of shit, and they say so in their own brochures. If the failure rate is only 35% as they say, you might get two out of three good ones. OR, you might get three out of three bad ones out of the fifty in the box. But who reads the fine print?
How much is your life worth? Or your children's?
Two things to try. First make sure that your power connections are good and tight. Twist the wires together with pliers before twisting on the wire connectors. Second, with the smoke detector disconnected from the power source, remove the battery. Push and hold the test button for about 30 seconds. Try this with all of them.
The smoke alarms must be compatible with one another. They should all be the same make and model.
Just as a note, in real life many lives have been saved by smoke detectors. I would agree that many should be better, then the price would go up and fewer would be sold. Life has tradeoffs.
As for the two basic types of sensors, they both have advantages. The best advice is to understand both and use the one or both where they will provide the best warnings.
When I moved into my 1950 something house I wire for interlinked smoke detectors and I to used kiddie as that was what the company I worked for used and I assumed it was good, since we put them in a $16mil home. But what I noticed was that at random times ex. in the middle of the night, in the middle of a movie, when guests where over... you know the good times it would just randomly tell me of a fire. This became a huge nuisance so I decided to remove them one by one to see if I could locate the bad one, but I guess there wasn't a bad one there was 5 bad ones. My solution I found was to replace every last one of them with firex brand smokies and poof fixed. Bottom line I lost lots of hours of sleep being scared out of bed for a faulty product that they wouldn't say was bad.
-Lucas Lucas Electric, LLC
If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. - Abe Lincoln
When I moved into my 1950 something house I wire for interlinked smoke detectors and I to used kiddie as that was what the company I worked for used and I assumed it was good, since we put them in a $16mil home. But what I noticed was that at random times ex. in the middle of the night, in the middle of a movie, when guests where over... you know the good times it would just randomly tell me of a fire. This became a huge nuisance so I decided to remove them one by one to see if I could locate the bad one, but I guess there wasn't a bad one there was 5 bad ones. My solution I found was to replace every last one of them with firex brand smokies and poof fixed. Bottom line I lost lots of hours of sleep being scared out of bed for a faulty product that they wouldn't say was bad.
-Lucas Lucas Electric, LLC
If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. - Abe Lincoln
When I moved into my 1950 something house I wire for interlinked smoke detectors and I to used kiddie as that was what the company I worked for used and I assumed it was good, since we put them in a $16mil home. But what I noticed was that at random times ex. in the middle of the night, in the middle of a movie, when guests where over... you know the good times it would just randomly tell me of a fire. This became a huge nuisance so I decided to remove them one by one to see if I could locate the bad one, but I guess there wasn't a bad one there was 5 bad ones. My solution I found was to replace every last one of them with firex brand smokies and poof fixed. Bottom line I lost lots of hours of sleep being scared out of bed for a faulty product that they wouldn't say was bad.
-Lucas Lucas Electric, LLC
If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe. - Abe Lincoln
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