Disable leg of gang-trip smoke detectors

[Chris Lewis]

Situation: Found out that the home builder had put in AC smoke detectors that weren't gang-trip. I installed new gang-trip ones, and decided to put another in the detached garage.

Gang-trip 3-wire type (hot, neutral and trigger).

Occasionally, work in the garage (soldering something, starting the lawn tractor etc) will set off the garage alarm which immediately fires up the others... Annoys the rest of the family no end.

Suboptimal.

Been thinking of putting a switch into the garage alarm's supply feed.

Ideally, it'd be a normally-closed timer that when "enabled", it'd disable the garage alarm and gang trip feeding the other alarms until the timer ran out.

Has anybody else done something like this? Suggestions?

I could put a double-pole switch in (to cut the hot and neutral), or even a single-pole (just cutting the hot should work), but these are battery backup units, so I suspect that wouldn't work...

So maybe the best I can do is disable the gang-trip with a switch. Are there any cheap "normally closed" mechanical timers?

[John Grabowski]

Chris, In a situation such as this I would put a heat detector in the garage connected to the smoke alarms. That would eliminate the nuisance alarms from car exhaust and anything else. You would need to use smoke detectors that have an auxiliary contact such as the ESL brand by GE. The heat detector would not have an alarm on it, but if you needed one you could also connect a remote using a smoke detector with a relay in it.

John Grabowski

[Joseph Meehan]

John is right. Normally only heat type detectors are put in garages for that very reason and because the typical fire in a garage will quickly trigger the heat detector.

[Chris Lewis]

According to John Grabowski :

How compatible are the gang-trip lines on smoke/heat detectors? I've never seen a unit that claims to have a "standard" interconnect. The ones I've looked at insist on only ganging with smoke alarms from the same manufacturer.

[MC]

I have been wanting to know myself, If I find out I will let you know, otherwise post if you find out

[Gel]

Basically will work with any other manufacturers, but in case of claim you could face some arguments as manuals will say only interconnect to same make.

Kidde in US now do sell competitor interconnect kit, and will warranty performanceith other makes.