Replacement smoke/heat alarms: Kidde vs Aico

I’m not familiar with Aico but always buy Kidde alarms - usually combined CO, Smoke ones.

I’ve tripped a couple with smoke - the usual burnt toast etc. The one we have in the motorhome has a voice alarm - not why I bought it, I was a bit surprised when I discovered it.

Not sure of the model numbers - ours are all battery, not wired.

I've got Aico. Screwfix stock them, which is probably why - the sparky picked them.

They have a 10 year life. One has died and had to be replaced.

They're in the front of my mind because a couple of days they went off for a few seconds at 3am. Then 3:30.

I've replaced the backup batteries and hope they'll be OK now!

Of course one man's anecdote doesn't make a pattern.

Andy

We only fit AICO.

The Audiolink at Geoff's rental property in Watford showed that the CO detector had gone off twice since I fitted it.

Actually it was the red flashing light on the detector that made me decide to do an Audiolink download and find out what had happened.

I fitted an AICO CO in the local Scout Hut and Lou does a reading every

Helpful, thanks.

But you'll not be surprised that I did just wonder if your firm really wants to fit alarms that last 10 years rather than ones which generate more work after 6 or 7 ;)

You are aware that the AICOs actually self destruct after 10 years - seriously they have a built in timer.

Thanks. I wasn't. Bit naughty they don't say so.

Not sure exactly how it works but the 300 instructions mention a bleep 3 times every 48 seconds to say end of life, the 3000 series was just coming out when I did my AICO installers course

Thanks again. The 3000 instructions do say that 3 yellow flashes and 3 beeps every 48 seconds mean "end of life". I'd taken that to mean a fault had been detected rather than a timed event. Clever drafting.

It seems the bleeps can be hushed but does not say if that is timed.

Went to a job a few weeks ago after work and the faulty AICO smoke said replace by 2018 - and I fitted it. Not the 3000 series.

Did the burning toast cause the KiDDE alarm to trip, and how bad was it