First Alert smoke detector...non replacable battery supposed to last 10 years...dies after 2...for warranty contact, the verify you're human puzzle does not work on 3 different browsers I tried
Both kinds exist. Both have different benefits and drawbacks.
You shouldn't only be using one type in your house.
Optical is great for detecting large smoke particles quickly. If the smoke is small particles, though, it'll need to be rather dense before it'll go off. Ionizing detectors have the opposite issue; they react quickly to small particles but can't detect large particles that well.
No the sensitivity of radiation based smoke alarms tends to cause false positives which in turn causes people to ignore them making them less effective. Optical smoke detectors are overall the newer and better technology.
That being said radiation based smoke detection is still a cool concept. There might be a few areas where they perform better still, though probably not.
For best protection, it is recommended both (ionization and photoelectric) technologies be used in homes. In addition to individual ionization and photoelectric alarms, combination alarms that include both technologies in a single device are available.
The smoke detectors in my house are hooked up to the main power, but they still take a battery and beep when the battery is dead. I thought the battery was backup, but they die after about 2 years, so it can't be backup, it must be used for something.
I found that out one very exciting morning, when it decided to sing me the song of its people. If you've never stumbled down the stairs at 4am looking for a fire with your bollocks flapping about, I heartily recommend it.
Work at a fire dept. These fail so often we do not recommend 10 year battery detectors anymore. Just go get a new one with without that "perk", don't warranty replace it.
Off topic, but do you know what to do about smoke detectors that chirp like once a week? I'm in an apartment, have 4 smoke detectors in here for some reason, and 3 out of the 4 will randomly chirp like once a week. We've changed the batteries, they're flashing green, if you hit the test button they work, but they just chirp once in awhile. Sometimes it's only once, sometimes it's 2 or 3 times in a day and then will go a month or more without chirping. Management is a PITA so I don't want to complain if there isn't an issue, but I'd rather not die a horrible death if my apartment burns down and my detectors don't go off.
Yep. First thing to do is run a vacuum over them. Even the tiniest bit of dust can make them cranky and chirpy. If that doesn't work and you don't know how old they are, pop them off the ceiling and look at the back for a manufacture date. In general, smoke detectors (even without the ten year battery) have a life span of about 10 years. If they've hit that milestone, it's a good chance they are beeping because they are old and they should be replaced. Next would be a call to the PITA management about them. If you get no love from management, look up what fire department covers your address; many departments will go out to check your detectors if you can't get them to stop beeping and your landlord is being a butt. If your department is a volunteer one, it may be next to impossible to get ahold of them as there will probably not be anyone at the station to answer phones. For volunteer departments in my area, you need to call the county fire marshal / emergency management office in order to get hooked up with the volunteer department as they have the personal contact numbers for the volunteer chiefs, so I would try that (or the equivalent for your area). If it's a career fire department, you should be able to call them directly. Even if they are out of the station, if it's normal business hours and you call their HQ, they likely have a business office that will answer.
Also, I just wanted to come back here and update. I pulled my detectors down and they are from January of 2012. Put a note in with our maintenance department requesting replacement, so hopefully that gets dealt with. Thank you for taking the time to respond!
Good advice with the vacuum. It definitely gets dusty in here, so I'll check that first.
About the fire department, funny thing that, it's volunteer here, and I'm actually on the department, but I'm not a firefighter, I'm medical side and don't know the slightest thing about fire except that it's hot and I stay away from it. My role on fire calls is to drag hoses where I'm told lol. I keep forgetting to ask the real firefighters about my detectors when I see them, but if I can't get it resolved by cleaning or talking to management I'll have to talk to the chief or ask my LT.
Many smoke detectors only last for 10 years. What you're describing is what mine did in my house when they hit the 10 year mark. If you remove it from the ceiling, they usually have a human readable date printed on the ceiling facing side of the smoke detector.
I'm betting if you pulled one of your "one chirp" smoke detectors down, you'll find a date more than 10 years ago printed on it. Buy new ones, dispose of these. Note on disposal: old school smoke detectors contain a very small amount of radioactive material. If you have one of these there will be a radioactive logo on itPLEASE DO NOT PUT THIS IN THE LANDFILL TRASH! Please dispose of these and your registered hazardous waste site.
Newer style smoke detectors don't use radioactive material and instead use regular light sensors. These are safe to dispose of as regular ewaste.
There is no reason you should have to purchase them, that is the landlord's responsibility. If management is not doing upkeep on aged-out detectors, that's a call to the local fire marshal. Fire Marshals just love when high-life occupancies don't keep up with fire code requirements.
I had a whole house of this brand of smoke detectors (5) and bought them back in 2019 and my wood burner had wind blow back down the chimney. It filled my house with smoke and the only one that went off was the smoke detector that i had taken down an set on my table that was the previous i was replacing . this should be illegal to sell something that is this important to someones safety. regardless to say im never buying first alert again
Two different types of sensors. Photoelectric use light and are good for detecting thick smoke(produced by smoldering, incomplete combustion) like you're describing, which is likely what your old one was. Ionizing sensors use radiation and detect small particles more common in active fires(complete combustion).
I'm not an expert and it's definitely possible they're shit, but I remember doing research for buying new smoke detectors and finding out about all the different types of them. Like some don't even care about smoke, they only care about heat.
And others use different methods of detecting smoke that can be better for different types of fires (kitchen grease fire vs electrical fire).
Anyway I had no idea there was more than one type, I feel like that should also be made more obvious when buying new ones.
I just used the phone number on the back of the device to call them. I found them rather pleasant to deal with and they sent me a free replacement within a couple of days. Good luck, friend.
If you really want to pursue being ripped off I would recommend contacting your local district attorney. They seriously do great work for us common folk.
Most fire codes require hardwire or non replaceable battery nowadays. Supposed to reduce the amount of homes with dead battery smoke alarms I think. Also ensures the sensor still works.
Was this one of the ones advertised for 10 year battery life? Could you maybe share the model number? I've seen 10yr life span, no battery replacements needed before, never really trusted it though. For safety devices I prefer hardwired with battery backup...ya know cause life's are on the line if it's needed.
Smoke detectors work using sensors that require special materials that only work for about 10 years before they begin to seriously loose functionality. You don’t want to replace the battery on a ten year old smoke detector, it should be replaced.
To be fair, if you tried three different browsers on iPhone, it doesn't really make a difference. To the website, they're all Safari
They just need the Zoo.
Kinda fitting considering recent chrome news
Inspect element, select the wrapper div, change css element height to 1500px or something
I’m on an iPhone. I finally emailed the link to myself, opened Remote Desktop and did it on my laptop. So dumb.
Or.. view as desktop button? (I'm on Android so idk if iOS has that option, they should though)
I think it shows up as "request desktop site" on ios, but IME it doesn't always make a difference.
No that didn’t work haha
All iPhone browsers are just different versions of Safari at the moment due to a limitation by Apple. I’ve heard that may change.
I guess this site just really doesn’t like Safari.
I feel like I get different behaviors if I use Chrome or DuckDuckGo but didn’t matter in this case
Yep I’ve often had to do something like that to get around broken website interfaces
Looks more like an overflow issue so there is probably a bit more to it
Have you tried not being a robot
Bite my shiny metal ass.
What? You going to tell me not to drink booze and play blackjack with robot hookers anymore? This is bullshit!
But how would they sell more smoke detectors that way?
They can sell more smoke detectors in HELLLLL
Doesn't the isotope in the detection chamber degrade and needs to be replaced in 10 years anyway?
https://www.epa.gov/radtown/americium-ionization-smoke-detectors
most smoke detectors nowadays are optical.
Both kinds exist. Both have different benefits and drawbacks.
You shouldn't only be using one type in your house.
Optical is great for detecting large smoke particles quickly. If the smoke is small particles, though, it'll need to be rather dense before it'll go off. Ionizing detectors have the opposite issue; they react quickly to small particles but can't detect large particles that well.
No the sensitivity of radiation based smoke alarms tends to cause false positives which in turn causes people to ignore them making them less effective. Optical smoke detectors are overall the newer and better technology.
That being said radiation based smoke detection is still a cool concept. There might be a few areas where they perform better still, though probably not.
https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Staying-safe/Safety-equipment/Smoke-alarms/Ionization-vs-photoelectric
The half life of americium 241 is 432.2 years, so no
Those detectors are inferior to optic detectors and should not be used any more.
The smoke detectors in my house are hooked up to the main power, but they still take a battery and beep when the battery is dead. I thought the battery was backup, but they die after about 2 years, so it can't be backup, it must be used for something.
Even the 9V ones didn't last forever.
I found that out one very exciting morning, when it decided to sing me the song of its people. If you've never stumbled down the stairs at 4am looking for a fire with your bollocks flapping about, I heartily recommend it.
The battery was fine. It was the alarm that had degraded to the point that it always "detected" smoke.
Turns out smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years or so.
Get a bot to do it for you, I heard that they are now better than humans at solving them.
Depressed? Smile more.
Poor? Just have money.
Have OP's problem? Just do what this guy advised you to
Yah, I never leave home without my bot.
Inspect the element the capture is inside and change its size, or set the browser to desktop mode.
add some css to the wrapping box like
Imagine this very thing being illegal after web drm is implemented.
Work at a fire dept. These fail so often we do not recommend 10 year battery detectors anymore. Just go get a new one with without that "perk", don't warranty replace it.
Off topic, but do you know what to do about smoke detectors that chirp like once a week? I'm in an apartment, have 4 smoke detectors in here for some reason, and 3 out of the 4 will randomly chirp like once a week. We've changed the batteries, they're flashing green, if you hit the test button they work, but they just chirp once in awhile. Sometimes it's only once, sometimes it's 2 or 3 times in a day and then will go a month or more without chirping. Management is a PITA so I don't want to complain if there isn't an issue, but I'd rather not die a horrible death if my apartment burns down and my detectors don't go off.
Yep. First thing to do is run a vacuum over them. Even the tiniest bit of dust can make them cranky and chirpy. If that doesn't work and you don't know how old they are, pop them off the ceiling and look at the back for a manufacture date. In general, smoke detectors (even without the ten year battery) have a life span of about 10 years. If they've hit that milestone, it's a good chance they are beeping because they are old and they should be replaced. Next would be a call to the PITA management about them. If you get no love from management, look up what fire department covers your address; many departments will go out to check your detectors if you can't get them to stop beeping and your landlord is being a butt. If your department is a volunteer one, it may be next to impossible to get ahold of them as there will probably not be anyone at the station to answer phones. For volunteer departments in my area, you need to call the county fire marshal / emergency management office in order to get hooked up with the volunteer department as they have the personal contact numbers for the volunteer chiefs, so I would try that (or the equivalent for your area). If it's a career fire department, you should be able to call them directly. Even if they are out of the station, if it's normal business hours and you call their HQ, they likely have a business office that will answer.
Also, I just wanted to come back here and update. I pulled my detectors down and they are from January of 2012. Put a note in with our maintenance department requesting replacement, so hopefully that gets dealt with. Thank you for taking the time to respond!
You are very welcome! Good luck with maintenence, I hope yours is more responsive about them than the ones here tend to be.
Good advice with the vacuum. It definitely gets dusty in here, so I'll check that first.
About the fire department, funny thing that, it's volunteer here, and I'm actually on the department, but I'm not a firefighter, I'm medical side and don't know the slightest thing about fire except that it's hot and I stay away from it. My role on fire calls is to drag hoses where I'm told lol. I keep forgetting to ask the real firefighters about my detectors when I see them, but if I can't get it resolved by cleaning or talking to management I'll have to talk to the chief or ask my LT.
Thank you!
Many smoke detectors only last for 10 years. What you're describing is what mine did in my house when they hit the 10 year mark. If you remove it from the ceiling, they usually have a human readable date printed on the ceiling facing side of the smoke detector.
I'm betting if you pulled one of your "one chirp" smoke detectors down, you'll find a date more than 10 years ago printed on it. Buy new ones, dispose of these. Note on disposal: old school smoke detectors contain a very small amount of radioactive material. If you have one of these there will be a radioactive logo on it PLEASE DO NOT PUT THIS IN THE LANDFILL TRASH! Please dispose of these and your registered hazardous waste site.
Newer style smoke detectors don't use radioactive material and instead use regular light sensors. These are safe to dispose of as regular ewaste.
I'd replace them, keep the old ones, and put them back when I move out. This is also my go-to with apartment showerheads.
There is no reason you should have to purchase them, that is the landlord's responsibility. If management is not doing upkeep on aged-out detectors, that's a call to the local fire marshal. Fire Marshals just love when high-life occupancies don't keep up with fire code requirements.
Also a very valid route. Just depends on your tolerance and time for dealing with bullshit I suppose.
Lots of people got these because they had them in 2 packs at Costco dirt cheap. If I can help it I will never buy this brand again…
Things I like to cheap out on:
Chocolate
Mobile phone
Smoke detector
Fire extinguisher
18650 battery (and especially charger!)
Extension cord
Defibrillator
PC power supply
It’s smart and intelligent cuz it saves me money!
I only buy used tires, they are dirt cheap! And look at all the car oil that looks brand new that someone thrown out. ^/s^
Being smart is not buying everything for the cheapest price, but knowing what you can cheap on.
Some people have sadly no choice. But that's a whole different problem.
Overpaying for an Apple phone, then cheaping out on smoke detectors. Humanity is truly doomed.
Joke’s on you, I stole the iPhone and overpaid for the smoke detectors
If it doesn't work on mobile, set the browser to view on desktop mode.
I tried. Finally just went to my actual desktop…
I had a whole house of this brand of smoke detectors (5) and bought them back in 2019 and my wood burner had wind blow back down the chimney. It filled my house with smoke and the only one that went off was the smoke detector that i had taken down an set on my table that was the previous i was replacing . this should be illegal to sell something that is this important to someones safety. regardless to say im never buying first alert again
Two different types of sensors. Photoelectric use light and are good for detecting thick smoke(produced by smoldering, incomplete combustion) like you're describing, which is likely what your old one was. Ionizing sensors use radiation and detect small particles more common in active fires(complete combustion).
damn you sound smart!! Very useful information thanks!
I'm not an expert and it's definitely possible they're shit, but I remember doing research for buying new smoke detectors and finding out about all the different types of them. Like some don't even care about smoke, they only care about heat. And others use different methods of detecting smoke that can be better for different types of fires (kitchen grease fire vs electrical fire).
Anyway I had no idea there was more than one type, I feel like that should also be made more obvious when buying new ones.
i did not know that thank!
I just used the phone number on the back of the device to call them. I found them rather pleasant to deal with and they sent me a free replacement within a couple of days. Good luck, friend.
Phone? But I’m not a caveman! It started chirping at bedtime and I was determined to email them before I turned in for the night…
If you really want to pursue being ripped off I would recommend contacting your local district attorney. They seriously do great work for us common folk.
They never work for ten years. Never. Don't rely on cheap things when your life might depend on it.
I would find 5-7 acceptable and just avoid the brand for the replacement
Why would I want a smoke detector with a lithium ion battery that can't be replaced. 🤔
Most fire codes require hardwire or non replaceable battery nowadays. Supposed to reduce the amount of homes with dead battery smoke alarms I think. Also ensures the sensor still works.
After 10 years it's assumed that the sensor is degraded, especially the radioactive type.
They were cheap at Costco. Lots of people bought them and yup they are garbage.
Shit I have 2 of those in my house rn :(
Might as well call them and tell them they stopped working already because they definitely won’t last more than 3 years
Legit extremely infuriating
Oh but don't you see? This is plausible deniability. Good luck with the warranty.
They’ll probably send me a new one. I opened it and a new battery is more than the detector
you always get fucked at the drive thru
Was this one of the ones advertised for 10 year battery life? Could you maybe share the model number? I've seen 10yr life span, no battery replacements needed before, never really trusted it though. For safety devices I prefer hardwired with battery backup...ya know cause life's are on the line if it's needed.
P1210. Do not recommend. They will not last 5 years. If I can help it I’ll never buy First Alert again.
I might be ignorant, but why would bots go after their warranty contact?
You've been had
Smoke detectors work using sensors that require special materials that only work for about 10 years before they begin to seriously loose functionality. You don’t want to replace the battery on a ten year old smoke detector, it should be replaced.
If it lasted more than 2 years they would be a good theory
Lol, true.