i think they are good. you don’t need to replace the battery. you don’t need to buy a battery at the store for them. however the important thing people need to know is, you still need to test them. just because you don’t need to replace the battery doesn’t mean the smoke alarm is gonna take care of itself.
Well, I think the low battery chirp on “regular” stand-alone alarms serves as a “Hey! I exist, and you need to test me!” cry that the 10 years don’t have.
I think they are a great idea for people who don’t want to deal with fire alarms, but in ten years they won’t be fun to collect.
I don’t like 'em.
From a collector’s standpoint, they’re horrible to collect. If they’re over 10 years old, they won’t work so they’ll just sit around collecting dust on a shelf.
From a homeowner’s standpoint, because they’re billed as ‘set and forget’ devices, once a homeowner has them installed, they’re liable to just completely forget about them even after ten years, and they may not ever get replaced.
In my opinion, the best kinds of smoke alarms are the 120-volt interconnect kinds with battery backup. This ensures that if one smoke alarm trips the entire house will know about it, and even though you do have to replace the battery once in awhile, the alarms don’t completely run off of them like regular 9v ones. The problem with them, however, is that they’re expensive! And good luck trying to install a system of those in a house that originally never had smoke alarms.
Another good option is 24v system smoke alarms! I’ve been in houses where the smoke alarms are i3s with sounders. It’s great because not only do you not have to bother with taking down each detector to replace batteries, the batteries the system DOES take are just two 12v rechargeable ones. That’s only $60 every 7-10 years, as opposed to several dozen dollars every month for several batteries.
I see what you mean about “set and forget” as replacing the battery is also when other critical maintenance is performed, such as cleaning the detector. The i3 can send a dirty detector trouble to the panel, so I guess its the best of both worlds.
I really only think that the i3 method is used with security systems tied into fire protection (ex. Honeywell Vista 20P). As for residential alarms, I’d recommend Kidde Photoelectric 120V interconnected smoke/CO combo alarms with battery backup. I live in Ohio, which has CO alarm legislation, so they are required in new construction (at least they are in my area; I’m not sure if it’s local government legislation or state law) and in my house (which was built in 2011) they have one smoke/CO combo and are interconnected with Kidde/FireX ion detectors. Oddly enough the CO horn pattern is not interconnected with the other alarms, but perhaps they aren’t supposed to do that; though I think they do.
All in all, not a big fan of 10 yet smoke alarms.
10-year smoke alarms are required in new residential construction in my state. florida.
Here in California hardwired detectors are required in new construction and battery operated detectors are no longer available in stores
you mean battery operated only detectors. hardwired smoke detectors have batteries in them for backup so that the smoke detector will still sound during a power outage. at least ones made today do. they may have made some hardwired without battery backup in the past, but i don’t think they are still legal.
Yes, that is what I meant. Hardwired detectors with battery backup are still sold, but ones that operate solely on batteries are no longer sold here.
But there are exceptions.
If its a apartment-type building and its fully sprinklered and covered by a F/A system. Or if the AHJ signs off on the project saying its okay.
I live in NCFL and there is a new apartment building that went in and it doesn’t have 10 year detectors, but its fully sprinklered and has a Simplex 4010. (What a shocker…)
(Simplex is very popular where I live… 
Their HQ for NCFL is in my hometown, like literally on the other side of town.)