Experience with Wireless First Alert Smoke Alarms?

Fire Alarm Help
1

Hello all!

Pretty much asking the title. A relative has a ranch-style house with a basement. It predates hardwired smoke alarm requirements, so installing hardwire-interconnect smoke alarms isn’t a feasible option. However, interconnection would still be really important here - the rooms where smoke alarms are necessary are far apart from each other, and there is a basement with some flammable stuff. Thus, I found the following two models from First Alert:

They appear to be identical aside from one also having CO detection. Does anyone have experience with these models? Do they seem to work well? How do low-battery alerts work (are they broadcasted only on the problem unit, or across all connected units?)

– Sidenotes –

  • This house is located in rural Illinois. While Illinois has a 10-year sealed battery requirement for most smoke alarms, I believe these smoke alarms (which operate on two AA batteries) are exempt under 425 ILCS 60/3/e/2/ii. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
  • If you know of any wireless-interconnect smoke alarms that are completely battery-operated and have ten-year batteries, please drop the models in the replies - while these might be exempt from the 10-year battery rule, I would still prefer them in this case after finding an old First Alert SA670 hanging from the basement ceiling by a thread with the battery removed (pretty sure it’s the only detector down there).

Edit: added links.

2

There are many battery only wireless smoke alarms. The 2 you found are some of the best on the market. There are different models, the main differences between them are Co and smoke detection, smoke only, voice feature, bridge unit (hardwired and wireless) and Co only. If one goes off they all go off. I can give you some model recommendations; SM500V, SMCO500V (The models you found), SA520 and CO511. You really don’t want a sealed battery alarm, the batteries can die early, if the alarm malfunctions you can’t fully reset it (disconnecting all power sources with out permanently turning it off) My friend has a lot of experience with the first alert wireless smoke alarms, he owns a lot of the wireless models.

3

Thank you for the info, will send those recommendations over to the owner ASAP!

Agreed, but given the condition of the basement detector that I found, I’m not sure how often the new ones will get checked. I’m assuming that’s why most alarms are subject to the ten-year battery law.