Gentex now produces a new line of smart smoke alarms, which apparently features a 520 Hz sounder. I do not know if this sounder is sufficient for the IBC/NFPA 101 requirements.
These look super cool. I honestly think that 520hz sounders should be required in smoke alarms. I’ve never had a problem waking up to traditional smoke alarms, but I know many other people who have, and I have seen it first hand.
At first I was going to ask how you know they’re originally made by Gentex since their name isn’t mentioned anywhere on that page, but upon further investigation it turns out that “PLACE Home Solutions” is a “division” of Gentex in a sense. Not sure I like the fact that they’re now making “smart” alarms like several other manufacturers are (which as the Nest Protect & other “smart” products in general have proven are usually nothing more than underengineered buggy-as-heck gimmicks), but good idea with the 520 Hz horn at least for sure! (when it comes to both better chances of waking people up & it also being easier on the ears)
Gentex is the PLACE for the helpful life safety equipment folks!
@PhotoElev look at this!
According to the manual, this exceeds the minimum of 79 dBA at 10 feet. I thought the minimum was 85 dBA for single station smoke alarms, unless UL has a lower requirement for low frequency devices. The 10th edition of UL 217 apparently has new language for low frequency smoke alarms, and this site also mentions a 79 dBA minimum.
Also, speaking of UL, I cannot find these devices on UL’s ProductIQ. The model number for the AnySpace device seems to be PL1AS, but this yields no results on UL’s website.
That’s because the PLACE devices are listed through ETL (Intertek) instead of UL. Here’s the record in Intertek’s directory for the smoke alarm (UL 217) side – they also have an ETL UL2034 listing for their CO functionality, and the Kitchen model (PL1K) is listed as a fuel gas alarm too (via ETL, to UL 1484).
Also, AFAICT, they can function as a “dumb” hardwired smoke/CO alarm without WiFi or the use of the “smart” app.
If that’s the case then does that make non-addressable fire alarm systems dumb too?
I guess you could say that. I think @ThreePhaseEel is referring to the fact that they can be used without being connected to the internet when saying that they can be used as “dumb” smoke alarms too.
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And stupid fire alarm systems are the ones with those hanging exposed wiring and those Chinese knockoff devices from Amazon.
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Yeah, that’s what I was getting at – they can be used as conventional interconnected alarms without any networking or phone-app functionality.