My Father-in-Law has not changed his alarms in over 40 years. I volunteered to do so. I cannot identify the maker of this alarm.
Can anyone at least assist me in identifying the wiring for this alarm. There is a label inside the alarm. But my low knowledge of this does not allow me to properly determine which wires on any new purchased alarm should be the connected to the wiring coming out of the ceiling box.
Also, are there any suggestions for which alarm I should purchase. Thank you.
What does the rest of the detector look like & is it a commercial or residential unit? (since I can’t tell what make, model, or type it is from the back)
Going by what the diagram says the “blue” (it looks blue at least) & red wires are for the power, & the yellow & purple wires are for the interconnect function (even though most detectors from what I’ve seen have only one interconnect wire).
In order to identify it, A picture of the front and or a picture of the product label (A label with the brand name and model)
It’s almost definitely residential, 120V ac with interconnect wires and battery back up.
Yeah: that’s partially what I said.
Just want to be sure since the number of wires & their colors confused me at first.
Oh. It’s not commercial. This is a residence with 11 interconnected alarms.
Thanks for replying.
The cover is generic. No makee or model info whatsoever. This was installed over 40 years ago by my father-in-law’s recollection. Since there is no info, I assume it is a commercial alarm. A contractor sent by the City installed this household system before I even met my wife 39 years ago.
I did purchase an alarm thinking this would be an easy install. But you are right. The new alarm has only one wire for interconnectivity. Going by this old alarm’s label, it seems as if there are two interconnectivity wires.
The label on this old alarm says BLACK WIRE is power and RED is DC. I can’t tell if that dark blue is supposed to represent black. And If one is positive and negative, I can’t tell which. The ceiling wiring is no help also.
I just wanted to know if anyone was familiar with this old alarm, or if anyone could decipher this wiring structure.
Yeah. You mean to tell me that that place has 11 of these detectors though!?
You say “generic”, but I’m pretty sure that’s a BRK 769AC-I/SA769AC (or at least a model resembling it) going by the design. Not sure I’ve seen one with that many wires though (which likely means it’s rare).
“commercial” in most cases means a detector connected to a central fire detection & alarm system: that one is not so it’s a residential unit.
Yeah. I’d advise you replace all of them fully both given the way they’re designed & to ensure that the entirety of each of them are preserved.
That’s very unusual since normally the power wires on an AC hardwired smoke detector are black & white (system-connected detectors usually use black & red however).
I think this is some sort of hardwired BRK detector
Yes, that is what it is, as evidenced by the cover design.
When you mentioned BRK, I called the company.
This model is BRK SA76RC.
Unfortunately, not only do they no longer have the manual, they could not suggest a compatible replacement for this particular 4-wire model. The customer service person also admitted that the wiring color is strange to him and he could not offer advice regarding which wires should connect to a newer BRK 3-wire model.
I didn’t think that I would have to spend more money than I initially thought, but I guess I have to hire an experienced electrician.
Thanks everyone.
Yeah none of that really matters I’d say: just replace that detector & all the others with modern units (but be sure to save all 11 of those detectors & anything related to them just the same! That stuff is valuable to this community (especially a detector model that rare).
More than likely when you install the new ones pick one of the two interconnect wires (yellow or purple) & connect all the detectors to that same color of wire each time, then cap the other color one: should work I think.
Yeah: definitely a good idea especially if you’ve never done high-voltage electrical work (including replacing hardwired smoke detectors) before.
You’re welcome!
I can see the logic of choosing one interconnect wire (yellow or purple).
My issues is the power. On my older BRK, of the other two remaining wires, the Blue says Power Input(AC), but the Red says Power Input(DC).
In a newer alarm, common sense says connect the old White conduit power wire to the newer Black alarm wire that says Positive or Hot.
That leaves the third newer alarm wire that says Neutral. I don’t think that I’m supposed to connect the Red conduit wire that used to lead to the older alarm Red DC wire…to the newer alarm White wire that says Neutral.
(Edit: I’m so sorry for any confusion. I typed a lot of final more descriptive edits).
You do have a point there: now that wire setup’s confusing me, given that detector is likely (or at least should be) connected to 120VAC power even though the wiring sticker indicates that it’s being fed by 12VDC instead. Very odd…
Oh It’s one of those, I’ll ask my friends what’s a good replacement for that.
It is definitely a brk smoke alarm, That horn and button give it away (We call it the banana horn)
Yes. Once I learned here that is was a BRK alarm, I called the company.
The exact model is BRK SA76RC. I appreciate any input from your friends. Thanks.
You have something that extremely rare and valuable, That is a BRK 79LVRI. My friends are flipping out that you have them. As for replacements I’m unsure how you would interconnect them, I’ll try to find documentation on how they are wired.
I don’t know how familiar you are with electronics, But you will have to find out how they are wired together. They may be wired in series which, would require you to redo wiring. If you don’t want to figure out wiring I’d recommend wireless interconnected smoke alarms that can connect to hardwired power.
