I have a question for y’all. I have one of these in my house. Was installed 11/24/19. Just a bit ago it went off but DID NOT do temporal 3. It did some weird pulse tone. Was something like 5 seconds on 5 seconds off continuously for about a minute and a half and I couldn’t get it to stop. It did stop itself. I wanted to know if anyone knows what happened. Would like to avoid permanently disabling if possible as it seems fine now.
That is definitely a glitch. You don’t need to deactivate it if it’s not bothering you, but I would definitely take it out of service and replace it with something else because it’s definitely not working correctly. You never know if there is something else wrong with it.
Yeah sounds like a malfunctioning detector to me (which might be no surprise given Kidde’s extensive recall history): as aerhardt said the best thing to do would be to replace it as that one’s clearly not functioning properly.
Definitely. You don’t want an important life safety device malfunctioning in case of a fire. I’d recommend a duel photoelectric and ionization alarm.
What would you recommend? I was looking at Gentex (which are kinda out of the question unless I fish wire to the location as it is a stand alone spot).
Gentex actually introduced a new series of smoke & smoke/CO detectors about a year ago or so, & they’re 120VAC hardwired: those would likely work excellently for your purposes (though you’d have to replace all the other Kidde detectors with the Gentex detectors to avoid problems, at least if you wanted to interconnect all of them together).
That’s why I can’t use Gentex even though I want to. The alarm that glitched was stand alone fully battery operated. I’d have to run new wire through finished walls to get hardwired detectors put in there.
That’s rather odd, It appears to be malfunctioning.
I’d definitely recommend first alert. The SMCO500V if you want smoke and co detection, SMCO100 is the smoke and co model with no voice. Or the SA320 for smoke only.
Oh, okay, had no idea. Hmm…BRK/First Alert for some reason doesn’t seem to sell such a unit anymore, but I think Kidde does (as recall & likely also issue-prone as them & their products are): the Pi9010.
That’s the exact model I would have recommended, but for some reason BRK thought it needed replacing with some other kind of unit & discontinued it.
I’ve seen em I think. Kidde has an entire new line up out. No idea if they’re good or not. I’ll probably see about fishing wire to the detector location and go with Gentex if I can’t find something reliable
That is unfortunately likely going to get discontinued.
They appear to be only selling battery only models as precision detection is allegedly better. Kidde’s true senses were a massive failure (because of there failure to detect smoke) and it appears that the detects are going to be only slightly better.
Stay away from kidde especially anything under the detect name. They malfunction way too often.
Yeah: their new so-called “smart alarms” that I’d never trust to provide reliable fire protection in a million years: they’re just like the Nest Protect in that regard. The Pi9010 is thankfully not part of that series though, & now that BRK/First Alert no longer sells their dual-sensor units (for whatever dumb reason) I’d go with them (Kidde that is).
Alright, sounds good, because I know for a fact that Gentex makes some dang good smoke detectors! (though I hope that’s true for these new ones that nobody has any actual experience with yet so far)
I hope not: that & the similar Pi2010 are the only non-10-year battery dual-sensor detectors left as far as I know.
I’m sure the TruSense line would have been fine had Kidde somehow not missed whatever caused the detectors to have a chance of not detecting fires, but you’re right: given that even Kidde is falling for the whole dumb “smart devices” trend the Detect line likely is crap when a much less expensive standard non-smart smoke detector will get the job done (& they have for decades).
If you mean 10-year battery units, I hate that BRK/First Alert has largely transitioned to those: yes they are technically better for homeowners, but they suck for us collectors since they won’t function at all after their lifespan of 10 years is up simply because the battery can’t be replaced (yes I know the industry isn’t thinking of us but I don’t care: I still hate such detectors & refuse to use them anyway (no matter how much the manufacturers are trying to force us to do so).
That’s normally what I’d say too, but like I said since they seem to be the only ones still selling non-10-year battery detectors I’d at least go with them over the rubbish Nest Protect (lesser of two evils if you ask me (not their “Detect” line though: literally the same “smart” garbage as the Protect when a standard non-smart detector will do just fine).
I’ll be going with the older S1209 series Gentex detectors (which are still in production) if I head that route. The new line up isn’t available yet at any stores or websites I’m familiar with. And yea, Gentex is probably the best right now.
This model has replaceable batteries and some first alert alarms have a trick where if you flip the battery switch back to the way it comes new you can turn it off. Even better non slim line alarm only have a pin holding the battery door shut which can be some what easily removed (I don’t know if this applies to every alarm or if this trick is still possible).
Yeah, gentex is probably your best bet right now, They are way too under rated. I’d love to get a GN-503FF (You can activate it with NAC circuits) before there discontinued.
Did it again today. Gave it the garage treatment and put it on my work bench. Tomorrow it may get the permanent deactivation treatment (I’ll remove the battery and hot wire it if I really want to as I’ll keep the thing). And I’ve been cleared to upgrade all existing detectors to Gentex. But I have to wait till summer when I can pay for it cause I have to fund the project.