When was that took? Thats really cool 
Wow. My head is spinning with all these different variants of smoke alarms.
Here’s more detail on the Sears detectors with thermal:
Sears Smoke Detectors with Thermal | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
Sears Smoke Detectors with Thermal - Back | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
Sears Smoke Detector with Thermal Model Number | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
Someone actually wrote the installation date on the one on the left – 1983. So Sears was making them until that point. The entire thing is sealed but it has an ionization sensor just like the one with the hinged cover. That one I can’t date, got it in 1992 and it was fairly old at that time. Not sure who Sears contracted to produce it.
Took a closer look at some of the SA67 variants I have:
SA67 Variants - Cover | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
SA67 Variants - Back | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
From left to right, one with a white test button, one with a clear test button, and the early 90s version of the SA67 from right before Pittway sold First Alert, now labeled as the 83R.
SA67 Cover Variants - No Writing | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
The one with the white button has no writing around the edge of the cover, while the one with the clear button does.
SA67 Variants - LED is present on all | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
Interestingly enough, both of them do have functional LEDs under the hood. Manual is dated 1985 and claims the SA67 shouldn’t have an LED. Looks like whomever was in charge of the cover design wasn’t talking with the people in charge of the mechanical design.
Here’s the SA76RD from around the same time:
SA76 New Cover | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
SA76 - New Cover Back | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
Manual is also dated 1985 and the sticker on the back resembles the original SA76RC (with removable cover). No writing on the cover here either. Ionization chamber is also completely metal, while the SA67s both have the black plastic one.
Evolution of the Escape Light detectors:
First Alert Escape Light - Early 1980s | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
These are from the early 80s, came in both an LED and non-LED version. The box is gigantic, close in size to a cereal box!
First Alert Escape Light - Late 80s Early 90s | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
Late 80s/early 90s versions with the center mounted light. On the left is the SA130C, the box art used BRK’s 1201 for some reason. It has a large cover just like the Light Test detectors.
In the middle is the SA150LT in the new style packaging, produced in 1992 after Pittway sold First Alert and BRK. Hard to tell from the photos but the plastic is completely white, as opposed to the off-white of before the Pittway sale (and production move from U.S. to Mexico).
On the right is the smaller cover version of the Light Test model, from around 1993. I think the larger diameter cover was probably discontinued around this time. The non-Light Test version was probably also discontinued shortly after the Light Test version became available, since I’ve never seen a non-Light Test version in the new packaging or a non-Light Test version with the smaller diameter cover.
As noted earlier in the thread, the BRK 3001 is clearly the longest-lasting model they ever produced, from at least 1981 to 2001:
SA301 Packaging Variations | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
According to the First Alert and BRK websites from around 2002-2003, the 3001 was produced alongside the 3002 (the remote control test/silence version to the lower right) until the line refresh in 2004. But I’ve never found one in the packaging style from that time (the SA302/3002 is shown in that style).
SA301 Cover Variations | smokedetector47 | Flickr
SA301 Base Variations | smokedetector47 | Flickr
Otherwise the overall design changed very little, other than the addition of some warning text to the cover and a change in the base’s color from black to white. Even the big metal ionization sensor was never replaced with the updated black plastic one.
Finally, one of my favorite pieces:
First Alert SA79TA Traveling Smoke Detector Box Cover | Flickr 
First Alert SA79TA Traveling Smoke Detector Box Back | Flickr 
A traveling smoke detector. Pittway must have realized that the home market would become saturated at some point, and they needed to get people to keep buying even if their home already had enough smoke detectors.
BRK 79R and First Alert SA79TA | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
BRK 79R and First Alert SA79TA Guts | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
The cover is basically the SA76 molded in brown plastic with the guts of the BRK 79R (seen to the left), using a base more commonly found in the Family Gard line.
SA79TA Door Hook and Travel Bag | smokedetector47 | Flickr 
It even comes with its own door hook and carrying case. The door hook comes off and tucks inside the cover when not in use.
Wow! Very, very cool! Come to think of it, my smaller packaging SA67D’s (labeled 83R) say Assembled in Mexico. They do not have any web information on them. They were from around 1992-1993, when I was born.
It appears that the Sears with the heat sensor and the earlier hinged cover uses a Fyrnetics circuit board. Very similar to the alarm shown in this video…
Also, there was an escape light model (SA150LTD) made in the early 90’s with the smaller packaging, but it has the fully pass-through grille, unlike the later model shown in your pic (Far right). The one you show is probably from the mid 90’s, when closed grilles started coming in. (Like the BRK 4919, and this later model First Alert with their premium silence button feature:)
Check out the SA150LTD:
Never would have guessed all this about Pittway smoke alarms. Oh yeah, and I was the one to point out that little fact about the BRK 3001 
I had one purchased around 2001. It seemed to hate salmon. Then, when NLind posted his BRK catalog from 1983, I saw the same exact model! It was a shock lol.
Dang, I was about to post my own SA79TA (the travel alarm). Sadly the lower cover catch on mine is broken so the cover doesn’t want to stay on. Sears also had units with brown housings. They have the older electromechanical horns. But since the ones I have acquired were used and didn’t come with a hook, I’m not sure whether or not they were designated actual travel alarms or just normal alarms, I guess they’d look good on those old paneled walls.
Here’s something - anyone recognize this?
Nice! That would be the brown Sears one in your old collection picture, I presume. The previous owners probably mounted it on a dark colored wall or ceiling, liking the color coordination. As we know, Simplex also caught on to that feature, but later on in the late 90’s early 2000’s with the black TrueAlarm smoke detectors. Other commercial fire alarm smoke detectors were/are offered with a black housing as well. No residential smoke detectors that I know of currently have that option though.
On the old Pittway alarms with removable covers, one could technically spraypaint the cover whatever they want. Like in that McGuyver episode with the gray SA76RC. It does say “Do Not Paint”, but if you take the cover off and lay it down on some newspaper, and let it completely dry, it should have virtually no effect on the operation of the detector. The base would still be white, though.
Interesting. Is that Black and Decker a smoke alarm?? Looks like it may just be a light. Either way, it appears to be from the late 80’s in the era of the Black and Decker Slimline series, the Slimline smoke alarm shown below (With escape light):
So may first alerts! I saw a First Alert SA120 about 3 years ago, in an old building. It had the white dome text button. The alarm in the Fyrnetics video is an F900D (I saw it at an open house along with a first alert SA76RC and GE Home Sentry) Sears actually made a rebrand model of it without the heat sensor also, using the same layout but with the Sears style cover. I noticed that the Sears with a heat sensor with the mechanical horn has a different sensor in FireAlarmFan’s photo and it has the fyrnetics sensor in SD47’s photo. They layout is also slightly different. Are these two different models?
What do you mean?
Hes talking about all the recent posts (other than the one before his) being about First Alerts.
So Many First Alerts!
I typed it wrong.
Ah! That explains it. The SA120 (1st Escape Light model) had a different model number for the one with the white test button.
Click on this picture, and you will see that the model number on the box for the white test button is actually SA125! You’d think a higher model number would indicate a more featured product, but here you have it: The SA125 is the SA120 with a white test button.
Here are two that I found recently, the first is from my friend’s house (they also have 2 SA67s) and the second I found in an open house.
I don’t exactly know what the first one is, but it looks like a Dicon
The 2nd one is a Family Gard from the 90’s
That first link is definitely an 80’s Dicon alarm. I have a very similar unit, rebranded as Ten-Tek.
The second alarm is kind of rare. Most of the time, the 90’s Family Gard smoke detectors looked like the FG888D, pictured below.
Interesting that they made a variation of the BRK 83R’s cover. I am pretty sure all these alarms shared the same circuit board.
They might have done that to maintain some commonality with the BRK model number, which was 1200 in this case.
Might also be Wake 'n Warn, another BRK consumer brand:
They also had a 79R version:
http://www.k-bid.com/auction/1723/item/300?offset=300
The Family Gard version of the BRK 1201/First Alert SA130C had a cover like that also, with Escape Light added.
Odd how BRK launched so many different consumer brands with so many varying covers for essentially the same detector. Maybe they wanted to market First Alert as the “premium” brand for hardware and department stores with a higher price point, and use Family Gard and Wake 'n Warn as “budget” versions for discounters and smaller stores. Kind of funny that you’d be buying more or less the same thing, only the First Alert version would be much more expensive.
First Alert and BRK are brands for greater profit margins Family Gard and Wake 'n Warn alarms have identical internals to all other BRK products of the same variety. You just pay more for a different housing.
I see the hinged cover Wake 'n Warn is from as early as 1986. The 90’s probably saw the advent of the FG888D housing.
I swear I’ve seen the 79R with the Wake 'n Warn cover somewhere! A long time ago, before I knew much about smoke alarms. Cool.
Do you have any pics of the BRK 1200?
At least Family Gard used that style cover in the mid 80s as a replacement for the rectangular FG777D, using the same exact box art as Wake 'n Warn:
I have one of these from 1986, but it has a white test button and no LED.
[quote] Do you have any pics of the BRK 1200? [/quote]Fire Alarm Fan posted an image from his catalog way back when:
Although it seems like First Alert may have used the same cover at some point, at least for promotional images, since the one shown in the Kmart advertisement I posted above looks like it has the same design.
Ah ok. The BRK 1200 looks almost identical to the First Alert SA120.
Here’s quite the rarity… The 1st generation BRK 1839ACI, with the off center test button! It looks like it might have the original squealer horn as well. This is a seriously rare alarm. It’s 30 bucks, kind of expensive, but it’s a gem. It would be great if someone bought this and made a video testing it.