Nice… Those older alarms with mechanical horns are more interesting to me.
Oh I definitely agree. The mechanical horns are much louder than the piezo horns, especially the AC ones. Piezo horns sound more or less all the same IMO. They only vary in pitch and pattern. Mechanical horns, on the other hand, have different sounds. The DC ones squeal, although the black buzzer in those old GE’s sound like a Simplex 4001 buzzer. The AC alarms with mechanical horns either have the DC squealer noise, sometimes with the 60 Hz modulation, or make a straight 60 Hz buzz. The exact nature of the buzzing noise varies from detector to detector. Much more exciting IMO than the alarms with piezo horns, especially the ones that do Code 3. Even better is when you find alarms with mechanical horns that don’t do Continuous.
I’ve wondered about the older rectangular Pyrotector detector.
Nlind (FireAlarmFan) has the newer variety, with the blue MuRata piezo in it that does a very slow pulsed pattern. He also mentioned there was an older variety that used the same black Star horn as in the 70’s square GE alarms. That would be a cool one to hear.
Here’s one on eBay for $7.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-THE-PYROTECTOR-NON-RADIOACTIVE-PHOTOELECTRIC-BATTERY-SMOKE-ALARM-/301368729162?pt=BI_Security_Fire_Protection&hash=item462af9de4a
Unfortunately there’s no pic of the alarm itself so there’s no way of telling if it uses the Star buzzer.
Is the model number different for the ones with the Star buzzer and the MuRata buzzer?
Also, I came across this video, and it features an old (possibly rare?) Gateway Scientific alarm from 1980:
WOAH! I’ve never seen a Gateway smoke detector that looks like that before!! It’s really thick! And, it looks like it’s heavily based on the SA76RC First Alert.
Funny how it does continuous.
It says it was made in 1980… Obviously it’s not a Sears model because of the cover, and I don’t think it shares circuitry with the Sears model either (The Sears model did 5/6). Could it be another brand’s relabel? I don’t think Gateway made any smoke detectors under their own brand name. It could be a photoelectric, but the photo they had of that era was square. Very strange. This is the first Gateway I’ve seen that does continuous.
This one’s a mystery. I bet NLind could figure this one out, though.
P.S. - I just now looked closer at the video, and the detector is labeled as Gateway Scientific. Why they didn’t use the same circuitry as the Sears of the same year? Beats me. (Like I said, this one does a high continuous tone, and the Sears from ~1981 does a lower 5/6.)
Maybe they changed from continuous to 5/6 between 1980 and 1981?
Wow that GS is very unique, not that many battery operated piezo smokes did Continuous. The 76RC’s may sound like it but it’s really a pulsating tone with the “Off” period extremely short.
Also keeping with news reports (this is actually a promo), here’s an EXTREMELY RARE Honeywell CD200A variant…
Wow… I didn’t know Honeywell made detectors with a light. Especially a light + the squealer horn. I wonder if any other alarms with the squealer have an optional light.
WOW, that must be EXTREMLY rare! Honeywell alarms with escape lights, and in general squealer alarms with escape lights are so rare, it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to find! I wonder what the model number is.
Also, there’s a Sears from the 80’s on eBay right now:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sears-Smoke-Alarm-1980s-/261638825411?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ceae3a5c3
There’s no pic of the alarm itself, but judging from the photo of the box, with those large side vents, I’d expect it to be the later sealed Gateway rebrand with the square base and the 5/6 piezo. Also, notice the price! Woah!
That looks to be the same as Spats Bear’s smoke alarm, model 462.57351A
Yep, and I used to have one of those smoke alarms too about 10 years ago. 75 bucks is about 10 times too expensive. These sellers need to realize that these detectors are no longer usable as safety devices, so are worth virtually nothing (except value to us as cool detectors to have). 10 dollars would be a reasonable price for an old smoke alarm.
My 3 alarms came today! Here’s the unboxing:
Testing next!
Testing vids:
FireX FX1020:
GE 8201-401C:
Family Gard 83R:
Nice alarms!
Thanks!
Very cool.
That Firex FX1020 looks identical to my FXW-1A except for the model number. I seem to remember seeing that the FX1020 was the predecessor to the FXW-1A, but I don’t see any real changes. There was an even earlier model, the FX1014. This model lacked interconnect, and had green label text, but otherwise was identical. Cool, and very loud.
I kind of figured as much with that 83R, but it is cool because it’s a rare early Family Gard model that does 4/6. Sounds just like my First Alert 83R (SA67D small cover).
Wow, I didn’t know that the family gard was a rare one! Also, I’m assuming the brown base on the GE is also rare, since NO others that I have seen have that brown base.
There also was a FireX FXW-1, too. FireAlarmFan has one.
Also, I found this video a while back. It features an old Sears that seems to be a rebanded Fyrnetics, and a Montgomery Wards smoke alarm that I think is either a rebranded SA76RC or an SA76RS:
Ah, yes. That video. It seems Sears got their early detectors from 2 different suppliers, BRK and Fyrnetics (Whatever its parent company is). Their BRK models used the SA76RS circuits, and used what I believe is an interchangeable cover with other similar BRK alarms. The test button was close to the center.
On the Fyrnetics models, they used the vertically oriented circuit board, and the test button was near the outer edge of the cover (as shown in the video).
The brown base GE is rare indeed. Hard to say which model came first- white or brown base.
The 83R is relatively rare, not as rare as a lot of other alarms, but still a cool find. It’s about as rare as the small cover SA67D.
Not only did sears rebrand BRK and Lifesaver-Fyrnetics units, they also rebranded Gateway and Cerberus units.
Also, I found a video of this person’s smoke alarm collection, and in it is a very rare First Alert Escape Light smoke alarm with Light Test, but it has the old larger cover on it!
Okay here are some pictures of my Southwest Laboratories (Probe) 202 and my BRK 1839ACI.
I’ll start with the SWL:
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You can see the mechanical horn on the right.
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And now for the BRK:
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Note how this alarm doesn’t have a plug like most do. The wires are pushed directly into the alarm, like with willbill808’s Family Gard FG1839N.
I’ll try to do the videos soon.