Rare Smoke Detectors

I think I saw one similar to this at my grandparents house. It was put it (according to my grandparents) in 1975. It also malfunctioned like that one, back in 2010, and was replaced by Kidde Fire Alarm.

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Yes, my church has an Earli-Gard EGD-5S. The button in the middle has a red LED that always lit. Most Earli-Gard EGD-5S’s have piezos in them, but some older ones have Electro-mech. horns in them.

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My church also has a FireX FX1020 and an interesting B.R.K./First Alert. It looks like an SA86RAC, but it doesn’t have a battery door and from what I can see, it looks like it has an electro-mech horn instead of a piezo. It’s probably an older model of the SA86RAC. Anyways, here’s a SmokeGard 907A2 hardwired unit:

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Was this very close to it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCmZQcdTcaQ

(This is my new Fire alarm channel by the way.)

This is my FireX FXW-1A from 1987. I know there were many different FireX models of the 80’s that shared this design. I’ve seen one of these with a solid Green power LED instead of a Red one.

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Yes, the one at my church is exactly the same. It has a dome test button with a red LED and it has the same cover.

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Interesting. I wonder which came first, the FX1020 or the FXW-1A. They seem to be identical…

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I believe the FX1020 or FX1014 (they’re basically the same alarm) came first. They don’t have working harnesses, the wires just come out of the back and that’s it. They didn’t have interconnect wires either. Just hot and neutral.

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I’ve been searching on Youtube and I found some interesting alarms.

Here’s what appears to be the base of a First Alert/B.R.K. SA769AC, with the cover of an SA76RC.

And here’s a 1981 film about the differences in Ionization and Photoelectric smoke detectors. It’s a little hard to see, but definitely some old units there.

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Here’s smoke rare units from my collection.
Top row: 1: BRK 1839ACI (This is probably the one benson41011 was talking about) 2: SmokeGard 700A 3: Teledyne Water-Pik Sonic Siren, uses a horn like in the System Sensor MA series and has a whoop tone. 4: Norelco SD125. 5: Kidde Fire Alert RSD 117A (was also available in a 9-volt and 12.6 volt battery-powered version, also colored gold and relabled by Fuller Brush)

2nd Row: 1: TRE 7003. 2: SmokeGard 810A9 (battery version of the 907). 3: Vigilante ES-3, rebranded JS&A. 4: Sunbeam 45-3D (rare version w/ test button).

Bottom Row: Sunbeam 45-7A. Probably the last Sunbeam model. Sunbeam also made one that looks like the FireX willbill808 has.

There’s more buried deep in my collection boxes.

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Those are some very neat alarms. Does the 1839ACI have an electro-mech horn or a piezo? The one at my church looks like it has an electro-mech horn.

OK, I found out how to put smaller pictures in!
Here’s my rare alarms:

(Left to Right) Fyrnetics model 1200 ionization smoke detector from 1978, Captain Kelly by Gillette photoelectric smoke detector from 1976 (actually, it was on in this picture!), Honeywell TC49A1196-2 Ionization smoke detector from 1973 with 13.4 uCi of Americium 241.

Wow, there’s a Honeywell CD-200A on eBay now. Wonder what the difference between it and the CD-2000A is.
Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NIB-Honeywell-Battery-Model-Smoke-Fire-Detector-Model-CD200A-/251484484136?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8da4b228

The 1839ACI (or 1839WN) is a hardwired BRK alarm with no battery backup from the late 80’s/early 90’s. As far as I know they always had the piezo horn. They have the test button in the center.

Here’s an 1839ACI

The one shown by FireAlarmFan might be an 1839ACI with a different cover. But it looks like a BRK 83R, or an 86RAC.
The 86RAC has the test button off center (like the 83R) and has battery backup… So it could be the direct successor to the 1839 seeing as though the 1839 had no battery backup.
Both look very similar, like this…

FireAlarmFan’s/NLind’s is the same as the one in my church. It has the test button off-center, and no battery backup. If you look into the front, there is what looks like an electro-mech horn. I’m pretty sure then, that the 1839ACI is a intro model to the SA86RACs since it has that electro-mech horn. I think the SA86RAC came right after the 1839ACI, and then the 1839N. So it would go in order:
1839ACI
SA86RAC
1839N
I could be wrong, since the 1839ACI and the 1839N have the same number in the model number.

The 1839ACI has a mechanical horn.

Not sure… I hope it wasn’t always the CD200A and I’ve been adding the extra 0 and spreading false information…

I edited that post and it didn’t save it! Anyway, I think now that it goes 1839ACI-> 1839WN/1839N-> SA86RAC because the 1839ACI and the 1839WN both lack battery backups-but the 1839ACI and the SA86RAC both have basically the same cover design. And, the 1839ACI and the 1839 WN have the same numbers so I don’t know. I’m gonna guess that the order that I have here is correct. I don’t think that hardwired smoke detectors having battery backup was new at the time, so maybe they were all manufactured at once and the SA86RAC was a more expensive model since it had the battery backup. And the 1839 series were the lower models since they didn’t have the battery backup. As for that honeywell, if you zoom in on the box, it says CD200A, so it certainly isn’t a mistake.

They stopped putting mechanical horns in smoke alarms in the mid 80’s. So there’s no such thing as an 1839 with a mechanical horn. There is also no such thing as an 1839 with an offset test button. All 1839 series came with the button in the center, like the pic I posted. The 86RAC has the more modern offset test button. (and battery backup)

There IS however an older BRK model detector that you might be talking about. Model SA769AC. I think this is your video too, benson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rnhwPWHaY

Other than that, there are really no other BRK hardwired alarms that I can think of with that cover design and a mechanical horn.

Yes, that is the smoke alarm at the top of my aunt’s stairs. There is another one at the top of their basement stairs. Here is FireAlarmFan/NLind’s video demo:

And this smoke alarm is much older than the 1839 series and SA86RAC. It has a removeable cover and a unique shaped sensor. It also has a very raspy buzz sound to it.

It is much older… about 15 years older. The 1839 series came out around 1987 and lasted till about 93. I think the 86RAC started around 1990 and lasted longer, maybe till 97 or 98.

There was a recall issued on the 1839 series.
http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/1992/BRK-Recalls-Some-Wired-In-Smoke-Detectors-Because-Of-Potential-Alarm-Failure/

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of smoke alarm recalls, here is a crazy incident that happened!! A First Alert SA76RS smoke alarm (9V battery powered, made in the mid/late 70’s, mechanical horn) burned a patch in a grandma’s hair while she was changing its battery!

http://www.cpsc.gov/PageFiles/89860/os6g.pdf