What’s your new smoke alarm?
EDIT: In my grandma’s house, I recently installed two new First Alert OneLink detectors. They have a cool wireless interconnection feature, especially helpful for my grandma who might not hear the farther one go off. They have the 500Hz low frequency sounder that sounds like an MT on Code 3 Tone. They are still loud, but not quite as piercing as the typical 3K hz piezo. They are also photoelectric, which could save her life someday.
It is a First Alert Dual Smoke Alarm
Model number is SA320
And it is photoelectric
Aha. Nice choice.
They say it’s best to have double sensor smoke alarms, because you get protection from fast flaming fires, and slow smoldering fires.
But I only ever use/buy photoelectric only alarms. Because… The photoelectric sensor is what’s going to save your life.
The ionization portion is probably just going to give you false alarms, encouraging you to disconnect it. And it adds little value to its sensitivity to actual incipient fires. But hey, that ionization sensor is great at letting you know when your toasting bread!
My dad had the battery out of our old smoke for about 2 years because he got tired of me complaining of the sound
UnumProvident101, do you happen to still have your GE home sentry alarm (did you keep it after you took it down)? If so, would you be willing to give it to me? If you aren’t that’s okay.
I also replaced some smoke alarms at my grandma’s house last year too! She used to have the Lifesaver 1200 hardwired, and three SA90LT’s. I replaced the hardwired one with a BRK 7010B photoelectric with battery backup, and I replaced two SA90LT’s with basic First Alert ionization alarms. I replaced the third one in the basement furnace area with a First Alert photoelectric smoke & CO alarm.
I don’t have it anymore
What did you do with it?
Got rid of it
That’s too bad. These older alarms make a nice collector’s item and are really cool. Anyway, today someone bought the SA76RC.
Nice! That Lifesaver took a lot of flame to set off. I doubt it would be very useful in a fire.
Sorry, I didn’t buy the SA76RC. I mean’t someone else did. I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhlbkQohOGY I got 7 alarms today, but this the the coolest one.
WOW! I saw one of those in a friend’s house years ago and couldn’t figure out what it was! SUPER RARE find! Also, I’m curious about what other alarms you got.
Wow!! What a rare find. I would never have guessed Sears still rebranded alarms as late as 1988. I also didn’t know that detectors like this existed!
The others weren’t anything to write home about - just the 3 of the common Family Gard FG888s, a Fire Sentry and 2 Code One 2000s.
I recently had a near electrical fire resulting from old AC wiring in my garage overheating.
Back a long time ago, someone installed several 120v outlets in the garage, and used 14 gauge wire for the jumpers, but the wire runs were all 12 gauge. (14 gauge is rated for less power than 12 gauge). It was working fine for a long time, because there were only lights and light power tools plugged into it.
Then recently we got an electric car. Because we weren’t able to retrofit a 240V fast charger in, we used the portable 120V charger, that draws more current since the voltage is lower. Lo and behold, one day the garage started smelling like smoke, and the outlets went out. We opened the outlet box up, and inside was a mess of charred and melted wires/connectors.
So, I got to work tearing all the damaged equipment out, and replacing everything with brand new parts. New plastic boxes, proper 12 gauge romex, everything proper and to code.
This story made me realize that a smoke detector is an important thing to have in your garage. So, tonight I’m putting a 9V smoke alarm up on the wall or ceiling right above the outlets. This will hopefully give me and my family some kind of warning if a fire should ever break out there.
The only thing is… The garage is not insulated. Which means the garage could experience temperatures lower that 40 degrees F and as high as the 110’s. I could go with heat detectors, but they are notoriously slow to activate. So, I’ll use a cheapo smoke alarm for now, and it’s not as big a deal if it gives false alarms (compared to an alarm system smoke like in the rest of the house).
Wow that must have been scary. Good to know that no one was hurt.
That makes me want to put a smoke detector in my shed, which was cheaply “electrified” by the previous owners of the house (he used an old time switch box as a junction box!). The outlets and switches in there are very old, so I’m gonna put a smoke detector in there today.
That’s good! Just make sure you can hear it from the house.
I put up my BRK 79DCRI in the SA76RS’ case. It fits perfectly in the housing, and is a nice upgrade from the original 76RS board, because its coffin sensor is just that- Very insensitive!
The new one has the silver round sensor and the fast 5/6 BRK piezo horn of the early 80’s. When they switched to the piezo horn, it seems like the alarms got much more sensitive.
I could have put my SA76RD up, which is newer, but it sometimes falses because it is a used alarm. No way am I putting up an alarm that has seen a full life of service!
The alarm I put up was new old stock from it’s original box. Complete with a brand new battery. I might film it.
A funny bit of info: I have 2 cats that sleep in the garage at night. I had to get up on some shelves behind their bed to install the smoke alarm on a drywall encased ceiling joist, right above the frequently used outlets. There was no real perfect place to put it, but since smoke alarms are supposed to be installed on the bottom of joists in this type of construction, I did just that.
Anyways, they were pretty undisturbed while I was installing the alarm. I drove the screws in the drywall without much trouble, and secured the housing. Then I put the battery in. The alarm did not sound because it wasn’t designed to. When I was putting the cover on, the alarm beeped because the test button got caught. My cats shot out of bed and to the outside door. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the shelving. They were reluctant to get back in their beds near the smoke alarm. They kept looking up at it with wide eyes. So I gave them some cuddles and hopefully that calmed them down to where they could go to sleep. I may have just made my cats afraid of smoke alarms!
Interesting.
Next week, I am going to my church to replace one of the smoke alarms there! I’m replacing the Earli-Gard unit with this unit:
This unit was given to me by a friend last week, and I have no need for it so I’m donating it to the church. I’ll make a video of the Earli-Gard when I get it.
Just filmed the “new” detector I put up.