Rare Smoke Detectors

Fire Alarm General Discussion
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And yes, I have seen only two BRK 1769ACI smoke alarms in my lifetime. I would really like one for my collection, but they are super rare now. I believe they are ionization detectors from the early 80’s, unlike it’s brother, the System Sensor version, which looks very slightly different and is photoelectric. There is a local nursing home around here that still has many of the SS versions of these detectors, some of which have been replaced in the 90’s with the SS 2400 series.

Here is the System Sensor (12 or 24 volt, no sounder) version of the BRK 1769ACI. I believe these were the very first System Sensor detectors ever produced. System Sensor was founded in 1984 by BRK Electronics, as their “commercial fire alarm” division. BRK did produce system detectors before 1984, but they were branded as BRK, not System Sensor. So, it is possible that this is a pre-1984 BRK system detector.

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A video I made of a test of two rare smoke alarms: the Rare BRK 79DCRI and the Ten-Tek (Dicon) IB900.

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I have the version of the Ten-Tek like what’s on the box. (even though it somehow got labeled as the IL-930 120VAC model)
Photo Storage
Its circuitboard is actually attached to the cover, rather than the base!
Photo Storage I do have a true 930, it sounds exactly like the BRK/First Alert piezo 1839 series.

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Very cool! They must have needed to change designs because the Ten-Tek I got had the test tab bent and wouldn’t test with the cover on. It was in it’s original box too.

And yeah, the 1839 series has a unique and funny sound to it. Like WheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEt! The tone is modulated a bit at the frequency of the AC too, so it gives it a little bit of an EST Genesis-like tone to it. I video testing mine… It is in the other half of my SA76RS unboxing video.

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Good job with the 79DCRI and the Ten-Tek (that’s an unusual name!). I forgot to mention that I have seen two 79DCRI’s before. In an old house about 2 years ago. The funny thing was, that there was a newer hardwired smoke detector system in that house, but the 2 79DCRI’s were still functioning as single-station smoke detectors!

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I don’t get why they even produced the 79DCRI. It is a standard battery operated smoke alarm that is interconnectable and has a built-in SPDT relay. For all the money and time you’d be spending to install junction boxes and run wires, you could just install AC smoke alarms. Those are interconnectable and some include relays.

At the time (early 80’s), if you really needed both interconnectability and a built-in relay, you could just buy the BRK 79ACRI. It is round and looks just like the 79R battery powered detector.
The 79R is just a First Alert SA76RC with a different cover, I believe.

By the way, the 79DCRI has a funny alarm sequence. You have to hold the test button down for several seconds, then it chirps and the red LED comes on steady. I’m guessing the relay activates when it chirps. Then after a moment it starts beeping normally and the LED flashes with the sound.

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ACTUALLY I just realized something. Because there were no AC smoke alarms with battery backup available at the time (I don’t think)- in the event of a power failure, there may be a need to control auxiliary devices using emergency power, such as lights, fans, or even door closers. The 79ACRI could not do this because it is completely inoperative without AC power. That’s why they made the 79DCRI. At least that’s my theory.

After closer inspection of the DCRI, there is no hole on the back where the wires could go through to get to an electrical box. The holes don’t line up for that type of mounting. The wire hole is on the side/back edge, only allowing for surface mounting the wires. Pretty crude, considering it uses pigtail connections with wiring harnesses that plug into the board. So you would need to use exposed splices for this model, surface running the wires. Either that or surface mount a junction box right next to it, and have the exposed wires coming into a knockout. Very crude. Why they designed a smoke alarm this way? I see no real usefulness for this. Most people would probably remove the wiring harnesses, using it as a standalone 9V model. If you aren’t even going to use the extra features this detector offers, and pay a premium for features you’d never use, why buy this model? Buy a First Alert SA76RC/BRK 79R instead and get the same usefulness for a lower price. And the relay won’t drain the battery down every time you burn toast.

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Here’s a show called Tales from the Darkside… This particular episode is kind of cool. Kind of like a Twilight Zone. Anyways, there is a cardboard model of a rare smoke alarm in this episode. (Skip to 6:06 if you just want to see the cutout.) It is an oversized First Alert SA80FC replica painted gray. It has a huge light on it, and makes a very strange sound as well as shining little bits of light everywhere.
This episode is from June 9, 1985.

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Most likely it’s just a First Alert SA80FC. The sound of that alarm was definitely edited in. Absolutely NO smoke detectors make that sound. That red light on the cover was also most likely edited in as well.

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That video scared me when i was little :roll:

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The cover probably is a cardboard cutout. If you look closely, you can see that the finish to it is matte, and not shiny like an 80FC’s cover would be. Also, the rings are drawn on the front, as you can see little imperfections where someone’s unsteady hand shook a little bit while drawing. The light was probably attached to this cardboard cover, and controlled remotely using some clever film tricks. The base of it does look real, as it shows a side view at one point. They probably built a custom cover for the base, and took out the original circuit board. (Obviously, since an 80FC doesn’t have nearly as much circuitry or wire as came out of the giant hole it left!)

As for the sound, it is obviously fake. No smoke alarm sounds like that, or gets louder with more smoke. The repetitive beeping noise could have been recorded from the original alarm and had it’s pitch lowered though.

There was an old Canadian video from the late 80’s early 90’s that was about “the importance of smoke alarms”. It featured a firefighter going in and testing a 1st Gen SA67D at a lady’s house. First, he pressed the button, then folded a triangle out of paper and lit it to test it. I am looking for that vid.

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I found a video from many years ago containing the First Alert SA76RS. In the comments section, NewAgeServer said “The oldest one in the lower-right is by Probe. Ask NLind about it. He knows. ;)”
Was Smoke Alert ever a division of Probe?
I believe Probe became Gateway Scientific in the early 80’s… And I also know Smoke Alert became First Alert in the mid 70’s. I also know BRK owns First Alert and may have owned Smoke Alert as well. Gateway Scientific and BRK/First Alert were also rivals I believe, although they both produced alarms for Sears.

Also, I can’t find any info at all about Probe smoke alarms. No pics, docs, videos, no nothing. All I can find are vids of the sealed Sears smokes made by Gateway, and this square Gateway photo alarm from 1982. The only time I’ve ever heard Probe mentioned is from NLind, or Fire Alarm Fan.

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Probe had, AFAIK, 2 series of alarms:
The 100 series was battery operated (101=basic, 105=silencer, silence button protrudes from side vent, probably a model with a light, too.)
The 200 series was 120VAC (201=no interconnect, 202=interconnect) They had the Kobishi alarm horns like the FireX AC alarms.

They also had a Christmas tree alarm.

I had a 101, and have a non-functioning 201.

Here’s a picture of an old eBay listing for some 202s
Photo Storage

Here’s what’s probably a 201

and here’s a 200 series sounding/being tested.

As I was looking for a pic of the 100 series, I stumbled upon this awesome picture:
http://cbsbaltimore.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/smoke-alarm.jpg?w=620&h=349&crop=1
Some pretty rare ones, but check out that Edwards unit, top right!! That alarm jumps to my wanted list!

Lastly here’s some old First Alert commercials I just ran across feat. the 76RS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8vXbsvxWCc ('77)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ickVjAmxxSI ('78)

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Wow!! I have no idea how you find all this information Mr. L! Every time I search for “Probe smoke detector”, I only get hundreds of results for duct detector air sampling probes. Thank you so much. You are the man!!

Okay, now I know what Probe smoke alarms look like. They resemble Firexes. Come to think of it, I think there was a Probe smoke alarm in my sister’s old house from 10 years ago. I just thought it was a Firex, or a “Maple Chase”. It’s cover disappeared soon after it voiced it’s opinion of my sister’s cooking. I wish I kept the detector. It eventually was replaced and scrapped.

I believe Probe alarms have similar side vent-slots to the 76RC’s cover, but instead of being evenly spaced, they are paired up in twos.

Also… I found a news story from 1981, about the different kinds of smoke alarms. They test a board of 5 alarms, which I have closely examined and deduced what their test number and type are.
There are other alarms featured, however, the video is so washed out you can’t see the cover designs. (Like at 2:06).

Here’s a still showing the board. The detectors are numbered from bottom to top.

Detector #1 is a 120VAC (probably hardwired) ion alarm with a squealer. It might be a GE. It makes a sound like it’s running on FWR power. It makes the high DC squealer tone, but is heavily modulated at 60Hz.

Detector #2 could be an ESL. It is a 120VAC wall cord Photo alarm. It has a squealer, but it makes the sound of a full DC squealer.

Detector #3 is COOL. It is a battery powered Ion alarm. This is the one I thought was a “Probe”. It looks like a First Alert 76RC/RS, but has a piezo horn, and the test button is not in the rings, but in the little circle near the center of the cover!

Detector #4 is the 2nd Gen rectangular GE alarm. Not much to say on this one. It’s more common.

Detector #5 is a battery powered photo ADT alarm, with the same black Star buzzer in the old GE alarms.

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http://cbsbaltimore.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/smoke-alarm.jpg?w=620&h=349&crop=1
Some alarms I recognize this photo in this photo are:
Top row: ESL?, Teledyne-Water Pik, Edwards
Middle row: FireX FXW-1A, Honeywell TC49A, FireX
Bottom Row: Newer Kidde smoke alarm, BRK 4919, FireX with escape light

Also, that film from 1981 was very neat. Too bad an entire section was cut out.

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That is an ESL detector, but it is rebranded. I think by Westinghouse.

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Here’s a slightly later model “Southwest Laboratories” (Gateway Scientific?) smoke detector. It looks very much like a Probe. It is from 1988.

The front:

The back:

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I recently found this photo I took a few years ago of an older smoke detector. Can anyone identify it? I have absolutely no idea which company could’ve made this device.

I apologize for the extremely blurry photo.

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That old yellow system smoke is likely an 80’s Fenwal. I know there is a very similar looking smoke detector to that one, the Fenwal CPD-7021 (Ionization). Maybe the version you posted is the photo version.

Here’s a vid of the CPD-7021 being tested with canned smoke.

As for the Southwest battery smoke I posted above that, it is basically a Probe. The model number is 101, making it a basic battery model. It seems to be a next-generation Probe model.

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I know that there is a photoelectric Fenwal detector that looks similar to that one (pictured below), but it definitely isn’t the same as the one in my previous post. I’ve also seen some some of those CPD-7021s in a building at my university that has an '80s Simplex system, and they look quite different from the unidentified smoke: the CPD-7021 (along with other Fenwal smokes I’ve seen) is definitely larger and has a different shape with slightly sloped edges, while the unidentified detector is skinny and has straight edges. However, it is entirely possible that the unidentified smoke is indeed a Fenwal model.

I just remembered that the unknown detector was connected to an '80s Mirtone 8000 control panel. If Mirtone ever manufactured smoke detectors, perhaps it was made by this company; I’ve just never seen a Mirtone detector that wasn’t a rebranded Edwards model.

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