I decided to create another smoke alarm-related topic, since anything on the “Rare Smoke Detectors” topic that wasn’t quite about rare smoke detectors felt out of place. Perhaps both topics can be stickied for easier access?
Anyway, my grandparents’ house has one singular First Alert SA67D with the “smiley face” cover design that’s over ten years old. I want to replace it, but I’m not sure if I should stick with BRK/First Alert or switch to Kidde/FireX. Their house isn’t very large, so I know that one single-station alarm will wake the whole house up, but I’m wondering if I should install more around the house (their alarm is mounted on the wall on the other side of the kitchen) since I worry that the detector might not activate if a fire starts elsewhere in the house.
I don’t want to cut holes in their ceiling just to install hardwired detectors and I don’t trust wireless interconnects, so do you think I can stick to multiple single-station alarms?
Just a question - when did Pittway sell off First Alert to BRK? Or did Pittway buy BRK as well before being bought by Honeywell? I’m curious because BRK founded System Sensor in 1984, right? And Pittway owned System Sensor before Honeywell bought them.
All these acquisitions make my head spin! :?
First Alert is a BRK Electronics brand name and has always been.
BRK Electronics was owned by Pittway until 1998 when Sunbeam bought them from Pittway.
Huh. Now I know that 5/6 and 4/6 are smoke alarm patterns, with the latter being slower than the former, but what do the numbers mean - they’re certainly not beats per minute, are they?
4/6 & 5/6 refers to the amount of time per second (nominal) that the horn is sounding. Here’s a video I just made to make it clearer.
And here’s a link to the document I mentioned. (Sadly their doc for their photo IC doesn’t have the figure illustrating the patterns)
http://cache.freescale.com/files/analog/doc/data_sheet/MC145018.pdf Page 6.
Didn’t know Freescale made those. I will call up my friend there and find out more.
Can you make that video public, Nathaniel? It’s listed as Private now.
Also, should I just replace the one detector in their living room or should I set up multiple single-station alarms around their house? They have an old BRK rectangular wall-mount FCD3BN CO alarm in the hallway which I can probably remove and patch.
I was thinking about SA-710B photo detectors near every room and a CO250B on the ceiling where the old CO alarm was.
I would use Kidde Night Hawk Combination Smoke/CO Alarm w/Voice/Alarm Warning - Walmart.com thesearound the house. I have 2 and they are the best.
I used to have that one in my house. I replaced it because it didn’t interconnect with the rest of the detectors in my house. Also, I kinda don’t like the voice sounder. It’s a little too creepy for me.
Does anyone have these smokes in their house or in their collection? There are in my friend’s house, and I think they’re quite odd. The battery compartment can only be accessed by removing the head from the base and getting the battery into the detector is not nearly as easy as it seems. The connectors are odd too, but I can’t really explain them.