10 year smoke alarms

[John H]

I think you need to distinguish between the alarm and the battery. It was the battery in ours that failed to live up to its promise, not the alarm. I replaced the battery and the alarm is fine again.

And to be fair, perhaps the battery drained early because of the number of times the alarm went off, triggered by the proximity of the toasting rack on the gas hob, in a confined space.

[Driftwood]

Thought we had avoided that issue by getting one hardwired in our new house.
But after 3 years the damn thing started chirping.
Apparently it has a battery backup in case of power failure.
You cant win.

[kahawai chaser]

I found alarms can be a haven for cockroaches. Alarm near the attic drop cover, went of frequently, dunno why, until late at night, turned on the hall light, they were running inside the alarm. After fumigating the attic, and replacing the alarm ended the alarm gong off.

Maybe alarms need be treated as disposables...

[Pato]

I think you need to distinguish between the alarm and the battery. It was the battery in ours that failed to live up to its promise, not the alarm. I replaced the battery and the alarm is fine again.

And to be fair, perhaps the battery drained early because of the number of times the alarm went off, triggered by the proximity of the toasting rack on the gas hob, in a confined space.

The 10 year ones I got have the battery sealed in and can't be replaced. I thought they were all like that so I have learnt something.

[Pato]

Thought we had avoided that issue by getting one hardwired in our new house.
But after 3 years the damn thing started chirping.
Apparently it has a battery backup in case of power failure.
You cant win.

I considered that system but it can be quite expensive unless you do it when the house was built. I agree, you can't win with these things, but I guess it is better to have some protection
than nothing at all.

[Pato]

I found alarms can be a haven for cockroaches. ..

Thankfully we don't have that problem.

[John H]

The 10 year ones I got have the battery sealed in and can't be replaced. I thought they were all like that so I have learnt something.

Mine has just an ordinary 3v CR2 battery. There is a label which you can see in the photo recommending the alarm be replaced after 10 years.

[Digby]

They do need blowing out of dust.
So I bought a blower vacuum cleaner.
Now I have got to get round to doing it

[Pato]

Thanks all. I might not have the perfect alarms but I have gained a good bit of knowledge about them.