replacing interconnected smoke alarms

[PoorOwner]

What do I need to know about replacing these? There are some false alarms, they are old. I think it is a first alert model.

There is harness of 3 (or 4?) wire at each one. I think hot, neutral and comm? may have a ground.

I doubt whatever I buy today. will have the same harness and will need to be wirenut'd in the box again.

Then are they just the same as doing something like a light fixture with the added comm cable?


Were the whole house's alarms required to be interconnected?
because when it falsed, only another one alarmed. It was about 5 seconds and stopped.

 

[Higgins]

I believe that all the current SD are 3 wires. However, if your replacing one that is older, the connector used to plug into the detector is most likely a different physical connector. Same thing goes for the mounting plate. just ask me how I know as we replaced everyone in the house we recently purchased ............

 

[Jim greengo]

If they're connected to other alarms there will normally be a red wire from the 14/3 that connects them to each other.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

What do I need to know about replacing these? There are some false alarms, they are old. I think it is a first alert model.

There is harness of 3 (or 4?) wire at each one. I think hot, neutral and comm? may have a ground.

I doubt whatever I buy today. will have the same harness and will need to be wirenut'd in the box again.

Then are they just the same as doing something like a light fixture with the added comm cable?


Were the whole house's alarms required to be interconnected?
because when it falsed, only another one alarmed. It was about 5 seconds and stopped.

The answer to your question depends on the building code adopted at the time of build.

However having them interconnected IS a good thing.

The connecter on the pigtail may be different but is easy to swap.

 

[BillK]

I doubt whatever I buy today. will have the same harness and will need to be wirenut'd in the box again.

Actually . . . the Kidde ones I bought a couple of years ago to replace the 35 year old hard wired ones in my house had the same exact connector. Plug and play.

 

[mrvm]

Picked up replacements smoke detectors from Lowes. Rental property inspector expected all smoke detectors alarm together. The new smoke detectors provided adapters to make the necessary connections.

 

[walta]

What brand is least likely to have false alarms?

Do any brands keep an event log that would ID the unit that generated the alarm?

My current Kidde system is less than 2.5 years old, it goes off at random. Yes the instructions say the offending sensor will blink red after the alarm but this does not happen!

Blowing them out with compressed air did give us 6 months of peace but now it has started again .

Walta

 

[Two Sheds]

After being annoyed with false alarms, I replaced mine with Gentex photoelectric alarms. I have 9 interconnected, so it is really annoying when one goes off.

 

[walta]

After being annoyed with false alarms, I replaced mine with Gentex photoelectric alarms. I have 9 interconnected, so it is really annoying when one goes off.

Two Sheds I am not sure if you are recommending the Gentex units or not, how long have they been installed?

Of course Kidde blames the false alarms on spiders getting into inside the units and blocking the light beam in the photoelectric units. I also have 9 inerconnected units 5 are photoelectric and 4 are combo CO/ ionization units

Walta