Smoke Alarms ReviewsSmoke Alarms Buying Guide , Cheap Smoke Alarms , Discount Smoke Alarms.

Great deal
One of the smoke detectors in my office died and I needed a replacement. This unit had a good price and I liked the idea of not having to change batteries all the time (twice a year). Got fast shipping and installation was easy. Would buy again.

No more changing batteries all the time
This smoke alarm was very easy to install. It went off a couple times while I was cooking, so I know it works! The hush button is great for when that happens. And best of all, no more low battery beeps and buying batteries. So far, so good!

Peace of mind
Think of not having to change the battery all of the time. Plus, The hush button is great when you are baking

Easy to install, works great
This smoke detector was quite easy to install with two screws. There are no batteries to replace and, when it works, it is loud and effective.

One note: because there are no batteries, you can't take them out if you have smoke ... say you burned something in the kitchen ... so you'll have to deal with the alarm ... or just don't burn your food when you cook :)

Good product
Product arrived in a timely manner and was as described. They were easily installed by electrician and appear to be working.

No Date Issue here
I just purchased two of these IP2000 units direct from Amazon and the date code on both was August 2008, *within 60 days of my purchase. After doing alot of research, I found there are few units like this that offer dual sensors.

Smart protection for your home
For those concerned about previous mfr date issues with reviews, my units were manufactured within 45 days of my purchase date -- which is actually extremely reasonable. I'm guessing that wherever these are manufactured, they are taking a boat trip at least once before hitting a warehouse to wait for me to purchase.

I recently replaced my 10 year old BRK detectors around my entire house. I installed the Kidde PI2000 dual sensor detector in each beadroom and a Kidde KN-COSM-IB smoke and carbon dioxide detector in the hallways in the basement, first and second floor hallways.

I researched first alert, brk, and kidde, mostly because I could see them at my local big box hardware store. I chose Kidde becuase it had more features for the wired-in detectors than both first alert and brk. First alert appears to have focused their current lines on battery only units and wireless communications. Brk also had limited options in dual sensors or combo co2 detectors in a wired setting. Since neither first alert or brk could supply both a photo sensor/ion wired unit AND a dual CO2 and smoke wired detector that communicated together, I chose kidde detectors. I wanted them all to communicate and mixing and matching product vendors makes communications between the units impossible.

There are no pretty dual detectors that exist on the market. These are nice and boring and don't draw attention. They have a working hush button SEPARATE from the test button. That's a new feature that I appreciate. I haven't ripped one of these off the ceiling once yet to get them to stop their alarms.

I've never done a smoke or co2 test. I'll let the experts run those tests. My only tests are using the test button. But it works as identified and is loud. The voice alarms in the COSM unit is good for the hallways and will supplement the normal alarm well. Children are reported to respond faster to "Fire!, Fire!". I've been know to sleep through my daughter's baby monitor on one of her bad nights... There's no way I'm not going to hear both the voice and the piercing alarms

DIY info:

Since I was replacing an existing AC wired solution, I wanted to continue to have the security of both AC power and battery backup. The best feature by far of this wired in solution is that all detectors are wired to communicate together. If my basement CO2 detector goes off, then the other two CO2 detectors also sound with an alarm and a voice indicator. When any of the smoke detectors trip, all detectors sound, and the hallway units voice alert "Fire!, Fire!". This connection between detectors will ensure that I know in the middle of the night if I have a fire in the basement... My house is well soundproofed between floors.

In replacing the existing brk wired in units with the Kidde detectors, I had to remove the existing collars and wired in "tails" since the existing ones were not compatible with the Kiddes. You can buy an adapter to convert from the BRK style of tail to the Kidde, but I considered that a waste of money. In my house, all of the smoke detectors are on the same electrical circuit and rewiring the tails and installing the detectors was a matter of ensuring the circuit was off, removeing 3 wire nuts, removing the existing tail, then twisting the new tail into the existing leads and putting the wire nuts back on. less than 3 minutes of work.

THe collar was easy to replace. A cordless screwdriver to loosen (not remove) the 2 J-box screws, twist and pull the brk collar off, add the Kidde collar, then tighten the screws.

All in all less than 5 minutes per detector... replaceing 7 detectors took less than an hour of work and I made sure to test each one for communications with the other units.

For the single detector that I have close to the peak of a cathedral ceiling I replaced the nice alkaline 9v that shipped with the PI2000 with an Ultralife Lithium 9v... they are made specifically for smoke detectors and are claimed to at least double the lifespan of a alkaline up to 10 years.... I'll let you know in ten years if its true. In any case I don't expect to have to change that high detector's battery for years now.

Remember that smoke detectors have to be replaced every 10 years.. units that detect CO2 will have to be replaced after 5yrs... its a chemical based sensor.

Added and convenient protection for your home
As a do-it-yourselfer I appreciate the ease of which it took to switch out my old detectors. The detectors I received were sent directly to my home within a couple of days and had new date codes. As a firefighter I appreciate the dual sensor feature which provides my family added protection from all types of fires. The hush feature is also an added bonus to prevent the tempatation of disconnecting the detector when dinner gets a little over cooked.

Smoke alarm
I like the smaller size. Nice compact piece of equipment. I can't review how well it works, which is actually a good thing, as it means I haven't needed to use it!! I purchased several of these for my home and my rental property.

Good price.

Gets the job done
Not much to say for an economical detector. It has no frills, but its cheap price allows you to install more than would otherwise be the case. My advice is be sure you can easily get at them because when it goes off, you have to take out the battery to stop it. It will go off at the scent of smoke, so be ready for false alarms -- installation location is critical to your sanity.

A video review of what the product looks like and how it works
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R31KYF3PVLV2U8 Here's a quick video to show you what comes in the box, and how easy it is to use this compact smoke and fire alarm.

nice cheap unit
bought 5 of these. i had them place all over my house. easy to install and very compact in size.

Quick, Easy, Effective
Standard ion-based fire alarms have a success rating of a big 35%. I didn't know this until a fire expert talked to me about fire safety in our home. That was when I found out that in Europe and Canada, ion-based smoke detectors are outlawed and photo-sensors are the norm. These have a much higher rate of success and reliability.

This model is affordable and has a lot of great features. Be aware, however, that if you install yours anywhere near a heat source that could make steam, cooking smoke, etc., the alarm will go off. This is where the mute feature comes in so handy--especially the TV remote ability.

When you install one in the kitchen, just be sure it's on the opposite side of the room from your stovetop and you'll have very few false alarms. I learned this the hard way, but I also learned that smoke I can't see will set off this alarm--as well white smoke and even heat radiance and steam (none of which will trigger your ion-based alarm).

Good
My house is still standing. But seriously, this seems like a great product. I bought it because of really good reviews elsewhere and here.

Warning!
Please read the reviews, this product is horrible!! Chirping at 3:30 AM for NO REASON is the norm. I've had 3 of these, new backup batteries and all, and they all fail. Go elsewhere, I am.

Great replacement!
I purchased this to replace a broken smoke detector. This matched up perfectly with the others in service in our home and we have had no false alarms since installing.

Replaced my aging smoke alarms
I recently replaced the 14-year old smoke alarms in my home with these 9120B units (identified as the suitable form-fit-function replacements for the contractor grade units that were installed when my home was built). Good price for a 6-pack. Installation was a breeze since the power leads from the old units worked without modification for the new units. Note: old units had labels indicating a 10-year service life, so if your home is older than 10-years you should consider replacing your residential smoke alarms.

so far so good
Did a fair amount of research on these because our "old" ones did the oft-reported chirps and middle of the night full on alarm for nothing. My kids are now (unfortunately) well trained to sleep through the alarms... In any event, I finally gave in and bought these. No chirps so far or middle of the night false alarms yet.

In my research I saw that there was ultimately no difference between the BRK brand we had and the First Alert as FA had bought the other company. Also reported as an issue by others were the dates on the units. These new ones were ok - not super recent but around a year old, so hopefully will last a while. (Of note, I remarked taking them down that the old ones were dated right at the time they were installed - so perhaps professional contractors have access to the latest ones?). Per advice online of others I did purchase from Amazon directly.

Even though the newer models required a new plate to be installed, it was 2 screws off and two screws on and done - so really no big deal. The same electrical plug-ins still worked.

I will post back if we have problems, but I also saw just after these went up that they now have these brand new flatter ones. I would have looked into those.

Replaced BRK 4120B
I just replaced my 8-year old (at least the house is that old) BRK 4120B smoke alarms with this first alert model. There are 8 alarms in my house. The old BRK units began to fail by going off, not the low-battery chirp mind you, but the alarm, around 4AM until I disabled the whole system to figure it out. After re-enabling everything WITHOUT the interconnect wiring I found that 2 were bad. Rather than just replacing them I decided on a complete upgrade.

I thought about another brand such as Kidde, but in the end purchased these. I bought 2 individual and one contractors 6-pack (also from amazon), so the price was right. The installation went very smoothly. The only worry I have is the age of the included batteries. I didn't see a date on the units themselves as some others reported.

I plan to take better care of these with regular battery changes. Fingers crossed.

Best Replacement Units
When the hard wired ionization alarms in my house started to fail (with constant false alarms) I could not find direct replacement units because the original ones were no longer produced.

The primary reason for choosing First Alert units was price, brand name recognition (I heat with coal and have a very precise CO detector made by them) and it provided both the hard wired capability with additional battery backup, not found in the 20 year old units originally installed in my house.

Installation was easy because these units were being installed in the existing electrical boxes. Turn off power, remove old units, install new bases, plug in wires, twist 1/4 turn right to lock in place and turn on power.

After testing under smoky and invisible ion conditions with my wife's cigarettes, I was satisfied they were working properly.

The only downside I can see is that these units SEEM much quieter than the units formerly installed in the house by 5 to 10 decibels. This is not good if you consider that these are installed in the hallway OUTSIDE the bedroom doors and I have 93 Db hearing loss!

Works great
One of these failed in our house as a result of a leak. The replacement fit right into the old spot and works fine.

Smoke Detector
I ordered a replacement for an existing detector that no longer worked. Package arrived in a few days and is working as advertised

Works great, wonderful features,. But you still must replace batteries!
Six are installed and interconnected.

Wonderful features:
* They're all interconnected. If one alarms, they all alarm (therefore waking the dead ;)).

* Even better: interconnected False Alarm Control. If smoke in the kitchen causes the one wayyy up high to trigger... Just push the test button on ANY unit (one in the hall is on the wall, easily reached) and the False Alarm Control is set: all alarms are desensitized for 15 minutes! (They're not "off" -- just less sensitive. If the house were really on fire, the alarm would continue due to so much smoke.)

Pain in the neck (but this is how all alarms work):

After a few years, batteries get weak and the alarms start to chirp -- loudly -- once a minute. It begins at night when the house is colder (and batteries are weaker!) Ours, installed in 2000, began to do this a few months ago. Rude awakening for sure! Just went and replaced 100% of all batteries, and everyone can sleep again.

If they were the "AD" (battery only) version, the batteries would need replacing a couple of times a year. But the 4518 / ADC version runs on AC power so the batteries are hardly used at all. I like that the batteries lasted so long before they needed replacing!

Now if only I could give remote-control battery power to the unit that's at the top of the 14 foot high open ceiling... must borrow a tall ladder from a friend to replace that one!

Oh, one more thing: according to the user guide, all such ionization smoke detectors should be replaced at *least* every ten years, even if working correctly, because the sensor units degrade. Perhaps the other reviewer lives in a place where sensors degrade more rapidly than normal (can happen in high dust / particulate / etc areas...)

Excellent Buy
This product was easy to install with very clear instructions. I installed it in 10 minutes as a replacement to an older unit which had expired. These units should be replaced periodically and some have expiration dates on them..

Must Have for Older Homes
Our home was built in the late-70's so we had a hardwired smoke alarm on each floor but they were not interconnected, not to mention they didn't have a battery backup. If we were sleeping, could we expect to hear the alarm on another floor, on the opposite side of the house? That's a bet I'm not willing to take, so we spent the extra money on two of these. We also plan on buying a couple of the battery only ONELINK alarms to expand our safety and coverage without hiring an electrician to install.
To program, you insert batteries and close the battery door on one unit; then you insert batteries on the second unit, press a button on the second unit, then press a button on the first unit. Inserting batteries and programming took under two minutes for two alarms. My (getting better but still not what I'd call "handy") husband had the alarms installed in under five minutes each. So, I'd consider them pretty easy to install.
During testing, they communicated well together and they seem loud. Of course, the real test for any fire alarm is during a real fire but I'm not really into burning my house down for the sake of a review. Therefore, I'm giving it five stars and calling it done!