Remove Ionisation Smoke Alarms - Consumer Magazine testing reveals

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Webhead
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#2017016 16-May-2018 17:30

Do yourself a favour and spend a little on the smoke detectors. Their job is to wake you up and get you out if there is a fire.

The Cavius photoelectric smoke detectors that Mitre10 sells are really good. They are fully tested before they leave the factory, and very seldom have faults.

$49 for the 5 year battery one. They also come as wireless interconnected alarms with 5-year battery.

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mattwnz

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#2017028 16-May-2018 18:03

MurrayM:

mattwnz:

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/kidde-10-year-photoelectric-smoke-alarm_p00022465 . You can probably save by getting mitre 10 to price beat it if you are getting a house lot..

Mitre 10 don't sell that brand so they wouldn't price beat it. And even if they did sell that brand and you found what looked to be an identical model, you'll find that it will have a different model code and so Mitre 10 will say their price match guarantee doesn't count. That's how Mitre 10 and Bunnings get away with their price match guarantee, they get the suppliers to create a unique model number.

They did when I went there, as they had a big table of them and I got them to price beat them. Exact same code as well.

mattwnz

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#2017030 16-May-2018 18:06

MikeAqua:

Bung:

The Kidde 10Y29 sell for close to £13 on Amazon UK. $8 does look like a good price.

Are they any good?

Interesting product smoke alarms from a user review perspective.

Few consumers ever know (or want to find out) if their smoke detector actually does it's job well.

The ones I have installed seem to be good, and they are distributed by Chubb, which is a well known brand. They do also have a warranty on them. But you never know until they go off, or if the battery fails prematurely. They do say you need to regularly vacuum them, as the photo electric ones can't get dust in the sensor.

k1w1k1d

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#2017130 16-May-2018 19:37

I have been replacing our old ionization ones with Quell dual sensor smoke alarms.

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/quell-smoke-alarm-dual-sensor/p/187224

tehgerbil

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#2017195 16-May-2018 21:01

If you're reading this, treat it as a great reminder to check your smoke alarms.

You're as good as dead if your alarms don't work.

A few things to note..

You can use 3M strips to hold up your smoke alarms if you can't/don't want to drill holes. (We've used 3M's and they've lasted 4+ years now.)
If you hear 1 chirping the battery's flat, replace them all.
Never let "Long life detectors" let you grow complacent. Still check them bi-yearly.
you can never have enough of them. (We 6 in our 3 bedroom house.)

Aredwood

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#2017258 17-May-2018 01:06

jarledb:
Do yourself a favour and spend a little on the smoke detectors. Their job is to wake you up and get you out if there is a fire.

The Cavius photoelectric smoke detectors that Mitre10 sells are really good. They are fully tested before they leave the factory, and very seldom have faults.

$49 for the 5 year battery one. They also come as wireless interconnected alarms with 5-year battery.

Fully agree with the Cavius alarms. They are by far the most reliable smoke alarms I have owned. Another important point is the Cavius alarms have a really fine mesh to keep bugs out of the sensing chamber. Friend had a different brand of photoelectric smoke alarm in a rental property. It kept on giving lots of false alarms, even with no smoke or steam whatsoever. Landlord refused to fix it and refused to let him remove it, despite it going off at least twice every night.

The fix - spraying fly spray on it. After it stopped sounding due to the unit thinking the mist of fly spray was smoke - No more false alarms. There was also another thread where a faulty photoelectric smoke alarm had a bug in the sensing chamber.

Sure, the Cavius alarms might cost a bit more. But I'm happy to pay a little extra for less false alarms. And less false alarms means that people will react faster if an alarm goes off.

MurrayM

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#2017418 17-May-2018 09:51

mattwnz:

MurrayM:

mattwnz:

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/kidde-10-year-photoelectric-smoke-alarm_p00022465 . You can probably save by getting mitre 10 to price beat it if you are getting a house lot..

Mitre 10 don't sell that brand so they wouldn't price beat it. And even if they did sell that brand and you found what looked to be an identical model, you'll find that it will have a different model code and so Mitre 10 will say their price match guarantee doesn't count. That's how Mitre 10 and Bunnings get away with their price match guarantee, they get the suppliers to create a unique model number.

They did when I went there, as they had a big table of them and I got them to price beat them. Exact same code as well.

That's interesting, Mitre 10 don't have any Kidde smoke detectors on their website.

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MikeAqua

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#2017428 17-May-2018 10:07

tehgerbil:

If you're reading this, treat it as a great reminder to check your smoke alarms.

Every time I see coverage of a house fire on the news I check our smoke alarms.

Mike

mclean

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#2017491 17-May-2018 11:08

k1w1k1d: I have been replacing our old ionization ones with Quell dual sensor smoke alarms.

Good detectors I think, just be aware of the product recall in both NZ and Australia affecting these. It doesn't affect all models and the fix is easy.

bfginger

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#2064736 30-Jul-2018 05:23

I think the quality of the individual unit may be more important than the technology type. I saw a test on TV some years ago of a large selection of photovoltaic alarms and most of them performed so badly it took prolonged bellowing black smock to set them off. In contrast my ionisation alarm is set off by burnt toast.

jpoc

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#2064789 30-Jul-2018 09:13

alasta:

I have been thinking for a while that I should replace my ionising unit with a photoelectric unit but I've been putting it off because I'm guessing the bracket won't fit the existing screw holes, which means more holes in the ceiling.

How do other people deal with this when replacing old smoke alarms? I assume there's no standardisation of the gap between the two screw holes in the bracket?

We just swapped and the holes lined up. No new holes needed. This worked out because the new units had a mounting sub-frame with slots for the screws and not just holes so they could tolerate a range of hole spacing.

jarledb

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#2064807 30-Jul-2018 09:39

bfginger: I think the quality of the individual unit may be more important than the technology type. I saw a test on TV some years ago of a large selection of photovoltaic alarms and most of them performed so badly it took prolonged bellowing black smock to set them off. In contrast my ionisation alarm is set off by burnt toast.

Thats a common missconception: Just because the smoke alarm gives off false alarms, does not mean it will do a good job in detecting a real fire.

It is well proven that ionization smoke detectors give many false alarms, but does not give good detection of fires. In my option the fire safety would increase a lot if pure ionization alarms were banned. The problem is that people buy the cheapest alarm they can find, and think they are protected.

Photoelectric alarms are recommended by the New Zealand Fire Services, by Consumer NZ and many other countries safety and fire organisations.

Here is the NZ Fire Services page on smoke alarms.

sbiddle

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#2064820 30-Jul-2018 10:02

Ionisation alarms were the norm for many years, and up until probably 10 or so years ago were regarded as the "normal" smoke alarm people had.

Photoelectric alarms are now regarded as superior in pretty much every way including the fact they won't trigger many false alarms from things like toasters. If you do have a smoke alarm triggering from a toaster you've got the smoke alarm in the wrong place - they should not be installed in kitchens. That's not just because of the risk of false alarms, it's also the fact they will fill up with grime.

If you have an ionisation alarm you should upgrade it, remembering an alarm only has a finite life anyway, and if it's more than 10 years old it would have expired.

Rikkitic

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#2064837 30-Jul-2018 10:21

A cheap ionisation alarm saved my bacon not long ago. I will be forever grateful to it. Not saying they are better, just that any alarm is preferable to no alarm.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

sbiddle

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#2064859 30-Jul-2018 10:54

Rikkitic:

A cheap ionisation alarm saved my bacon not long ago. I will be forever grateful to it. Not saying they are better, just that any alarm is preferable to no alarm.

Definately.

But new 10yr photoelectric smoke alarms are a no brainer when you next have to replace the batteries though, when you factor in $5 for a 9V battery which needs to be changed once per year vs under $20 for a 10yr alarm.

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