What "10 year" smoke alarms do you recommend?

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Mehrts

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#318274 2-Jan-2025 10:43

Hi GZ,

My existing 10 year smoke alarms are coming to their end of life after eight years of service, and I'm wondering what smoke alarms you've had no trouble with. I don't have the receipts for the original alarms, so returning them isn't viable, though eight years is still decent enough for my liking.

Reading the reviews for Bunnings/Mitre10 alarms shows that a lot are susceptible to false alarms.

I'm going to be renting my place out, so don't want the hassle of false alarms for tenants.

Cheers!

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#3326966 2-Jan-2025 10:58

They're all the same, they'll all have their faults per quantity. The more that a model is sold the more bad reviews it will generate on those websites. Just get whatever suits you in terms of features/appearance/ease of installation/price.

I'd recommend any that come in a pack. Download their instructions and make sure you buy a suitable number of sensors for the size/rooms of the house

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networkn

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#3326967 2-Jan-2025 11:04

I like the Cavius, their after sales support blew my mind. Replaced one after 9 years.

rscole86

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#3326968 2-Jan-2025 11:05

As a brand, I've been very happy with my Cavius interconnected smoke/heat alarms. They've only gone off twice in the 7+ years we've had them installed, both for legitimate triggers.

eracode

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#3326970 2-Jan-2025 11:12

networkn:

I like the Cavius, their after sales support blew my mind. Replaced one after 9 years.

Had a similar experience with Cavius - brilliant.

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networkn

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#3326994 2-Jan-2025 13:19

rscole86: As a brand, I've been very happy with my Cavius interconnected smoke/heat alarms. They've only gone off twice in the 7+ years we've had them installed, both for legitimate triggers.

Does your wife only cook twice every 7 years, same as mine? :)

jarledb

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#3326996 2-Jan-2025 13:26

Make sure you don't put in an alarm in the middle of the kitchen, unless it is a thermal heat alarm.

It is also worth being aware that condensation can create false alarms, this is typically a problem when the temperature goes from above 15c to below 15c.

I am not objective when it comes to types of smoke alarms, because I have interests in a company that imports and distribute Cavius in Scandinavia. With that said, Cavius is the best smoke alarms I have ever come across.

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rscole86

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#3326997 2-Jan-2025 13:27

Admittedly most recently I got the air fryer to set off the kitchen sensor, @ezzie let me know all about it.

timmmay

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#3326998 2-Jan-2025 13:32

Happy with my Cavius. I have a couple of smoke alarms in the house, both connected with a thermal alarm on the ceiling above the stove. We've never had a false alarm. I think they're a mix of 5 and 10 year batteries. I should really change the ones in the bedrooms to Cavius, mostly for the networking between them.

richms

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#3327002 2-Jan-2025 14:01

Make sure when you remove them because they go off in the middle of the night for no reason you dont "clean up" and put them in a box to deal with later, as they will still occasionally go off for 5-10 seconds in the middle of the night when in a box and you have NO WAY TO FIND IT.

Has anyone had any success returning them before 10 years and getting any solution from retailers? Something being sold as a 10 year device and starting to false alarm after 5 is IMO a consumer law issue. Why smoke and fire alarms are tolerated to be so crap is amazing. Imagine if you had airbags falsely going off as often as smoke alarms do.

Richard rich.ms

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#3327018 2-Jan-2025 14:53

I've been installing these lately, mainly because I like the look of them and prefer something wall mountable. Being able to easily reach the button to silence the unit is an important consideration if you are a bad cook or like your toast with extra carcinogens.

We've had two in our house for several years and never had a false alarm. I know they still work because I forgot to cover them up when we used a flea bomb a few weeks back :) They have replaceable lithium batteries which I expect will last the life of the product.

Full disclosure - I now know someone who works for the distributor, but the original alarms were purchased long before she started working there.

Rikkitic

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#3327019 2-Jan-2025 14:57

I am a believer in smoke alarms. A cheap ionisation one from Mitre 10 saved us when it detected an insulation fire in a shorted DVD connector. However, after I upgraded to photoelectric alarms I had no end of trouble with false alarms and in one case, a sealed 10-year alarm that wouldn't shut up and couldn't be disconnected. I finally had to bash it with a hammer. Needless to say, I couldn't return it after that!

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#3327023 2-Jan-2025 15:33

prefer Cavius.

i have had a couple of the family shield version but they tend to false alarm more. one so bad i pulled it apart. the design is a common design, but imho implemented poorly.

one of the big problems is the changes in humidity (and dust) in the house. that can silently trip the sensor and put it in "check for smoke" mode which uses more power. hence uses the battery a whole lot more.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3327024 2-Jan-2025 15:36

We had a bad batch of FireAngel 10-year alarms ten years or so back. They a) failed early resulting in false alarms and low battery alarms, and b) couldn't be silenced without disassembly to physically remove the battery.

Really soured the ten-year alarms for us; we went back to 9Vs. At least if you have a low battery or false alarm, you can positively remove power from the alarm.

Looked at it recently and couldn't justify another batch of ten-years for much the same reason, so replaced them with another batch of 9V powered alarms. Buying a box of 10x 9Vs every year or so basically gets you to break even IIRC; there's definitely no cost advantage in 10-year unless you're paying labour to change the batteries.

richms

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#3327028 2-Jan-2025 15:58

The 10 years are good where you have to move things and get a ladder to get to them. Otherwise the card of 9v from Costco each year and the cheaper 9v alkaline alarms does seem to be better.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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#3327061 2-Jan-2025 17:57

SirHumphreyAppleby:
I've been installing these lately, mainly because I like the look of them and prefer something wall mountable. Being able to easily reach the button to silence the unit is an important consideration if you are a bad cook or like your toast with extra carcinogens.

We've had two in our house for several years and never had a false alarm. I know they still work because I forgot to cover them up when we used a flea bomb a few weeks back :) They have replaceable lithium batteries which I expect will last the life of the product.

Full disclosure - I now know someone who works for the distributor, but the original alarms were purchased long before she started working there.

I thought smoke detectors were mounted on the ceiling as smoke goes up and triggers the detector earlier.

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