Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Link: http://www.kiddewireless.com/

As I was doing my annual battery replacement in my smoke detectors and testing them, the thought struck me of what I might have to do if I needed to replace them.

The condo just as stand alone battery powered smoke alarms, while my previous apartments had AC powered with battery backup interconnected smoke alarms. While kind of annoying having all the alarms go off when one goes off, it isn't a bad thing. Except when trying to figure out which one set off the others.

I didn't know they had battery backup, until one of the batteries ran down and it had the most obnoxious chirp...and random. Meaning it would chirp once for seemingly no reason and I'd have no idea where it came from when I got to the location. It wasn't until it got worse, that it would chirp frequently enough for me to figure out that it was coming from the smoke alarm. Then came figuring out how to get at the battery compartment and finding a battery for it. Didn't occur to me that I should probably have called the landlord to fix it....

The only problem with interconnected smoke alarms, was in my previous apartment, there was smoke detector by the kitchen area and a smoke detector by the living room...but if I burned something (or just made something that was smokey....the apartment has a recirc range hood, which blows out towards the smoke detectors), it was more often that it was the smoke detector by the living room that detected it. Perhaps because the A/C register blows across the detector by the kitchen.

The condo also has a recirc range hood, of course, though it doesn't blow straight to the smoke detector and the filter new enough that it is effective. I should make a note to see where to get replacement carbon filters for it....

Anyways, I wondered to myself if there were such things as wireless interconnected smoke detectors, so I wouldn't have to deal with running wires. And, a quick Google search yielded the answer

Not sure I'll take the plunge right away, while the current ones work....plus I haven't had a (nuisance) trip in the almost 1.5 years that I've been here. Of course, maybe that's a reason why I shouldn't not consider interconnected smoke alarms. Plus according to the site, it has alarm has a light to indicate that its the unit that tripped.

Guess I'll add it to the list....

Follow up:

Hmmm, wonder if they make a dual sensor (ionization and photo-electric) wireless smoke alarm? Seems Kidde makes only ionization ones, and First Alert is only photo-electric. And, I'm paranoid enough that if I was to upgrade, I'd want both.... or all....