Kidde/Firex Smoke detectors

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frankft2000

frankft2000

Senior Member
Location
Maine
I am having almost constant trouble with Kidde/Firex Smoke detectors or CO2 detectors. I bet the failure rate is at least 25%. Sometimes right out of the box I have trouble, sometimes after a couple of weeks, or sometimes maybe longer. Is anybody else having trouble with these? Basically alarms going off for no reason. No smoke, no dust, not by steam...just going off. I have taken some back into the supply house still going off. I can't make any money off these when I usually end up making multiple trips.

Anybody had good luck with BRK?
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Not sure why my suppliers stopped using Firex but I never had problems with them. Now we are using BRK and I have not had any issues with them since I started using them almost 2 years ago.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
frankft2000 said:
I am having almost constant trouble with Kidde/Firex Smoke detectors or CO2 detectors. I bet the failure rate is at least 25%. Sometimes right out of the box I have trouble, sometimes after a couple of weeks, or sometimes maybe longer. Is anybody else having trouble with these? Basically alarms going off for no reason. No smoke, no dust, not by steam...just going off. I have taken some back into the supply house still going off. I can't make any money off these when I usually end up making multiple trips.

Anybody had good luck with BRK?
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Did you try calling the company, not unheard of a bad batch being distributed, if you don't let them know, they can't fix the problem either. That would be my first step. To answer your question, i've never had an issue with Kidde/FireX....
 
N

nhfire77

Senior Member
Location
NH
BRK is a Better brand now, base on my experience. Firex was the leader, now I see more issues regarding the newer models
 
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GerryB

Senior Member
Location
woodbridge, ct. USA
Just had two recently. One went bad after 6 months and the other was bad out of the box. Kept chirping, tried 3 different batteries. Same brand, Kiddie, and both of these were the co2 combo,s.
It is a pain in the neck. Personally, I think battery backup is unnecessary. When landlords don't keep up with them the tenants take them off completely. I guess you have to try and charge more. Your workmanship is guaranteed, not the product you are installing. Like years ago I had a brake job and six months later the pads went. So the mechanic said they're guaranteed, then charged me labor again to change them. For some reason in our business we are expected to go back and change it for free. Sorry for the rant, long day. Maybe someone knows a better brand.
 
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newservice

Senior Member
I put these Firexs in all the time, never had any issue except you do need to make sure they're plugged in right. Put 6 in Friday in fact. And they are hypersensitive. Use the dust cover if its new construction.
 
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newservice

Senior Member
forgot to mention that the smoke only detectors have a battery that sometimes you need to reseat by opening and closing the little door. Also the combo detectors have that lil plastic tab thats got to be removed for the battery, thats a llittle awkward, be careful and pull it out completely or it might beep.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
newservice said:
forgot to mention that the smoke only detectors have a battery that sometimes you need to reseat by opening and closing the little door. Also the combo detectors have that lil plastic tab thats got to be removed for the battery, thats a llittle awkward, be careful and pull it out completely or it might beep.
Click to expand...

I concur, you have to really make sure these items are in check.
 
frankft2000

frankft2000

Senior Member
Location
Maine
Its not the plug in tab, I make sure the green power light comes on. I'n not talking chirps, I'm talking full blown alarms. Some people have even gone so far as having fire company come make sure it is not a CO2 situation. I have tried getting the detectors from different suppliers in my area, and this has been going on for over two years. Its not the batch, its the product I guess.

BRK here I come.

Only problem is I don't think BRK is compatible with the Kidde brands.
 
gadfly56

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Let Kidde know, send them an e-mail with the product date codes/serial numbers. It doesn't take long, and they can't fix the issue if they don't konw about it. Follow up with a phone call. If you use a lot of product, you might even get comped a case. Can't hurt to be nice about it. You can always get PO'd later.
 
Steviechia2

Steviechia2

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
I have had problems with photoelectric smokes an CO since they required them!
I have been going back and forth between the 2 for years. I switched back to Kidde for about a year now and have had real good luck with them.
 
H

hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
A few years ago we had a worker who would not pay attention to the battery polarity, and if installed backward even for a second it would blow the alarm and some would just alarm for no reason even after the battery was reinstalled, while it looks like the holes would not allow a reversed battery to make contact trust me they will if the contacts are bent out far enough, after we caught this we never had a problem? not saying this is it just look out for it, same goes for the interconnect wire, never hit it to the hot if wiring them hot, it will take out the interconnect every time as it is only 9 volts on the interconnect.
 
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