10 Year Sealed Battery Smoke Alarms

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infinity

infinity

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Journeyman Electrician
Anyone heard about this? Here in NJ effective January 1, 2019 all newly installed battery operated smoke alarms must be contain a 10 year sealed battery. This will keep people from removing the batteries and defeating the purpose of the alarms. Do any other states currently have this requirement?

Effective Immediately!!!
All battery smoke detectors must be the 10 year sealed battery units. No
other detectors other than those listed below will be approved.
§ 5:70-4.19 Smoke alarms for one- and two-family dwellings; carbon monoxide alarms; and portable fire
extinguishers
(a) In one- and two-family or attached single family dwellings subject to the requirements of N.J.A.C.
5:70-2.3, smoke alarms shall be installed as follows:
1. On each level of the premises; and
2. Outside of each separate sleeping area.
(b) The smoke alarms required in (a) above shall be located and maintained in accordance with NFPA
72.
1 . The alarms shall not be required to be interconnected.
(c) Ten-year sealed battery-powered single station smoke alarms shall be installed and shall be listed in
accordance with ANSI/UL 217, incorporated herein by reference. However, A/C-powered single or
multiple-station smoke alarms installed as part of the original construction or rehabilitation project shall
not be replaced with battery-powered smoke alarms. The effective date of this subsection shall be January
1, 2019.
1. A/C-powered smoke alarms shall be accepted as meeting the requirements of this section.
Click to expand...
 
Enforcement in NJ is spotty. The code requirements are in codes generally enforced by the fire martial though there is a reference in the housing codes but there is no reference in the uniform construction code similar to the co requirements for commercial buildings. Both not fully enforced.
 
Funny thing is that a 5 YO CO alarm w/ 10 year batteries in my rental started to beep at regular intervals so removed the batteries to shut it up, the battery access door has a tamper resistant screw that is easy to remove, just replaced it with a hardwired/battery, smoke/CO alarm since the smoke alarm was being replaced anyway. While that is only a single occurrence, it is strange that it failed halfway through it's life. Now need to finish things up so the house can be rented, & the rent is priced way too low for the new market because there are no vacancies in town anymore with a waiting list for apartments. (Selling everything now & getting out of CA is a even better idea while real estate values are stupid high in the reputed hottest market in the US. :lol::happyyes:)

Are requirements being rolled out nationwide that only photoelectric alarms be used? Like the the link for VA shown above. Ionization & photoelectric types are each better to react to different types of fires.


http://www.brkelectronics.com/faqs/newconstruction/photo-ion-differences
 
norcal said:
Funny thing is that a 5 YO CO alarm w/ 10 year batteries in my rental started to beep at regular intervals so removed the batteries to shut it up, the battery access door has a tamper resistant screw that is easy to remove, just replaced it with a hardwired/battery, smoke/CO alarm since the smoke alarm was being replaced anyway. While that is only a single occurrence, it is strange that it failed halfway through it's life. Now need to finish things up so the house can be rented, & the rent is priced way too low for the new market because there are no vacancies in town anymore with a waiting list for apartments. (Selling everything now & getting out of CA is a even better idea while real estate values are stupid high in the reputed hottest market in the US. :lol::happyyes:)

Are requirements being rolled out nationwide that only photoelectric alarms be used? Like the the link for VA shown above. Ionization & photoelectric types are each better to react to different types of fires.


http://www.brkelectronics.com/faqs/newconstruction/photo-ion-differences
Click to expand...

IIRC, Massachusetts or Rhode Island may require the use of photoelectric detectors, but there is no push to go nationwide. Photo-detectors are about 2-4X the cost of ionization, when you can find them. You could go all out and get combi units if you wanted to.
 
steve66 said:


Even after 10 years, you know they will somehow always manage to die at 3 in the morning.

​
Click to expand...

Absolutely true! The Kidde smoke/CO units in my own house had 7 year EOL clocks in them. Last month they started chirping EOL at 2 AM. First just 1, then within an hour they were all doing it. 2 AM in my skivvies on the ladder taking them all down.
Replaced them with 10 year battery Kidde units. We'll see.
 
Seems to me all such a rule does is make it so it takes longer for battery to die on average. People will still remove battery or if difficult to get into the unit remove entire unit if it is making sounds in the middle of the night, and then forget to do anything about it afterwards.

No problems solved IMO just moved around.I doubt there is a high percentage of people replacing units after 10 years either. I guess one good thing would be if it cost less to replace the unit then to replace the 10 year battery there is better chance they get replaced though.
 
texie said:
Absolutely true! The Kidde smoke/CO units in my own house had 7 year EOL clocks in them. Last month they started chirping EOL at 2 AM. First just 1, then within an hour they were all doing it. 2 AM in my skivvies on the ladder taking them all down.
Replaced them with 10 year battery Kidde units. We'll see.
Click to expand...

At least once, I've searched all mine in the middle of the night only to find out it was actually the CO detector that is just sitting on top of a cabinet!!
 
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