Aging Smoke Alarms

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bphgravity

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Location
Florida
Here is a good article regarding smoke alarm replacement from the U.S. Fire Administration / National Fire Academy:

Single-station residential smoke alarms, like almost any other electronic products, have an expected useful life span. Since the early days of residential smoke alarms, this life cycle has been 10 years. Once these devices reach this age their ability to function reliably declines substantially. NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code? requires these devices to be replaced at 10 years of age or when they become inoperable, whichever comes first.

Beginning in 1999, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) required the manufacturing date code on the back of the device to be printed in plain English. Smoke alarms manufactured before 1999 may have plain English or ?coded? manufacture dates. This information may appear on the back of the device, on the face of the horn, in the battery compartment or on the top sensing chamber. The labeling requirement appears in Chapter 11 of NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm Code?, 2002 Edition.

Code enforcement personnel who can readily decipher these date codes can identify those smoke alarms that are due for replacement.

Earlier versions of BRK, First Alert and Family Guard devices had a date code consisting of a series of numbers that appeared either on the face of the horn or on the top of the sensing chamber. The date code consists of the first four digits in a series of numbers and letters. The numbers designate the following:

The first digit represents the year of manufacture and the next three digits represent the day of the year. For example, in a code of 4015 6J, the first digit is the year (1994); the next three indicate the 15th day of the year or January 15th, 1994. The remaining characters are manufacturing information not necessarily related to the manufacture date.

One problem with the BRK, First Alert and Family Guard system is that there is no way to determine the year of manufacture from the code. The first digit ?4? could represent 2004, 1994 or even 1984. An additional tool is to closely examine the circuit board that will include a code like ?83R?. This means that this circuit board type was first used in 1983. This can help narrow down the correct manufacturing date.

Fyrnetics (Lifesaver), now Kidde, also used a five- or six-digit coding system before 1999. The first two digits of their codes represent the month of production, the second two digits represent the year of manufacture, and the last digit or digits represents the week of the month. Therefore, a date code of 049203 would be translated as April, 1992, during the third week of the month.

For other manufacturers, date code information usually can be obtained by contacting the specific manufacturer.
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kerajam

Member
Found this on the net about detector disposal:

Smoke Detectors, Proper Disposal

-=RADIOACTIVE!=- The most common type of smoke detector contains a small amount of Americium 241, a radioactive material. Detector companies accept returned radioactive detectors for disposal as hazardous waste. Unfortunately the companies seem to assume you'll keep the instruction booklet on hand for the entire life of the product, and don't always put good contact information on the case.

Detectors have a limited life span, usually specified at ten years. Testing your detector with actual smoke is the only way to be sure it will work when needed. The vast majority of smoke detectors are made by First Alert Corporation. Send old detectors to First Alert, Radioactive Waste Disposal, 780 McClure Rd, Aurora, IL 60504-2495, 1-800-323-9005. Others are made by a Canadian firm called American Sensors, dial 1-800-387-4219 for information. The companies sell detectors under many different brand names, and can dispose of any of them. Send detectors by surface mail or UPS Ground so they don't end up in an airplane.
 
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bphgravity

Senior Member
Location
Florida
We get phone calls on nearly a weekly basis from homeowners complaining about smoke alarms "chirping".

We direct them to the Fire Department that has a "FREE smoke alarm replacement program" and life safety officer that handles these issues
 
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abe72487

Member
Location
Lewiston Idaho
aGING SMOKE ALARMS

aGING SMOKE ALARMS

I get calls from seniors who have chirping alarms. We advise changing batterys on the 4th of July and Christmas. The device should be changed after 5 years. Our fire dept distributes one to every third grade student every year, and offer free installation.
 
JohnJ0906

JohnJ0906

Senior Member
Location
Baltimore, MD
abe72487 said:
I get calls from seniors who have chirping alarms. We advise changing batterys on the 4th of July and Christmas. The device should be changed after 5 years. Our fire dept distributes one to every third grade student every year, and offer free installation.
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I alway recomend changing at daylight savings time start and end. Change your clocks, change your batteries!
 
kbsparky

kbsparky

Senior Member
Location
Delmarva, USA
bphgravity said:
We get phone calls on nearly a weekly basis from homeowners complaining about smoke alarms "chirping".

We direct them to the Fire Department that has a "FREE smoke alarm replacement program" and life safety officer that handles these issues
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The problem here is often times, those "free" smoke detectors do not comply with local building codes.

We have had instances where the homeowner obtained and installed several of these freebies, only to have their building inspection on an addition rejected, since the smokes were not hard-wired. Didn't matter that one branch of the county gave `em away for free, the other branch won't accept `em as Code Compliant. A classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

If your customer has a chirping battery/electric model, replacing the battery is the best option as replacing it with a battery only powered unit could be a step in the wrong direction.
 
JohnJ0906

JohnJ0906

Senior Member
Location
Baltimore, MD
tom baker said:
On an AC smoke with battery backup, how often should the 9V DC alkaline battery be replaced?
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For my own, and what I recomend to others, is twice a year-when I change my clocks, I change the batteries. I'm sure it's overkill, but I find it easy to remember, and I will use the batteries in other things.
 
j9DuBois

j9DuBois

Member
Location
Bay Area
Smoke detectors

Smoke detectors

:-?

Question about smoke detectors. Another electrican was told by an inspector that the smoke detector needed to be on it's own 15 amp dedicated circuit, and not part of the branch lighting (residential) circuit. i cn't find anything inthe NPFA 70 and do not know the 72. I think the inspector may not be correct any info?

Thank you
 
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