Smoke Alarms “Go Bad” and Carbon Monoxide Detectors Programmed to Fail: Safety Saturdays

Smoke alarms are a vital part of your home safety plan. I firmly believe that nearly every room in the house should have one, from the bedrooms to the kitchen and the hallways in-between, smoke alarms should be everywhere! When every second counts you want all the warning you can get.

Smoke alarms “go bad”

Purchase a good dual-sensor model (there are both ionization and photoelectric types) which is battery-operated, such as this First Alert dual-sensor model:

Yeah, I know the dual-sensor models tend to get expensive and so they’re not necessary everywhere. I’d suggest the kitchen and bedrooms.

The other thing to know about smoke alarms is that they should have their batteries replaced at least once a year. Choose a major holiday such as New Year’s day or whatever works for you. Alternatively, you could purchase a smoke alarm with a long-life lithium battery, such as this First Alert with lithium battery model:

Whatever you choose, ensure they’re in proper working order, replace the battery once a year, if needed, and even choose to replace the entire smoke alarm every several years because they do “go bad” or lose their sensitivity over time.

Carbon monoxide detectors programmed to go bad

The same advice can be said for carbon monoxide detectors, expect one big addition: some are actually programmed to “go bad” or fail after so many years.

I learned this the hard way a year or two ago when I couldn’t figure out why my trusty CO detector just wouldn’t work no matter what I did or how many batteries I tried.

Manufacturer’s actually program them to die on you! Fortunately, you really don’t need but one or two CO detectors so this isn’t a huge deal but it was frustrating to find out in this fashion. Besides, I’d imagine the reason why they purposely program CO alarms to die is because they lose their sensitivity just like smoke alarms do. Regardless, it’s an annoyance.

Anyway, I’d suggest one or two quality CO detectors such as this Kidde battery-operated model:

Hopefully, this heads-up won’t leave you shocked and disappointed in the future!

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Safety Advice

Damian Brindle

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Comments

3 responses to “Smoke Alarms “Go Bad” and Carbon Monoxide Detectors Programmed to Fail: Safety Saturdays”

philip

Aug 16, 2014

One reason they “are bad” is the same reason desktops and laptops fail: dust!!!

If you have a keyboard pressure sprayer, remove detector battery, and spray them clean… Reinsert battery.

You mentioned purchase new batteries. Just a Second reminder, the best batteries are so much cheaper than even a single room in a house…

And while your at it, all Fires Start as small fires… And if you keep a Kidde Fire Extinguisher in each room, or near by… You can ~prevent~ minor fires, from becoming Major….

Just know YOUR Limits… And practice safety! As a School Custodian, on Night Shift, I fought “locker fires” at least four times. In five years, along with a Super Careless costodian, who put “paint thinner” soaked rags, into a container, thinking they wrre safe, (within Container designed for “fire control container”…. When it was opened up again, Spontaeneous Combustion occured… Along with Panic.

Fire needs three things.
1. Fuel
2. Heat
3. Oxygen

Closing that lid down ~could have ~ been safe… But it was already Way to Hot, so CO2 Fire Extinguisher removed OXYGEN, and Cooled the Temp.

All oily rags should be put in a Metal Contianer, and filled with Water, then a lid put on it. Rags are cheap. Fires Expensive.

Nuff from me,

Yours,

philip of Cheshire

Reply
1. Damian Brindle
  
  Aug 16, 2014
  
  It’s one thing for smoke alarms to go bad naturally but I never liked the fact that manufacturers actually force them to stop working such as the carbon monoxide alarm I had. I can see why they would choose to do this for both your safety and to sell more devices but it’s still annoying. Personally, I’ve always advocated smoke alarms all over the house (for fastest warning) and plenty of fire extinguishers too. I do like how you put it: “a fire extinguisher is cheaper than any room in your house”… I’ll have to remember that one!
  
  Reply
keebler

Aug 16, 2014

thanks for the reminder—decided to go test mine—they did work,

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Smoke Alarms “Go Bad” and Carbon Monoxide Detectors Programmed to Fail: Safety Saturdays