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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