I finally got around to taking my own advice and changed my 10-year-old smoke alarms. Smoke alarms have a 7-10 year life, so if yours are older than that there is a good chance they are no longer working. My original ones were Firex brand model ADC.
Firex was bought out by Kidde, so I called their technical department to see if there was a direct replacement. They told me that any 120 volt AC unit with battery backup would work fine and would mount easily to the electrical box where the old ones were mounted.
I am not recommending any particular brand, but I will tell you what brand and model I selected. If your house was built on or after 2007, then some of your alarms are combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. You should replace those with the same type. I ordered eight i12060 Kidde hardwire smoke alarms with front load battery backup from the Kidde website.
I particularly like the front loaded battery, which means you don’t need to take down the unit to change the battery. You simply press on the battery door on the front of the unit and it opens to expose the battery. To change it, you slip it out, slide in a new one, and close the door.
Installing the new smoke alarms is quite simple. It took me ten minutes per alarm using only a Phillips screw driver. Before you start, turn off the power to the smoke alarms by tripping the breaker in the electrical panel. Take the old smoke alarms down from the ceiling by rotating them counter-clockwise until they release from the mounting bracket. Next pull the electrical plug off the back of the alarm and set it aside.
Loosen the two screws that hold the mounting bracket to the electrical box by turning them five revolutions, or enough so you can rotate the mounting bracket and remove it. Now remove the old wiring harness by pulling the wires out of the electrical box. Before you go any further, be sure you have tripped the circuit breaker for the smoke alarms. Unscrew the three wire nuts that hold and insulate the wire connections. Save them to secure the new wiring harness.
Next open the new smoke alarm box and remove the wiring harness. Connect the black wire on the wiring harness to the black wire in the electrical box by twisting them together and twisting the wire nut over the connection to secure it. Connect the white wire on the wiring harness to the white wire in the electrical box by twisting them together and twisting the wire nut over the connection to secure it.
The third wire is to interconnect all the smoke alarms so that if one activates they all sound. In my case, the interconnect wire in the electrical box is yellow. The interconnect wire on the smoke alarm harness is red. Connect these two together and secure them with the third wire nut. Before proceeding, make sure you connected black to black and white to white.
Tuck the wires back into the electrical box with just the plug and about six inches of wire hanging down. Feed the plug through the hole in the new mounting plate and place it over the two screws that held the old mounting plate. Rotate the plate so it is trapped by the screws and tighten the screws.
You are now ready to install the new smoke alarm. Push the plug onto the pins on the back of the smoke alarm and press firmly to seat the plug. There are locking tabs on either side of the plug that need to be seated. Push the rest of the wiring harness into the electrical box and center the smoke alarm on the mounting plate. Rotate it clockwise to secure the smoke alarm to the mounting plate.
Continue on to the next smoke alarm and repeat this procedure. Do not turn on the circuit breaker yet. When you have changed all the smoke alarms, you are ready to power them up. To do this, turn the circuit breaker back on. Check each smoke alarm. A green light means there is AC power present. A red flash every minute means the battery is working.
This particular alarm has a hush button that will desensitize the alarm circuit for up to eight minutes to quiet a false alarm. It will also silence the low battery chirp for 13 hours, allowing you to change them in the daytime.
You will still have to change the smoke alarm batteries every one to two years, but you won’t have to change the alarms again for 10 years.
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