Posts: 12,197
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Joined: Nov 1999
Location: Nebraska City
(03-15-2021, 09:38 AM)TDKPE Wrote: I'm curious to see what you do here with the smokes. I've got exactly 10 of them, that I hardwired when I built my basement office because the inspector (permitted work) wanted them hardwired, but couldn't legally force me to. Battery powered units would have been the legal minimum, but I liked the idea of them being interconnected. This was before the days of radio interconnection.
But what I installed are all old now, and I really should replace them all. So I'm interested to see what you do with yours.
Ones I have now are hardwired First Alert 9120B units. I'm just gonna replace them with the SC9120 combo units.
As to the garage door, I bought new hinges (2) for that. Replaced one last night (short on time) and it works as advertised.
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Make sure you get some that are photoelectric. The ionization ones don't detect smoldering fires well at all. One of my coworkers at work (who deals with fire detection and suppression) led a demonstration once for a bunch of insurance adjusters. We built a small room outside, leaving one wall with an opening as a doorway. Inside the house was every smoke detector type we could buy from several big box and other stores (there were probably like 30-50 of them on the walls/ceiling), and a firefighter in full gear. A smoldering fire was then started (couch cushion IIRC), and we covered the doorway with cling wrap. Whenever a smoke detector went off the fireman yanked it off the wall and handed out to someone. After a few minutes we couldn't see the fireman.
Most of the ionization detectors never went off.
Food for thought.
Mark
