I love the idea of this system, and as soon as I found it, I had to order a set for my home and my grandmother's home. They work as advertised. One goes off, and they all go off. Push the mute button on one, and they all silence for a bit.
I feel much safer with them in the house, but the system has one flaw. That is that there are only have 2 models available. One is a wired model that interconnects a wired and interconnected system to the battery powered wireless system, and the other is a battery powered wireless system. Both utilize ionization sensors. There is no battery powered photoelectric option, or better yet, a dual sensor version.
Here is a quote from Amazon's own product description; """This alarm uses ionization sensing technology. Ionization sensing alarms may detect invisible fire particles (associated with flaming fires) sooner than photoelectric alarms. Photoelectric sensing alarms may detect visible particles (associated with smoldering fires) sooner than ionization alarms. Kidde strongly recommends that both ionization and photoelectric smoke alarms be installed to help insure maximum detection of the various types of fire that can occur within the home.""" So Kidde knows that you should have both types, and even "strongly recommends" it, but then does not give an option to wirelessly connect both types.
There is also no wireless CO2 or combustible gas sensor. I suppose you could find wired interconnected versions of those detectors, but that is hardly an easy solution...
I'll say it once more though to emphasize; I feel much safer with this interconnected system than with my previous non-interconnected system!!!
I just wish Kidde would give a little more variety to this otherwise great system.
I have had the system installed for a little over a year now. There have been no false alarms, but they never fail to all go off when one is tested or detects smoke. Batteries lasted about a year. They use 3 AAA batteries each, which they do come with. Kidde 0919-9999/ RF-SM-DC Battery-Operated Smoke Alarm, Wirelessly Interconnectable
I got three of these for my elderly mother, who lives in a beautiful old house and (unfortunately) routinely walks away from the kitchen while she is frying food. I put one in the kitchen, one in the living room and one just outside her bedroom, so she'll be quickly alerted if her frying pan starts to smoke. I've tried breaking her of this dangerous habit, without success. Now at least there is much less chance that things will get out of hand.
The smoke detectors work flawlessly. When one goes off, all of them go off. You don't have to reset each detector, either. Reset any one of them, and they all stop beeping for seven minutes, giving time to clear out the smoke if the problem is minor. They're also piercingly loud.
What a great product. Now you don't have to get an electrician to hardwire smoke alarms together. They also make 110 volt models that are wirelessly networked.
I purchased 4 of these wirelessly interconnected smoke alarms for the 2500sq/ft house that my wife and I are renting. Being in a fairly large house where we often leave doors closed, I felt it was important to have an interconnected system to ensure that we get the earliest (and loudest)notification possible. I would have preferred to have hardwired interconnected smoke alarms, but being as we're renting, I didn't want to start stringing wires all over the house and drilling holes. These Kidde alarms seemed like a perfect fit...they are one of the few wirelessly interconnectable smoke alarms on the market that I can find.
I received the alarms in good order through Amazon Prime 2-day shipping. Setting them up was completely painless. Each alarm has series of small switches on the back of them which is used to "encode" them to talk to only each other. Ensure the coding is identical on the back of all your alarms (PRIOR to putting batteries in), and then put them up like any other smoke alarm. It really is that simple. I did that, tested the alarms a few times...and it worked immediately. Pressing the test button on any of the alarms caused ALL of the alarms to go through the test cycle. Awesome...I felt safer already.
Then, unfortunately, a big problem arose. I own a Skylink SC-1000 Complete Wireless Alarm System, with many additional sensors integrated into it. One of the sensors I use is a Skylink AS-433E Alarm Sensor, which I use to have the smoke alarms trigger my overall security system when smoke is present. This allows me to be notified of the alarms going off, even if no one is home to hear them.
Unfortunately, I came to find out that these smoke alarms operate in the same frequency band as my Skylink Security System...the ISM 902-928MHz band centering on 915. These alarms completely jam all of my security system while they are going off. Not only will it jam the alarm sensor's transmission to the control console, but the also the door sensors, the motion sensors, and the vibration sensors. Basically, it bricks my entire security system. This, obviously, was not acceptable to me. I considered purchasing a competitors equivalent of these alarms, but it appears they also work in the same frequency band. So, I'm returning these alarms, and getting more traditional smoke detectors.
In Short: These alarms provide a great capability. They are easy to install, and seemed to work (for the 24hrs I had them, anyways) as one would expect them to.
HOWEVER...while the Kidde website erroneously says to not worry about RF interference, make sure the RF frequency of these alarms does not interfere with an already existing wireless security system that you may have. If your security system operates in the ISM 902-928 band, these may cause problems. - Smoke Alarms - Safety - Kidde - Detectors'
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