quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
I've bought quite a few of the ones that are good for ten years.
I don't think a single one has lasted more than two or three years.
You have to break them to get them to shut up.

That's been my experience also and I've tried both photoelectric and ionization types and replaced them every 3 or 4 years, blew them out with canned air on a regular basis, and none of it made any difference.

They all falsed around 1AM to 3AM after a couple of years, all that is, except for the ones in our two hallways. They never falsed and I have no idea why.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
I've bought quite a few of the ones that are good for ten years.
I don't think a single one has lasted more than two or three years.
You have to break them to get them to shut up.

That's been my experience also and I've tried both photoelectric and ionization types and replaced them every 3 or 4 years, blew them out with canned air on a regular basis, and none of it made any difference.

They all falsed around 1AM to 3AM after a couple of years, all that is, except for the ones in our two hallways. They never falsed and I have no idea why.

Do you have a surge protector installed at your house? Do you have clean power there? Do you suffer from frequent power outages?

Electronics suffer from power quality and surges. More expensive electronics have MOVs and voltage cutouts installed on them and will protect something like a nice TV, but something that costs $30 and is physically small in size will not.

This may be your problem, or you could just have bad luck.

Just replaced all 7 of my old ones with Kidde hard-wired with 10-year battery backup. One combo smoke and CO on each level in the hallways and smoke only in all bedrooms.