Smoke alarms

[Drawweight]

New build 10 years old and one of my wired in smoke alarms has stopped working.

I can’t get a direct replacement as they’ve stopped making them.

Can just one be changed for a different brand or is it a case of doing the whole house?

[silentbrown]

If they're all 10 years old I'd replace the lot.

https://www.kent.fire-uk.org/smoke-alarms-10-year-...

[PhilboSE]

Smoke alarms should have an expiry date sticker on the side. They used to have 25 year life but these days it’s 10. Might be worth considering changing them all.

If you want to keep the others and just replace the one, then you’ll need to check the wiring. All the ones I’ve seen have a 4-core supply: live, neutral, earth and a switched live for when the alarm goes off. If that’s the case for your old ones then I can’t see why a mix and match wouldn’t work. 4 core cable often doesn’t have standard colours for live & neutral, so check another cable on an old alarm to see how it’s wired.

Personally I like aico alarms as a brand.

[Drawweight]

Yes, at 10 years old that's what I''ll probably do.

When I was thinking about this I decided to replace the battery in the carbon monoxide. It had a replace by March 2027 sticker so I guess that's going as well.

[mikey_b]

PhilboSE said:

Smoke alarms should have an expiry date sticker on the side. They used to have 25 year life but these days it s 10. Might be worth considering changing them all.

If you want to keep the others and just replace the one, then you ll need to check the wiring. All the ones I ve seen have a 4-core supply: live, neutral, earth and a switched live for when the alarm goes off. If that s the case for your old ones then I can t see why a mix and match wouldn t work. 4 core cable often doesn t have standard colours for live & neutral, so check another cable on an old alarm to see how it s wired.

Personally I like aico alarms as a brand.

Mine are all Kidde, one failed after a few years, and I couldn’t get an identical one. However I took a chance and bought a newer model from the same brand, and it worked just fine. Testing it made all three other alarms go off too, so the linking still works as before. So may be a fairly simple task for OP too. Only awkward bit of mine was its position - just out of easy reach, over the stairs!

[dickymint]

Our local fire brigade knocked on our door about 18 months ago and asked if I wanted a quick free fire alarm check. Half an hour later they left after fitting three smoke alarms and two Carbon Monoxide alarms........FREE