Interlinked heat and smoke alarms

[Skyedriver]

Living in Scotland, by law I must now have wireless interlinked smoke and heat alarms.
While most local stockists seem to be out of stock, I'm searching the internet and there are so many different makes all with good and bad reviews and none of them have names I recognise (with the exception of Kidde).
Can any one recommend me a package of 4 smoke alarms, 1 heat alarm, all battery powered and wireless interlinked please.
Are Hispec, Anka, etc any good?
Thanks in advance

[Scrump]

Quite a long thread on this in the Scotland section:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[captain.scarlet]

Skyedriver said:

Living in Scotland, by law I must now have wireless interlinked smoke and heat alarms.
While most local stockists seem to be out of stock, I'm searching the internet and there are so many different makes all with good and bad reviews and none of them have names I recognise (with the exception of Kidde).
Can any one recommend me a package of 4 smoke alarms, 1 heat alarm, all battery powered and wireless interlinked please.
Are Hispec, Anka, etc any good?
Thanks in advance

Are you sure they need to be wireless? I think they need to be interlinked at the very least, but IMO hard-wiring is always best for everything.

I can vouch for Kidde. They're affordable and, do the job and are a reputable, reliable brand. I purchased devices at my last place a few years ago from a website called The Electrical Showroom as part of the house re-wire so it made sense to get all these things done anyway.

All alarms were hard-wired and had recharging battery back-up. The two heat alarms and one smoke alarm I got had wireless capability.

I also purchased a hard-wired Carbon Monoxide detector with an LCD display within that package. Worth considering for peace of minded, and as it's all interlinked when you do a test for example, the CO alarm also goes off and the LCD reads 'fire'.

[Skyedriver]

Thanks
Yes interlinked, is that not wireless?
We have some hardwired alarms although not enough to satisfy the Scottish Regs and not interlinked. Was just going to "double up" and stick battery ones adjacent and add the extra ones where eneeded. Ugly and untidy but wiring up additional ones is going to require too much disruption.

Edited by Skyedriver on Thursday 3rd February 08:51

[Skyedriver]

Scrump said:

Quite a long thread on this in the Scotland section:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Yes I had read that a while ago and just revisited however most contributions to that thread are of the " they can knob off" etc and "not going to do it" along with "insurance companies say they aren't concerned".
Unfortunately my wife is convinced the house is now going to burst into flames at any second if we don't have the new system despite us having existing alarms installed which are loud enough to wake the dead. (We don't have open fires, gas, don't smoke etc., nearest I've had to a fire is hot oil in a pan and an under bonnet petrol fire on the drive outside)..

[LocoBlade]

Interlinked doesn't have to we wireless, most mains powered alarms can be interlinked with twin and earth wiring which will be more reliable than wireless. The units are cheaper but if you've got to pay a sparky a days labour to wire them all in then wireless will be cheaper.

When I looked into it 6 months ago for our house renovation Aico seemed to be the most universally recommended for reliability.

[Skyedriver]

LocoBlade said:

Interlinked doesn't have to we wireless, most mains powered alarms can be interlinked with twin and earth wiring which will be more reliable than wireless. The units are cheaper but if you've got to pay a sparky a days labour to wire them all in then wireless will be cheaper.

When I looked into it 6 months ago for our house renovation Aico seemed to be the most universally recommended for reliability.

Yes seen a few good reviews for Aico, not the cheapest but the last thing you want is an alarm going off all the time with false alarms.

[matchmaker]

I fitted Hispec. Seem okay. Wireless. 3 smoke + 1 heat came to just under £100.

[Skyedriver]

matchmaker said:

I fitted Hispec. Seem okay. Wireless. 3 smoke + 1 heat came to just under £100.

Thanks Hispec keep popping up on FB, must have looked at them before, seem cheap.

[Spitfire2]

matchmaker said:

I fitted Hispec. Seem okay. Wireless. 3 smoke + 1 heat came to just under £100.

Same. Seem to fit the bill well enough and I did as OP is thinking - left the old mains powered ones in situ.

[johnnyBv8]

Hispec seem ok. Unless mains wiring is already in all locations you need, the battery powered ones are definitely the best option.....they're 10 year sealed batteries, but the hardwired units have to be replaced every 10 years anyway, so it comes to the same thing!

[Jambo85]

LocoBlade said:

Interlinked doesn't have to we wireless, most mains powered alarms can be interlinked with twin and earth wiring which will be more reliable than wireless. The units are cheaper but if you've got to pay a sparky a days labour to wire them all in then wireless will be cheaper.

When I looked into it 6 months ago for our house renovation Aico seemed to be the most universally recommended for reliability.

I think ideally you would use 3&E cable to avoid using the earth as the interlink?

[LocoBlade]

Jambo85 said:

I think ideally you would use 3&E cable to avoid using the earth as the interlink?

Sorry yeh you're probably right I wasn't sure exactly, I was more trying to get across the the fact it uses mains power wiring to link them as opposed to a bit of bell wire or something just for the interlinking.

[dumfriesdave]

matchmaker said:

I fitted Hispec. Seem okay. Wireless. 3 smoke + 1 heat came to just under £100.

Matchmaker would you mind sharing where you purchased these please.

Thanks.

[cuprabob]

From the other thread

https://www.expresselectrical.net/index.php?route=...

[matchmaker]

dumfriesdave said:

matchmaker said:

I fitted Hispec. Seem okay. Wireless. 3 smoke + 1 heat came to just under £100.

Matchmaker would you mind sharing where you purchased these please.

Thanks.

Cuprabob has answered for me

[Jambo85]

LocoBlade said:

Jambo85 said:

I think ideally you would use 3&E cable to avoid using the earth as the interlink?

Sorry yeh you're probably right I wasn't sure exactly, I was more trying to get across the the fact it uses mains power wiring to link them as opposed to a bit of bell wire or something just for the interlinking.

Apologies for the pedantry!

[Evanivitch]

cuprabob said:

From the other thread

https://www.expresselectrical.net/index.php?route=...

Just ordered from here, good price and delivery. The alarms have a smaller form factor than our existing Fire Angel units too.

[AW10]

Thread resurrection time...

off to the father in law's on the east coast of Scotland over Easter and on the to do list is finally fitting smoke alarms. The house is a converted/extended U-shaped stable block with very thick stone walls. The only way to get reliable wifi was to install 3 BT whole home wifi discs. What are the odds radio interlinked alarms (battery operated) are going to be able to talk to one another? I note that Aico suggests aligning all of the alarms in the same direction whereas Hispec says nothing.

Would be grateful for any comments and real world experiences.

I suppose at the end of the day even if not all of the links work some alarms in the house are better than the current complete lack thereof!

[sherman]

AW10 said:

Thread resurrection time...

off to the father in law's on the east coast of Scotland over Easter and on the to do list is finally fitting smoke alarms. The house is a converted/extended U-shaped stable block with very thick stone walls. The only way to get reliable wifi was to install 3 BT whole home wifi discs. What are the odds radio interlinked alarms (battery operated) are going to be able to talk to one another? I note that Aico suggests aligning all of the alarms in the same direction whereas Hispec says nothing.

Would be grateful for any comments and real world experiences.

I suppose at the end of the day even if not all of the links work some alarms in the house are better than the current complete lack thereof!

I should probably get round to doing this.