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Italy, Rome
1 Level
725 Review
51 Karma

Review on πŸ”₯ BRK PRC710 Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm with Built-In 10-Year Battery - White by Davon Man

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Took a year which is longer than most other 10 year old smoke alarm brands. I miss the days of the 9 volt alarm!

I have a love/hate relationship with this smoke alarm and all 10 year old smoke alarms from other brands. This has lasted longer than other brands I've tried (more on that below), but not even a year. I haven't found a real 10 year old smoke alarm yet and I doubt they even exist at the moment. I miss the days of the 9 volt fire alarms that you replaced every six months, they didn't have all the false alarms that 10 year old fire alarms seem to have. I am a renter and our community has 200 homes with two different Kidde smoke alarms (one wired and one pop up, similar to this one). We tried 6 fire alarms in 3 months because they went off in the middle of the night, you couldn't turn them off, put them in a drawer and the next day they kept going until they turned off. I keep hearing fire alarms in other apartments and the manager admits hers goes off too. It always seems to happen in the middle of the night when you least expect it and are sound asleep, not at night when you're lying awake in bed (obviously that would be too convenient). Scared for no reason, so I desperately needed an alternative. What we tried: The Kidde i9010 is the one we went through six times in three months. Alarmed in the middle of the night, impossible to turn off without turning off. The apartment complex knows this and buys them in bulk and replaces them when they fail (hopefully Kidde will pay back somewhere along the way). Kidde P3010L - A neighbor installed this and had no problems with it for six months. We bought it, it did the same as Kidde i9010 after 3 months of ownership. By the way, in the eighth month of ownership, the neighbors did the same. University Security Instruments MI3050SB - this was beeping a week after installation when we started the vacuum and had to turn it off. Ardwolf GS528A - This one sounded when he first used a toaster oven to bake a pizza. It was installed in the bedroom, the air conditioning was on in both rooms and the bedroom door was closed. The smoke detector in the living room worked quietly. I had to turn it off. I installed a First Alert PRC710 smoke detector on 06/20/2016. She was silent for almost a year. We tested it regularly, it behaved normally, there were no false alarms and I thought we had finally found the perfect smoke alarm. Then at 2:15 am on July 23, 2017, just over a year after installation, the alarm started ringing. They tried to muffle it, pressed the button, put it in the box, it didn't stop. We served it as you should. Keep dust away from food prep areas, showers, etc. It had to be turned off. The good news is that First Alert was very easy to use and could be replaced quickly. This is with a new block. So now I'm using this block and so far it's been quiet (but it's only been a few days). First Alert has excellent customer service and the fact that this smoke alarm lasted a year while the others only lasted a few months makes me give it three stars instead of one. In my opinion there are no 10 year "troubled" smoke alarms on the market today. You'll be hard pressed to find anything that allows for a year or so unless you go with First Alert. I hate that the law in my state requires 10 years fire alarm for residents. I think 10 year old smoke alarms give smoke alarms a bad name. I know neighbors turn theirs off when they leave and they are in no rush to find a replacement because this will do the same. On average there are 3-5 alarms per day in my area alone, so I can't imagine how often they are changed in our large complex. I think if a smoke alarm goes off all the time you will ignore it when a real emergency occurs. I know I rarely take my fire alarm seriously because it's so annoying.

Pros
  • Easy Installation
Cons
  • 0