How big is your home? We have several in our house and they run on batteries, which get changed once a year.

We have three battery smoke alarms, three carbon monoxide battery alarms in our bungalow. One near the furnace also checks for gas and propane. Overkill I know. The batteries get changed frequently. I have a great respect for fire. A few of the alarms are older now and need to be replaced although they still work. I understand they should be replaced every ten years or so.

We have smoke detectors for the bedrooms and living areas. They are wired into the house's electrical.

If your alarms are wired into the house's electrical, and IF the electricity is turned off for some reason, the alarm(s) will NOT go off.

My elderly neighbor came over on the 31th to ask my husband to please come and change her battery in her smoke detector it was chirping so he asked do you have a new battery and she said yes so he went to do it 30 minutes later he comes back she only had a C and needed a 9 volt. No battery changed. Still waiting.
Mary

Building code requirements in my area call for hard wired.

Check what you can and can't do to stay in conformance with building codes.

All of ours are battery, I just bought new detectors with 10-year lithium batteries, so we don't have to replace any batteries anymore. Since you're supposed to replace smoke detectors every 10 years anyway, these are perfect. I got them at SAMs Club on sale, but WalMart has them too. Brand is Kidde, I think.

We recently replaced our smoke detectors. We have three--one on each level. They are hardwired together, so if one goes off, they all go off. They also have battery backup, and the 9-volt battery lasts about a year. When one starts "chirping", we replace the batteries in all of them.

When this home and the one before was built the city required electric smoke detectors, they also have a battery back up. For years they have been required in rental property, we used battery powered in those. I don't understand the need for an electric one.

We have hardwired, but want and need to upgrade to battery operated.

I didn't know that there was an option for hardwired with a battery backup. My neighborhood has frequent power outages.

Mine is battery too.

Ours are all hardwired with battery backup.

The battery back up is for power outages, especially if it lasts for days.

Ours are all battery and we have about 8 of them in this house. When one starts chirping it can take quite a bit of time to find which one it is. My little dog gets extremely freaked out by the chirping, she starts shaking and wants to be held and you can not leave her, she is glued to you.
A couple of weeks ago the chirping started after my husband had gone to work. I seriously thought I would have to get him to come home to change the battery so she wouldn't have a dang heart attack. The minute he walked in I said please get the ladder now! Not a week later another one did it.

I am going to look into the new 10 year ones that would be worth it!

Two, both solely battery-powered - one in the basement, near the stairs and rather close to the furnace, and another in the dining room, rather close to the two bedrooms.

One began chirping a while ago, so got replacement batteries day before yesterday.

Inspector required replacement of top end of chimney, which was done a month or so ago, landlord asked if there's a clean-out door at the bottom - there isn't.

So he said that we need to pull the pipes and check the bottom of the chimney to see whether mortar had dropped during the work that might be impeding the draft.

When the furnace went on, things were O.K. When I left, I'd turn it off ... and when I went to bed, I'd turn it off. A couple of times, when I turned it on, the smoke alarm would go off in about 5 min., but other (most) times not.

So we pulled the pipe, and there was a lump of mortar that had to be hammered out, cutting off a portion of the hole where the pipe went in, so it likely depended on how much pull of wind there was going over the top of the chimney.

We have installed a carbon monoxide alarm, as well ... and I haven't heard a peep out of it, except for testing.

ole joyful

This house has both kinds as the battery-operated ones are required by code and the hardwired ones are connected to the alarm system.

I put up the 10-year-battery-life ones next to my hardwired ones. Just to be SURE. My dad was a firefighter and fire safety was drummed into us.

Raven, my little dogs do the same whenever my carbon dioxide detectors' low battery indicators go off. Takes a long time to calm them down, even after the noise has stopped.

AND mine always seem to "chirp" in the middle of the night!

Mine are hard-wired with battery back-ups if electricity goes out.

Wired. It was required by code when we built our house. Ours have battery backups that we recently replaced with 10-yr. batteries. It never failed that the one on the cathedral ceiling would beep in the middle of the night to remind us to replace it and we'd have to drag the ladder in. The 10 yr batteries are a lot more expensive, but when you add up the cost of replacing batteries yearly, they actually end up being less.

Our smoke detectors are hard wired with battery backup and connected to our alarm system. We installed new smoke detectors last year and the digital display on our alarm panel alerts us when the batteries are low. If we ignore it - then the detectors will chirp.

Both. We just replaced two today in the house as a matter of fact. One hard wire with battery back up and one battery.
The "original" hardwired had a 1978 date sticker on it. Lol, so it is as old as the house, no wonder it no longer worked. :)

We do need to add some more carbon monoxides ones to the house though.

I think the only advantage of the hardwired ones is that you can connect them so that a detection at one unit causes them all to sound an alarm. Assuming one is diligent about doing timely battery replacement (and replacing old units at about the 10 year point), the 110 V power connection is really of no other benefit. Especially if you have just one.

We have units throughout our house and even though I replace all the batteries at the same time once a year, it's inevitable one will start chirping. Thankfully my 75 pound dog ignores the noise and doesn't want to be held.

Mine is a battery type and I have 3 installed, one for each floor plus the basement. You should replace old smoke alarms with the newer type that combines both smoke and carbon-monoxide (CO) detection.

I change batteries twice a year. Th first change coincides with the change to daylight saving (in spring) and the second change can be 6 mo later or when the clocks are set back to standard time. Since DST has been extended one month in the fall, it is a good idea to put a note in your calendar to change the batteries in the detectors 6 mo after the spring change-out.

Detectors that use a small amount of ionizer such as the radioactive element, Americum, should be replaced periodically, maybe every 5 years. The radioactive material decays over time and looses its effectiveness. There should be instructions in the package for the replacement schedule. Usually, it is recommended to write the installation date on the detector. That being the case, a close out special may not so special after all. Check its manufacture date; It could already be a couple of years old.

There exists another type of smoke detector that uses a beam of energy or light instead of radioactive material. That device should have better retention of sensitivity and should last longer than the radioactive one. However, it is still subject to failure of its electronics and should be tested on a regular basis.

Some years ago, a popular option was to have all detectors slaved together so that if one tripped, all would sound off. This was an available option of detectors powered from house current and the detection circuits were hard wired together. At present, this can be accomplished with battery powered detectors that have WiFi or radio link capability. Interconnecting wiring is not needed.

Replaced our 20+ year old battery operated smoke alarms with new ones about 18 months ago. This post has prompted me to get new batteries for them because they all still have the ones they came with.

I called the Fire Marshall for Toronto after seeing this exact topic being debated on another forum (I figured better to go to the source).

According to the current code, new builds must have hardwired units (with battery back-up) and be combo smoke/CO2 units - and all rooms must be hardwired.

But we live in an older bungalow so the there is a variance to the code, otherwise it would cost a fortune to run electrical wires to all of the rooms.

However, we do have two hard-wired smoke alarms that were installed about 13 years ago that of course do not have battery back-up - one in the basement and one on the main floor. We will have to have an electrician change those for us to hardwired combo units. There is supposed to be a CO2 unit in the hall as well - well where would we put it - except of course as a hard-wired combo unit because the hall is short and narrow.

Then there is the problem with placement of the units. We have a couple of the plug-in CO2 units, but you cannot use the second half of the outlet once a unit is plugged in. And in a small bungalow we do not have that many outlets. Next there is the issue that you cannot put them next to heat source - and of course the other electrical plugs are next to the gas heat grates. The list goes on.

Two weeks ago we bought 3 combo units - they were not cheap ones. My husband put one up in the bedroom and we followed every rule for hanging it. It was good for a week and then it started going off 3 days in a row - and not the chirping sound of a dead battery - but a full blown, dog annoying beep. I moved a couple of the other units that we have that sit on tables into the room - nothing else went off. I called the manufacturer and the rep said that it would appear that the unit was defective and that I should try putting up one of the other ones. Well I really didn't won't to open another unit so I returned all 3.

When we purchased them there were only 4 on the shelves and all had been taped back together - obvious returns so we would not touch them. The store associate found us 3 others up top. Now we do not know if someone just wanted spare parts for their units or like us the units kept going off so they were returned.

So now we have holes in the wall. I asked the FirstAlert rep if there was a least a smoke detector that had the same size bracket and he said there was - of course I can't find it anywhere.

So all in all it is not easy. I really don't like the units with the 10 year built-in battery because my alarm clock was supposed to have a 10 year battery and 1 1/2 years in it went - and I did not buy it at a clearout sale. I prefer to replace the batteries myself every 6 months.

I once bought 2 units packaged together and they started to chirp at exactly the same time indicating they were toast.

I think each person needs to find out the requirements for their area. In the meantime, the search goes on.

One thing for sure is that if the fire dept. comes calling they will make certain you are compliant.

Could the problem be where you purchased these units?

I think you need to try another store, one that has a lot of volume so that the units are fresher and in factory new condition. I've put up a dozen or more of the battery-only type in my house and those of others and I haven't encountered even one that was defective.

Both our smoke alarm and carbon dioxide alarm are wired in to our security system.

They called when the alarm went off - I accidently set off the smoke alarm because I forgot to open the fireplace flue :(