Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

3rd Update! I've replaced all these with Gentex 9123 smoke detectors. More details on my review there. ------------------------------ 2nd Update! Back down to 1 star. August 2018: 2.5 years into the torture... I HATE these false "smoke detectors" SO much! Here's a list of reasons NOT to buy these! 1) False Alarms. Every month or two, while we are dead asleep in the middle of the night, we are jolted out of our beds like we've been hit by a cattle prod by these screeching banshee alarms. Yes, this is even after blowing them all out a week or two before. This is in Colorado where we don't really get many bugs or much humidity. We keep a fairly clean house and don't even have much dust. (Yes, the number of false alarms is lower, now that I know that I have to dust/vacuum these out periodically. So that solution works, but only partially.) 2) Safety. My family has now been thoroughly TRAINED to IGNORE these -always false- smoke alarms. They simply roll over and try to go back to sleep, knowing that Dad will storm around and fix it. Again. This is smoke alarm version of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" story... 3) Guests. How often do I have to apologize to guests for my false smoke alarms going off in the middle of the night. Seriously! 4) These ionization style alarms do not go off in the presence of smoke. Seriously. It's a freaking SMOKE detector. I've NEVER had one go off near the smoky kitchen, and we cook a LOT. These ionization alarms are triggered by flame, not smoke. Maybe if you have an alarm near your kitchen that goes off too often from smoke, you might consider one of these... with GREAT reservations. I personally would gladly accept a smoke alarm sounding off from burnt toast every time over these: I'll already be AWAKE and they'll have had a REASON to go off! 5) Ionization smoke alarms like these are actually banned by some cities in the USA and Australia, and are no longer recommended by the IAFF (International Association of Fire Fighters). They recommend the photoelectric style fire alarms, as they will actually be triggered by smoke and aren't as prone to false alarms. They should know, as they have to respond to these things all the time... 6) The whole "10 year battery" smoke alarm is a bait-and switch SCAM. Why would a 10 year battery life matter? So that I don't have to fuss with fire alarms for 10 years, right? Well, that is WORTHLESS if I have to vacuum or blow out dust on these units every few months to keep the false alarms down to a minimum! I have far MORE maintenance and fussing with these than I ever did with the old photoelectric 9V battery alarms I replaced. I miss those alarms, even if they were out of date. 7) My own sanity. WHEN these false alarms go off, I don't even check the doors for heat, I just storm out of my room on like a man insane, searching for the !*&#**@#*! false alarm. Which !@#*@#&$ one is it tonight, eh? (The old "You've got to be Kidde-ing me!" Joke is very stale in my house.) It's a very good thing I don't keep hammers or baseball bats in my room... Once I identify the @#$*! culprit, remove it, blow it out, and reset it. Then I keep it in the garage overnight because I don't trust the dang thing to not go off again out of spite. Returning to bed, I literally lay awake fuming for an hour or two, WISHING I could kick each and every engineer who worked on these blasted things right between their legs as hard as I could. Repeatedly. I fall asleep dreaming that I'm installing 1000 of these faulty smoke alarms on their bedroom ceilings, sitting like ticking time bombs over THEIR heads, and wish them a "good night's sleep". Needless to say, I'm looking to replace these as soon as possible. These will go under the hammer. Literally. Gleefully. Vengefully. Maniacally. With great rejoicing by the whole family! It will begin with the reading of a new story: "Once upon a time there was a little Kidde who loved to cry "FIRE!" while everyone was sleeping..." --------------------------------- August 2016 Update: After contacting Kidde, they are sending me two replacements for the ones giving false alarms. The representative from Kidde mentioned that the sensor on the back of these types of smoke alarms are VERY sensitive, and that dust or small insects could set them off, and recommended blowing out the back when resetting after a false alarm. Kudos to Kidde for decent product support! Upgraded from 1 to 3 stars... SO: IF you get a false alarm, DO NOT just press reset and go about your day... instead... 1: Look for the smoke alarm that does not have a solid green LED. (The one that blinks every 15-20 seconds is the one was the one that triggered the alarm.) 2: Unplug the smoke alarm so that none of the interconnected units sound off as you reset it. 3: Take a can of compressed air like Dust-Off Compressed Gas Duster, Pack of 4 and blow out the back of the unit. 4: Press the reset button and hold the top against your belly to muffle the reset beeps and shrieks. Your ears will thank you. 5: Reconnect and reinstall. I'll update as time goes on, and let everyone know if this works as well as Kidde says it will. I'm cautiously optimistic and hoping that I simply have to learn how to deal with these newer generation smoke alarms... If I don't have more trouble, I'll upgrade to 4 stars. :) A final note... While I'm not exactly happy that these don't automatically reset, I AM happy to be able to easily identify the ones that gave the false alarm. I know that there is a balance between being so sensitive that they false alarm and so insensitive that they don't go of in a real fire... I'm hoping that the false alarms will be -rare- and that they don't reoccur with the above procedure! --------------------------------- Initial review: July 2016 I purchased 6 of these to upgrade my very old hardwired smoke alarms. I installed them in early April, 2016, and in June we had our first false alarm at 3am... These false alarms have continued, about once a week, always in the early am hours (2am-6am). Out of the original 6 units, two appear to be giving false alarms. By the end of July, my family had enough and I disconnected those two.