How reliable are you finding smoke detectors..whos do you prefer

[newfutile]

We only fit aico at our housing association,I have never had a faulty one,except one but I believe the wiring was faulty there.I wonder if a surge could cause problems ?
perhaps this is why we supply SPD with new smoke alarms now.

 

[Midwest]

@vitoboy name and shame.

In our development we have BRK installed, which are no longer available. 5 years old now, and failing at an alarming rate, not just the 9V batteries. There's a program to replace them with Aico, once the accountant has got their arms lengthened or pockets raised.

 

[brianmoooore]

Started with BRK when the whole smoke alarm thing started. They tended to be fine for a few years, but then started failing in droves.
Started returning them to BRK, via the wholesalers, and getting shiny new ones in exchange, but after the first few dozen, they were coming back unrepaired, with BRK claiming "customer abuse" in every case.
I can well believe the one's that sounded at 3 am may have suffered customer abuse, but not all of them.
It was at that point I switched to Aico, and failures, other than repairable ones caused by dust, that I mentioned earlier in this thread, have been minimal.

 

[vitoboy]

OK..
Many thanks for all your reply.. seems to be as per my own experience.
The original issue was with aico.. not there product ..as lots of you had stated..we also fitted them for years in ther 100s or more and had few problems at all.
My issue was there total refusal to take back a product that had failed .. even if they claim it was fine on the bench .. it had gone off at night in an empty kitchen with no active heat source (heat detector) and wouldn't stop.
Fine for aico to say the product is OK.. but can I tell that to my customer and tell him I'm refitting it.?!. The wholesalers who supplied it told me I'm not alone and aico have been refused refunds for all there returned detectors.. and at the price point I find that unacceptable...it means another company smaller than them has to bear the cost ie me or as it happens the wholesalers.. (thank you Western Electrical)
So it's our company policy to just cut out company's that take this type of stance .. its just costs us money and time to provide them with income and I can't accept that.
So we started to use fire angel .. and all was fine for a few months.. we only fitted aico if it was to an existing aico system or the customer requests it.
Then we had this issue with fireangel .
So I posted here just to find out how it is.. and thank you all for telling me.!
Sadly it compounds my probelm.. aico are #kankers but the product seems the most reliable.. fireangel less reliable.. and sadly missed many opportunities here to sort out my issues .. but have now upgraded the 9v to 10 year lithium detectors for free .. but it's cost my customer 5 duracell plus 9v battery's a month of loss of sleep (with a new baby at home to make it worse) and myself a whole days labour over 4 visits and damage to our reputation with a builder who we have worked for for years... hopefully he will understand.. but it's not what you want .
Thank you all again.. we seem to be getting more and more equipment that's faulty / not fit for purpose and less and less working support as manufacturers get better at avoiding paying out warranty or giving tech support (WhatsApp zin in China and have him ask for more info 3 times then never reply again)... here seems a good place to call it out.
Rant over ..beer o clock

Vito

 

[LukeD]

SO Aico do not give the supplier a credit for a returned unit etc etc ?? Are they now owned by Tescos (THose in the know will get it !)