Smoke alarms - 10 year lithium battery models

Cheers Chris. Happy to help.

As a follow up, I ordered the Emerald Planet remote controller and 6x Emerald Planet 10yr battery wireless ones from special at Smoke alarms - 10 year lithium battery models - #18 by mark_m - all up with delivery = AUD$341. They arrived today and I installed them all. Working well. Setup the remote controller as master and all alarm devices as slave. Being in Queensland, I’ve now taken care of that requirement :smiley:

Oh and if it ain’t obvious, when you drill into ceiling for the mounts, wear eye protection! And also have covers over any furniture or stuff you don’t want ceiling debris falling onto. First one I installed, I got some debris into my eyes LOL

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Maybe too time consuming but maybe do similar battery life testing as mobile phone reviews. You can line up a bunch of smoke alarm brands and rig up a setup that will trigger alerts on a timed interval and see how long the 10yr battery alarms last before the battery is depleted or until when their low battery indicators are triggered?

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Thanks again - I’ll check out that new link.

And I’ll be sure to have my hazmat suit at the ready! :mask:

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haha. I thought I didn’t need the eye protection as I was drilling to the side of me and not directly above my head. But debris fly! :rofl:

Having carefully checked Choice reviews, I discovered the second model recommended is no longer available. Thank goodness I looked at the ratings of the apparent replacement model on the Bunnings website. 16 complaints about failure soon after purchasing for a model guaranteed for 10 years.
When is Choice going to review smoke alarms again, particularly the sealed lithium battery ones, which should be more convenient?

Hi @Hillsgal. We are (at last!) planning a new smoke alarm review, for next year. At this stage I’d expect the review to be online in May.

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Hi Chris, I’ve one question that you may be able to answer now or need to test for.

Re the PE interconnected wireless alarms with a built in 10 year battery. What battery reserve is there over the 10 year design life to allow for false triggering, testing and for what total alarm sounding duration over that time?

Each of our still legal but non interconnecting PE alarms trigger randomly 2-4 times each year. That excludes any battery drain for testing as required on a regular basis. If we interconnected 4 (the minimum we legally require) the false alarms would occur 4 times as often draining the built in battery at a greater rate.

My thoughts would be to do a final test that measured the power drain from the battery directly while the alarm is activated. It would be wasteful to have to throw away alarms after only 3-4 years if the battery life is rapidly shortened by even one event each year. With 4 interconnected alarms it might need many minutes to try to move from room to room cancelling each in turn until the culprit is silenced! Assuming this is how it works?

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Hi Chris, any progress on the smoke alarm review? The latest I can find is 2017.

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Hi PetePat, sorry, but unfortunately the hoped-for smoke alarm test didn’t eventuate, due to various factors. Mainly logistics and other higher priority projects taking the budget and schedule. It remains on my wish list but isn’t on the schedule at this time.

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Welcome to the community @PetePat
Every dollar counts these days. The latest regulations (note they do differ between states and territories) have pushed a majority of home owners into needing upgrades. The higher cost of hardwired interconnected vs DIY wireless interconnected favours the DIY. I’m thinking of QLD in particular because that is where we live.

My read of the QLD requirements and an estimate for the properties we live in:
For a simple two story town house typically at least 4 interconnected PE alarms.
For a basic 3 bedroom cottage on a single level at least 5 alarms.


We could put off upgrading until 31Dec2026.
(actually by 01Jan2027 if we read the PR)

Common sense would be to not put off and have the greater security of the upgraded requirements. I’ve put this off for now @ChrisBarnes because our experience with several brands of PE alarms is not great. False triggering is common in our home. As mentioned in prior posts I’m apprehensive that the built in battery 10 year wireless interconnected alarms will not last 10 years.

Hopefully Choice can find a test that pushes alarms to the limit to determine whether false alarms are a genuine concern of a less than 10 year life. A special need is being rural it’s not unusual to
be smoked out from time to time. Which might push common sense to hardwired 230V power $$$$. I’d much prefer the lower cost of alarms with a replaceable battery, however they will no longer be permitted?

P.S.
Choice for the next review might like to also assess and rate products as a system, and not just individual alarm sensors. Some brands have a range of compatible wired and wireless interconnected models. The 230V powered alarms may include replaceable backup batteries (annually) or non-removable rechargeable batteries.
EG MiFire Red brand, Clipsal, Brooks.

Of particular appeal are the handheld and fixed remotes that allow one to test, cancel or locate. The last assists in finding which alarm has triggered the others in the system, and potential the proximity of the fire/smoke hazard. They are independent of whether the alarms are wireless battery powered or hardwired.

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