Wireless Interlinked Smoke and Heat Alarm Scotland Bundle with 10 Year Battery Life, EN14604, CE Certified, Fire Alarms Scotland Interlinked, Low-Battery Alert, Pre Linked. 3 Pack

Product Information

Some smart models sound an alarm on your smartphone and through the alarm itself when triggered – this is the most helpful kind of smart alarm. Interlinking when one alarm goes off, all the connected detectors are activated. This can be particularly useful in a larger house.

Any fire detection system, be it a smoke alarm, heat alarm or combination alarm, MUST be installed on the ceiling. Of course, it is entirely possible to get connected smoke alarms that hook up directly to your home network via Wi-Fi, or through a proprietary connection or a Zigbee or Z-Wave hub. The advantage with these is that they can warn you of a fire through an alarm or alert on your smartphone, and also, with some systems, trigger smart lighting to come on. How we test smoke alarms As a rule of thumb, it’s best to use optical alarms in living rooms, bedrooms or downstairs hallways where you either have a lot of upholstered furniture and soft furnishings or the alarm is likely to be set off by cooking fumes. Keep ionisation alarms for upstairs hallways or areas where dust or exposure to the elements (say, through an open door) might potentially set off an optical sensor. If in doubt, go optical or use a multi-sensor alarm. Use of ionisation alarms is generally being discouraged by many fire services, and some manufacturers have now discontinued their ionisation products.Generally, detectors are battery-powered, hardwired, or plugged into an outlet. To determine the type you need, remove the detectors in your home from their mounts.

Batteries used to be the weakness of most household smoke alarms, requiring replacement every year or so and usually running out of charge, causing the low battery alarm to ring, in the middle of the night. As with carbon monoxide alarms, the trend is now towards alarms with a built-in, 10-year lithium battery, designed to work for the alarm’s effective lifespan. In Scotland, these are now a legal requirement. In England and Wales, however, you can still buy and use alarms with a replaceable 9V battery, and these often work out cheaper. We’d recommend paying extra for the convenience and peace of mind, but the choice is yours. Is there anything else worth looking out for? The Kidde Firex Battery-Operated Smoke Detector doesn’t need professional installation and installs easily, according to reviewers. You can easily test the alarm function or silence a false alarm using buttons on the face of the smoke detector. However, to access the rear battery compartment, you’ll have to remove the detector from the wall or ceiling. There’s also no voice alarm for this unit, but the 85-decibel horn and a flashing LED light commands attention in the event that the detector is set off. Ring your local fire service, and they will provide and install smoke detectors free of charge, as long as you meet certain criteria. Comments And Questions

Combination Smoke and Heat Detector

Even if you don’t want to spend the extra money on a combination alarm, or a linked detection system, please ensure your home is covered by as many smoke detectors as possible. Like most sensors, combination smoke and heat detectors are available in wireless and hardwired varieties. With the rise of wireless alarm systems, wireless sensors are now the most popular option. If you go this route, you must make sure the wireless combination smoke and heat detectors you use communicate at a wireless frequency that is compatible with your system. Hardwired smoke and heat detectors are normally used with hardwired systems only. But there are some wired to wireless converters like the Qolsys IQ Hardwire 16-F that will let you bring over wired smoke and heat detectors for use with a wireless panel. Battery-powered detectors are wireless and can be placed anywhere. They typically run on replaceable batteries (usually 9-volt or AA) or sealed lithium batteries that last 10 years.

Now that the alarms law has changed in Scotland, you'll need to install interlinked heat and smoke alarms in your home. For kitchen, garage or workshop use, fire services also recommend fitting a heat alarm. These sense hot air rather than smoke, and trigger when the air in the sensor chamber reaches a specific temperature, which is usually 58°C. Heat alarms are slower to respond than actual smoke alarms, but they’re also not as prone to false alarms. They won’t go off when you’re grilling sausages or burning toast, but they still provide ample warning if something catches fire in your kitchen. However, that being said, if we apply some common sense here, the safer option is to screw the base plate to the ceiling.As of February 2022, the Nest protect smoke and CO alarm no longer meet the requirements of the new Scottish alarm laws. This is because, while it can be linked to other Nest alarms, it has no way of detecting heat rises or of being linked to another heat alarm. So, why not just install a basic, cheap smoke detector rather than a smoke and heat detector combination type?

This hardwired combination detector requires more advanced installation than a battery-operated version. However, it has a 10-year lifespan, and set-up is simple once the hardware is mounted—just use your smart device to scan a QR code on the device to get the process started. A combination smoke detector, like this version from Kidde, is built with sensors for detecting both smoke and carbon monoxide. We tested the Kidde Battery-Operated Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm and recommend it for its simple installation and voice alerts, which clearly identify the trigger for the alarm event. It’s UL-certified and has a 10-year lifespan, although the two AA batteries will need more frequent replacement. Smoke detectors are relatively simple by design and usually rely on an audible alarm to grab your attention. But if you’re looking for more advanced monitoring, the Kidde Smart Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm is the right choice. Good coverage across your home by these detectors could save your life one day, and should be an integral part of your home fire safety plan.If it does go off inadvertently, the large, central test/mute button makes it easy to silence, saving your ears from a thrashing. As with the Pro Connected, it buys you ten minutes to clear the air, while a “sleep easy” function gets you eight hours of quiet if you press the button once the low battery warning starts. Little touches such as this elevate the ST-622Q above your run-of-the-mill smoke alarms, making it one of the best options for most households. All of the major manufacturers (Aico, FireAngel and Kidde) make smoke and heat alarms that will work in combination with one another and we have tested pairs of smoke and heat alarms from each of them.