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

[vitoboy]

Hi all
Recently we've been having a few issues with smoke and heat detectors.. been fitting them for years and years now mostly without any issues..occasionally changing battery's or units that are out of date.. but in the last 18 months we have a some problems.
Last year we did a rewire and fitted 5 smokes and a heat all from the same "industry standard" shall I say company.. the cost of this companies detectors has increased dramatically recently.. but hey its important so ok.
Then we have a heat detector in the system goes off over night in a kitchen.. nothing on in there.. no heat source active .. the customer can't stop it so takes it off the base only to find no 9v battery and still can't stop it..!.. hs to wrap it up and put it in a cupboard so they can sleep.
We turn up.. obviously a faulty unit.. and fit a new one then send the other back for a refund.
No refund arrives ..and the wholesalers inform me the company won't give a refund as they have found nothing wrong with the item ... so call the company.. they give me "we have had enough of taking back units that aren't faulty and we aren't going to do it anymore..you need to download the data from the detector and send it to us and we will tell you if it's faulty or not.. (it won't be and you won't get a refund ). . So we arevery disappointed with this .. we are down £50 for a detector ..we have a customer who's been kept up at 2am by a heat alarm going off with no heat present .. try and tell them there's nothing wrong and take that unit and put it back up.. not happening.
Soooo.. no more industry standard detectors for us ..we will use another company's items.
Few months later we fit 4 smokes and a heat in a new build from the new company.. its a large company selling 100s of 1000s of detectors a year.
Detectors start to beep low battery (9v) or fault 3 months after completion .. no worries change all the battery's for new duracell plus .. few days later beeping again.. call tech support .. remove all heads and 2 still beeping .. replace them with new.
Fewdays later .. beeping again..call local company rep .. replace all heads with new items (free replacements) .. few days later still beeping..!.
Call rep .. say will call back next day .. no call back.
Return to job disconnect all inter connections so detectors are stand alone and wait.. all still beeping .. test the circuit i/r tests continuity (including inter connections) all found to be good.
Really boring now .. around 2 hours on the phone to company.. some suggestions that 9v items are poor and agree to supply upgrade to 10 year lithium items.
In the end we are out of pocket around a day's labour and have not covered ourselves in glory with the original customer or the person he sold his house to.
Anyone out there having these issues?.. none of these items have been cheapo units from China via amazon..
Currently we are wondering which way to go ..which manufacturer to use..
My feeling is this can't be isolated incidents..

Cheers

Vito

 

[cireland]

All the ones we fit are 10 year lithium types. I'm not aware of any issues so far.
Usually Aico or Firex.

 

[suffolkspark]

Ive had a few aico optical alarms false alarm continually over the years even after a blow out and need replacing, but id say thats about 1% fault rate for me personally

 

[Yozza19]

We fit thousands of aicos every year very few are actually fualty less than 1% and most of theese are environmental factors

We did fit circa 1500 fire angel units on a contract they were specified by the client and the failure rate was astronomical

 

[brianmoooore]

In my experience, this is often down to dust getting into the optical chamber. I've rescued many by dismantling enough to blow the chamber clean with an air line.

 

[littlespark]

Never known Aico to have a fault.

Their sales bumff says they check every detector as it’s being assembled… not a % sample.

Only issues I’ve had was a Radiolink base not set up (customer had pressed the button) and one heat detector came with the test button detached. (Clicked back on easily)

 

[LukeD]

Most tend to be excellent .Technology has move ahead a lot .Aico and Keddie /Fire angel are i believe market leaders .

 

[timhoward]

One faulty Aico in probably hundreds.
I tried Fire Angel interlinked once and lets just say ‘never again’

 

[LukeD]

One faulty Aico in probably hundreds.
I tried Fire Angel interlinked once and lets just say ‘never again’

I found Fire Angel fine. But only started using them 2 years ago. Connectors are fine , no issues as yet .

 

[timhoward]

I found Fire Angel fine. But only started using them 2 years ago. Connectors are fine , no issues as yet .

The stand-alone or fully wired are ok.
I had 3 mains powered wireless interconnect. After pairing 3 times, once on phone for the duration with tech support, any one would trigger one other, never all three. It wasn’t radio distance issues either. The two furthest apart were the most consistent.Trust rapidly eroded.

Swap to aico next day, bish bash bosh.

 

[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 !)