Customer Reviews

Kidde i12060 Hardwire with Front Load Battery Backup Smoke Alarm

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Kidde AC Wire-In with Battery Backup Smoke Alarm #i12060

These alarms are powered primarily by your house wiring, and if power fails, by a 9v battery. If you only have one alarm, you only need a hot & neutral (black & white wires, plus ground) in a ceiling box. To interconnect two or more alarms, you'll need 14/3 or 12/3 cable (black, white, red, and a ground wire) from the first alarm to the last. The included quick connect wiring harness's female jack has black, white, & red pigtails that connect to your house wiring. The pigtail's jack connects to the back of the alarm, so it's easy to remove or replace an alarm if needed. If an alarm in the "system" is activated, the red wire goes hot from that alarm, activating all interconnected alarms. There are 5 interconnected alarms in a house we're remodeling, and when set off (as a test), it's ear-splitting racket, designed to wake you from a deep sleep.

If your house has 14/2 or 12/2 wire (versus 3 conductor) to the alarm's ceiling box, this product will still work, except for the interconnecting feature. I.e., an activated alarm won't activate the other alarms.

The model i2060 needs only one 9v battery, and it couldn't be easier or faster to replace. I.e., without removing the alarm from it's base plate, press the battery cover door on the unit's front. A hinged door opens allowing you to slide the old battery out, replace it, and shut the door. Since I can reach 8' ceilings without a ladder, I can replace the i2060 battery in under 5 seconds!

110 v smoke alarms with a battery backup do NOT have to be replaced as a set. Their only "communication" with other alarms is, when one is activated its red wire goes hot to the other alarms. So, you only need to replace a problem alarm, not all of them.

This is an ionization alarm only. I.e., it's not also a photo-electric sensor. Ionization sensors are best at detecting fast, flaming fires. Photoelectric sensors are best at detecting smoldering fires.

Less than a year ago, I replaced all the smoke detectors in my home with the Kidde i12060. They go off for no reason- we dont smoke, and cooking doesnt set them off. They just go bad. I checked the batteries- they are still good. I am so tired of the false alarms that I am going to replace them all with a different brand. I see that these have good ratings from others, but I just wanted to share my bad experiance so that you are forewarned.

These units installed easily and I had no problems. No more irritating chirps for no apparent reason!

Several nice features:

1) No annoying chirps-
My old smoke alarms gave me chirps and intermittent alarm sounds for no obvious reason. Try explaining at 3AM to a house full of guests that everything is okay and "hopefully" it won't happen again. Worse yet, the old alarms (which were interconnected), didn't chirp alone, they all seemed to chirp. So even if one alarm has a problem, you couldn't tell which one.

These new alarms haven't given me this problem; this is a huge improvement from my old alarms. I did test these new alarms for low battery and they chirp individually even when interconnected and installed. Now at least IF I get chirps, I can isolate the unit.

Update 3-2010 on chirps:
I have noticed that one alarm, approximately 6ft from a bathroom door, is sometimes affected by steam from a shower and chirps occasionally. The minimal chirping is very infrequent and the obvious cause was steam. The cause was obvious because the shower was occurring right then and some condensate showing up on nearby windows. It does not chirp any other time.

2) Great back connector clip-
This new wiring connector on the back physically clips on to the unit, this is a great feature. Let me explain why: When wiring up any smoke alarm, there is a clip that connects the wires to the unit. This was a weak point on the old units, but has been improved on these new units. This new alarm's connector has 2 plastic teeth that clip into the alarm, making the electrical connection firm and solid. My old detectors had a connector that only stayed on by the force of the alarm in the ceiling, but did not mechanically secure to the alarm itself. This method was prone to having the alarm electrically disconnect and "go to battery" if the unit was jostled just a bit. This wore down the battery very fast. I have provided a picture in Customer Images to clarify what I mean about how this new clip attaches.

3) Easy access front battery door-
The front battery door is very nice; you can open it and quickly test for battery voltage without taking the battery out of the unit.

4) No kitchen nuisance alarms-
We have one of these installed near our kitchen and haven't had any cooking annoyance alarms (yet!).

Bottom line: A great smoke alarm.

I have five of these in my home. About a year ago I replaced them all due to random false alarms (they were about 8 years old). Since then I've had to replace two of the new ones due to false alarms. I'm pulling them all out and replacing with another brand. Quality on these is extremely poor.

Last summer, my upstairs Kidde smoke detector started chirping, then going off--even after I replaced the battery. Nothing would make it stop the noise, so I removed it. I replaced it with a Kidde i12060.

Last month in the middle of the night, it chirped once. After a week or so, it started chirping every few minutes. I checked the battery--it was still good. I changed it anyway. A week later the alarm went off in the middle of the night. I stumbled out of bed, convinced of a fire. Nothing. I pushed "Hush," and that was that. Yesterday, it happened again. I took the battery out, put in a new battery, cleaned the unit with a can of compressed air.

This afternoon it went off again--a constant, "there's a fire!" beeping. Pushed "Hush," no hush. Also no fire, and I'm not cooking or grilling; I'm not even running the dryer; I don't smoke. I had to pull the thing off the ceiling to get it to stop. Very discouraging!

I'm not sure I would buy another Kidde brand. I don't want to replace my smoke detectors every year.

I purchased two of these to replace aging alarms in my townhouse. Within a month, both the upstairs alarm and the one in the basement started sounding false alarms. I was forced to remove both units and am looking for a replacement.

It's so much fun at 3am waking to the sound of 4 smake alarms going off. Where's the fire ? Nada ! Renovation required installation of smoke detectors - in this case Kidde i12060.
They randomly go off, currently in the middle of the night for no reason. You wake in a panic to no fire - but which detector set them all off so you can shut it down ? I have no faith in these alarms now, dreading a real fire that may be ignored. As others, the only recourse is to disconnect it from the wall.

This is a good product with nice features including a 10 year limited warranty, quick connect harness, front loading battery door, one button operation to quiet and test. You might not think the drop-down battery door is a big deal until you see how nicely made it is and how logical the design. It's the way battery doors should have always been designed. The alarm memory flashes red to indicate which unit (if connected in series) caused an alarm. These are interconnect-able with up to 24 devices (18 can be initiating). They also interconnect with other Kidde, Fyrnetics, Lifesaver, Firex and Nighthawk alarms, strobe lights and relay modules with interconnect functionality. After considerable trouble with BRK/First Alert false alarms, these proved to be extremely reliable. This is a superior product, a very sound choice.

This is way too sensitive for use anywhere near a kitchen. I have one installed outside the kitchen, and it goes off every time I make toast, saute, or broil. Sometimes just turning on a burner on the stove is enough to set it off.

The hush feature is OK, but it will keep going off every five minutes or so as long as you're cooking. Since it's hard-wired to the other smoke detectors, the entire house is filled with screeching on all the false alarms.

My old (over 10 years at this point), smoke detectors were driving me crazy. They would frequently start chirping for no reason, and had a litany of annoyances. I replaced all 7 in my house with this product and am very pleased. I haven't had a fire or even burnt toast since we installed these, so I can't say whether or not they "work", but based on most smoke detector reviews that shouldn't be your principal concern. I think most are pretty good at detecting smoke. The problem is that most smoke detectors are prone to false alarms. Not these.

They installed very easily, "link" tested on the first try, and are very well designed. Battery access in the front and a big silence/test button is great. Most importantly, in two months we haven't had a single chirp or false alarm.

I am very happy with these and think you will be too.


---- UPDATE May 2011 ----

We've had these for about a year now and are still very happy with them. They have never given any sort of false alarm. Not even a chirp.

Yesterday, I started up a weed-wacker for the first time of the season near the garage. It smoked like crazy and a small amount of the smoke went into the garage. Within a few seconds of smoke going into the garage, every detector in the house went off. The best part was that one touch of the "silence" button on the unit in the garage turned all the alarms off just as quickly as they came on. Since the small amount of smoke in the garage cleared soon after I silenced the detector, the alarms never came back on. They worked exactly like they are supposed to.

The two things I look for in a smoke detector is that they are noisy when they are supposed to be and silent when they are supposed to be. This one does that perfectly. (Many don't.)