Kidde21006371 p12040 Hardwire With Battery Backup Photoelectric Smoke Alarm, White

AMAZON ORDERING SYSTEMS ARE THE BEST OF THEIR KIND SO WHY DOES THEIR RETURN SYSTEM USE DISCONNECTED SCREENS:Item came from Amazon services. The box did not include a wiring harness. I have 2 failed (old) smoke detectors and didn't want to go through the hassle of an exchange. I had already ordered multiple Kidde KA-F adapters for different locations where I'm replacing older Firex units so I used one of those with older harness to get this unit in service. I thought it would be easy to tell Amazon I was short one KA-F adapter on this order. Ignoring for the moment that you're limited to 120 characters and I created a more complicated story, the web screens like to erase everything you type. The system gave me a "failure" message on submit the first time I worded my story. It didn't say so but failed me two more times as I tried to comprehend inconsistent Amazon procedure reporting missing/broken parts. Reporting the missing wire adapter on the smoke detector itself only gave me the option to return the entire box (it's functioning on my ceiling with a part I still need and paid them for). Reporting that I was missing a KA-F adapter (one of four ordered the same time but they were split into 3 orders) only gives me an option to receive a credit buying something I don't need. Who knows how they come up with limited suggestions of what I can buy but the thing I'm short wasn't listed. I'm left with the only option to undo my installation or pay someone for another Firex to Firex adapter (more on that below).AMAZON MISSING PARTS POLICY: It's not clear to me why they can't replace one item when a shipment is truly short but the rules they don't replace missing items when more than one has been ordered. That makes no sense unless they are 100% certain they never make a quantity mistake fulfilling orders. Are their robots that good? I did have one "add on" item across the four orders the system generated and that is listed as another reason they won't "replace" something missing on an order. Granted, I'm the one who decided to fix this using a creative, cheaper method. I should have been more concerned with the reality that the smoke detector was likely a return and no procedures exist to 1) make sure all parts came back with the return and 2) the item hasn't been damaged by a customer who changed their mind. if the box was supposed to have installation screws those were also missing. At what point does something get called "refurbished" versus being "returned"? I had one almost new Kidde Smoke/CO detector installed last year so I made a last minute decision to buy all new Kidde units instead of First Alert. I was also replacing older Firex units and didn't want to run the risk of Kidde units not interconnecting with First Alert.IS IT REALLY KIDDE OR ARE THE RUNNING FIREX AS A SEPARATE BUSINESS UNIT IN CASE THEY SELL IT: Even though Kidde bought Firex in 2009, I was willing to pay extra for an adapter to reuse Firex harnesses (versus rewiring new harnesses). That assumes each box will have a harness.The product arrived with the word Firex twice as big as the word Kidde on the box. The Kidde logo doesn't even appear on the instructions. But the word Firex doesn't appear in listing for the item I bought. They either have the worlds worst Marketing Department (product branding) or this has been done intentionally so we don't ask them Firex questions. I was willing to buy all new Kidde (even over First Alert) because I would be retiring Firex once and for all. You know units that go off in the middle of the night for no reason. Now I'm just pissed that I'm paying Kidde for multiple adapters to connect Firex wiring harnesses to Firex Smoke detectors. They should have rewarded customer loyalty if they were truly standardizing on the Kidde connector and a redesign was necessary. But they don't appear to be standardizing on anything which takes us to the question of how difficult should it be to get into the battery compartment.BATTERY IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO GET TO: Don't buy this unit if you fear middle of the night false alarms and know the drill taking out batteries. Other units Kidde sells advertise new, easy access battery compartments. But this "Firex" unit's design is worse than all the Firex models that came before. Is someone at Kidde even paying attention to what the Firex unit designs? This one moves the battery door from the front to the back so the unit must be removed from the wall to get to the battery. That might have been manageable, but the KA-F adapters block opening the door. And so far, tabs I'm supposed to press to release the adapter from the unit haven't worked. It is an extremely tight fit which one would tend to want on a smoke detector. But if these units prove to have false alarms in the first year, as customers report on many other models, I will likely have to break the adapter or the unit to get the battery out and stop the noise. The 8-10 minute silence feature sounds like something good for this situation but that feature has also been reported not to work during false alarms.So far the unit appears to work but I've had my first experience doing return business with Amazon. I would think something branded Amazon services would allow customers to tell the honest story in the return system. It not only kept me from telling the story on one screen, it erased the story without any warning when I used a back button (failing to return to from page 2 to page 1 on the return screen). Amazon is too good at web design for this to be anything but an intentional deterrent to Returns.

We got these as replacements for 7 of our homes original 8 builder grade smoke detectors. These are also essentially builder grade. You need to pop the plastic in the bas for the mounting holes you want to use and it has a sticker that says "do not remove until final building inspection."They were easy to install. Have a clean look.We also got one Kiddie brand carbon monoxide /smoke combo detector. It is more expensive and you can see the difference from builder grade. The base had the holes finished etc. None the less the two kinds still look very polished in our home and are much better than the very old yellowed plastic originals.It is recommended to replace smoke detectors every ten years.

False alarmFalse alarmFalse alarmThese were invented by satan to torture your soul at 3 am running feverishly through your house with a ladder, your fingers furiously pulling and twisting to remove these from the ceiling.If you can’t tell these devices are awful.They are very prone to false alarm, and since they are networked it’s really tough to tell which one is alarming. I have a 2 and 4 year old which I think have ptsd from these things now.So my house is a new build 4 years at this point. These began with the false alarms only about 4 months after moving in. Yes I tried cleaning them out with a vacuum, no dice. I began replacing them with the same model thinking they had probably been ruined by construction dust but the replacements started with the same problem. Also I tested the air quality in the house and it was all quite good actually.I realized the two that had the additional built in co2 detector had never been the cause, so at this point instead of changing brands and redoing the wire harnesses I replaced them all with the fire / co2 detector. The catch is that this other model is considerably more expensive. I suspect they have a higher quality detector inside. For this I really do fault the kidde brand, I shouldn’t have to pay 3x as much not to be terrorized. But if you are like me and didn’t want to have to fully switch brands the more expensive detector does appear to work better.I would rather have no smoke detectors than this model

I had a Kidde 1235 that was manufactured in March 2004. After my power went out last week, it make this horrendous buzzing sound until I ripped it out of the ceiling. That’s when I realized how old it was (16 years!) and went to replace it. The Kidde 12040 fits perfectly on top of the existing mount. Installation was super easy- just screwed it into my old mount & pulled out the tab for the battery. Can’t comment on battery life yet, but it’s pretty easy to twist off to get access to the battery compartment.Note that the 12040 is hardwired and the battery is a backup if your power goes out. Installation will be slightly more involved if you need to do the electrical work, but there are only 2-3 wires, it’s still very simple.Overall pleased, super easy install, TBD on the battery life.