Your Smoke Detector or Carbon Monoxide Detector Has a Shelf Life - Check Yours

Until a few years ago, I didn't know that smoke detectors were different than a fire detector and the both had a shelf life. 

In the past, I blogged about a woman who contacted me due to a blog post I made taking a close up picture of a smoke detector we had in the house. She shared that due to my photo, they were able to identify the detector that malfunctioned. There was a smoldering fire which filled a womans home with smoke and her boyfriend and five children died due to smoke inhalation and neighbors said that they could smell smoke and the detector did not go off until the fire department broke the door in. The mother was at work at the time. She lost everything and everyone in her life. Here is a link to that post. 

From that experience, I learned that your detectors have a shelf life and the sensors on them stop functioning after five years or so. However, the alarms I bought in the past month or so have a ten year warranty on them so I am guessing they are rated for twice as long as the first alert detectors. 

I almost wondered if the "shelf life" on them was to make you have to purchase new ones and they make more sales similar to how the appliance industry has dumbed down their products to give them a ten year working life so you have to buy a new one. I know people that have worked for the appliance companies and it is becoming a "throw it away" industry rather than a repair it industry. You can't even purchase parts for an appliance that is over ten years old, they don't make them so you have to purchase a new unit. 

Anyway, the two detectors in my hallways were put up the same day and they both went out within a month of each other and there is no way to reset them so I had to replace them at nearly $40 each. Here is a post about the day they were installed.  

I dated a fireman at one point, and he shared some good information about shaking your extinguishers as the powder forms into a cake at the bottom of the can and then when you need it, it isn't functioning as it takes a few minutes to tap the powder from being a solid and shaking it in the extinguisher so check out this post as it was informative. Here is that post. 

A few weeks back, I changed out the detector in my basement hall as it kept beeping after several battery changes and I finally looked up the "first Act" carbon monoxide detector, smoke, beeping" and was able to find a video about it after searching through a few. I found out that if it is beeping five times in sequence, it was due to the detector reaching the end of its life and had to be replaced. 

Now a month later, the one in the upstairs hall did the same thing and so I purchased a new one at Walmart as I had priced them at three different stores last month and knew the cheapest was at Walmart. They are not inexpensive, but I wanted the one with the human voice saying "Fire" but it is a quiet woman's voice, I think it should be a man yelling, "FIRE" as that would wake anyone up. However, it has both the high pitched beeps and the voice for both the smoke, fire, and carbon monoxide issues so I am happy to have that taken care of as all three in one makes for less on the walls. I do have smoke detectors in most rooms of the house and garage, I have extinguishers in the bedrooms by the beds, so we can get out if needed. I have extinguishers in the laundry room, kitchen, and garage as well a we used to carry one in each car, but we haven't done that the past few years as my cars have gotten smaller and newer. 

Take the time now that it is "back to school" time to check all your detectors batteries, shake your extinguishers, and remind your kids how to get out in a fire. It really only takes a few minutes to do all of those things and you would probably never forgive yourself if you didn't and something horrible happened. 

Have a Blessed and tragedy free day!