Kidde KN-COSM-IB Hardwire Combination Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarm with Battery Backup and Voice Warning, Interconnectable
by Kidde
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Kidde KN-COSM-IB Hardwire Combination Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarm with Battery Backup and Voice Warning, Interconnectable
Customer Review: Haven't installed yet, but...
Summary: 5 Stars
While I haven't installed the two units I bought, they so far live up to my expectations for Kidde products.
Voice alarms are great. Units have the standard "beep" alarm you're used to, but with the added security of voice notification. Some authorities are saying that voice alarms are better at waking kids, and in some cases adults, up from deep/REM sleep over the traditional alarm.
Smoke and CO alarm in one unit? Sweet. Saves the annoyance of having to install separate CO alarms. If you're not installing CO alarms in a new home, then you're usually going with the units that plug into standard wall outlets, taking up the outlet and not looking too great. Combined units are really great for retrofits in existing homes.
These are hardwired with battery backup. This is the same configuration the fire alarms in any larger public building work on a full blown fire alarm system, connected directly (indirectly in the case of a full fire alarm system) to AC power under normal operation but battery backup is provided when external power fails.
NEVER BUY A FIRE ALARM THAT DOESN'T INTERCONNECT. That's a MAJOR plus for this unit. Non-interconnecting units could cost you your life. Units that do not interconnect only sound when danger is in the immediate area. In an interconnected system, all connected units sound. For example: You have an interconnected unit in the basement with your furnace and all other units throughout the home are interconnected. Your furnace malfunctions and carbon monoxide begins building up in the basement. All units in the home alarm and you're probably going to get out of the house well before it gets too dangerous. In a traditional "system" that does not interconnect, CO levels would have to rise to dangerous levels near detectors outside bedrooms before they alarm.
The additional safety and feeling of security these provide at this price is outstanding. If you're looking to replace smoke or CO detectors, you've found what you want; a reliable, interconnected, smoke + CO combined unit, with voice alarm.
Oh, and these do interconnect with other Kidde alarms, so if you need, for example, a strobe/exit light or other types of units, you should be all set.
Only thing you could add to these would be central station monitoring, but that's another review (and monthly fee) altogether...
Customer Review: great
Summary: 5 Stars
This unit will detect carbon monoxide and fires. Here is what I did in our house... Our Bedroom, Daughters bedroom and top of the stairs we have the regular detector with a light to help us see to get out. Our spare room at the top of the stairs has a regular detector that also has the wireless feature but also hardwires in to all the others. In our bathroom we have a plug in wireless fire alarm. It gets the signal from the one in the spare room if ANY of our detectors goes off. It makes a verbal announcement that there is a fire. It is very loud and can easily be heard if you are in the shower even with a radio on. In the office at the top of the stairs we have a dual sensor alarm so if either type of fire (slow or fast buring) is detected all alarms will go off. Lastly in the hallway at the bottom of our stairs we have this detector that does smoke and carbon monoxide. If it detects either it will set off all alarms including the one in the bathroom. I feel like we are covered in everyway possible. I feel all of these are much better than what was installed when we built the house 7 years ago. My father was a firefighter for 25 years and we live in a town that relies only on volunteers so I take these detectors very seriously. We have also had a very scary false alarm at 2am before. I can not imagine actually having your house burn down, the false alarm was terrifying enough. But if something terrible was to happen I want every chance to get my family out safe.
REMEMBER though that carbon monoxide should be detected at floor level. We also have a battery powered carbon monoxide detector in the room with our fireplace. We rely on this unit to wake us up if we are a sleep. It will still reach this detector before it reaches our bedrooms. An alarm is your only hope for carbon monoxide.
Customer Review: It was time to replace my old detector or die
Summary: 5 Stars
Two times in the last year I had potentially life-threatening fires. My house was full of smoke and my old detector didn't go off. Fortunately I was awake both times and dealt with the problems promptly with no loss of life or fire damage.
After the second time my old detector didn't alert me; I had to take action. The Kidde seemed like a good choice because it has several features I like:
* Hard-wired with battery backup.
* It sets of the other smoke detectors in the event of a fire or CO problem.
* Ionizing smoke detector is state-of-the-art.
* It talks and beeps.
When you replace an existing detector, keep in mind that they run on house current (121V AC). You should probably power-down the system during the replacement. Also, keep in mind that some local building codes do not allow homeowners to do electrical work at this voltage. Personally, I don't care what the code says and I replaced my old unit in about 10 minutes (powered-up during the swap). When I replaced it; I found that the yellow wire that alerts other smoke detectors in my house had come loose. I not only had a bad smoke detector but it also wouldn't wake me up in the event of a fire at night -- Great!
For the life of me, I can't understand why the local building code only requires one smoke detector on the first floor so I bought a Kidde KN-COSM-B Battery-Operated Combination Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarm with Talking Alarm to monitor other rooms. My review for that product is pretty-much the same except it uses cheap AA batteries instead of the 9V battery this one uses.
Customer Review: Kiddie Smoke/CO Alarm
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the third COSM-1B smoke and CO alarm which uses 115 V power from the house wiring. As far as my Google search was able to determine, this is the only combination alarm that gets its power from house wiring. When in the Air Force, I had to investigate an incident where a family was exposed to high CO from an air starved heating system. Luckily, they only had headaches tht lasted six hours. With a gas heating system, fireplace and gas cooktop; I believe for safety, it is best to have both a smoke alarm and a CO alarm. State law requires contractors to install smoke alarms in all bedrooms when they renovate. Usually contractors install the least expensive smoke alarm. In my renovation, I had the contractor install an electrical box for the smoke alarm in the bedroom being renovated. I like this type alarm since the battery only alarms have a limited time that they give a sound alarm that their batteries are low. If that occurs when you are away from the house you may not know the device is not working. Alarms connected to house wiring will sound the battery low alarm as long as there is power to the house. I also like the feature that the alarm has a self check and alarm that informs you that the device is not working properly. I purchased this alarm to replace a nine year old alarm that was not working properly (and had exceeded its life expectancy). I don't think the smoke only alarms have a self check. I also like this alarms feature of providing a verbal alarm that incicates whether the alarm is detecting smoke (it says Fire, Fire, Fire) or is detecting high CO.Customer Review: Easy install, works perfectly
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted the hardwire unit because I was replacing some smoke detectors that were hardwired. My old smoke detectors had three wires, so I used all three wires in the new units. (If you only have two wires these will work just fine.) What the third wire does is allow units to communicate with each other throughout the house. This is a real advantage to the safetly of your family. When any of the detectors are activated, the same announcement is made by all detectors in the house.
For example, our children's bedrooms are on the lower level of the house. If the detector near their room goes off, then the one upstairs in our room goes off as well and announces what the alarm is for (fire or carbon monoxide). This allows the family to take the appropriate action.
In case of fire we have practiced getting out of the house as quickly as possible. In case of carbon monoxide, we open the nearest window.
The units fit exactly where my old smoke alarms were located and they come with all the wiring instructions. I did have to get three wire nuts for each unit to install them.
The voice announcement is great, the battery backup is good, and the units are of high quality.
We feel a lot safer having these in our home.