Smoke/CO detectors - replace at 10 years?

[Redpoppy]

We are buying FIL's house in two weeks. When scheduling the smoke/CO detector inspection the woman told DH they had to be 10 years old or less. The paperwork for the state (town inspects) just says it is recommended.

I have no problem with replacing them and prefer it, because the house needed more CO detectors anyway and I bought combo hard wired ones instead.

FIL doesn't see the point in replacing working smoke detectors. But regardless I already bought them because we don't have time to be reinspected if it doesn't pass and God help me if I have to do all the mortgage paperwork again because we didn't close in time. Plus I trust the fire department over FIL.

Just wondering, have any of you heard of a ten year replacement requirement?

[TBM]

When we bought new ones for this house a couple of years ago, I read/heard that they should be replaced every ten years. I had never heard that before then.

[mrs.jacinthe]

R says that it's basically because of the sensor cartridge reaching a point in its life where it's been determined to become unreliable.

[lilac05]

Our inspector told us the same thing.

[pumpkin]

I haven't heard the 10 year thing, but my experience has been that the CO detector requirements have been changed/updated several times so due to that I've had to change them out or add separate CO detectors

[pumpkin]

May 24, 2015 20:28:12 GMT -5 whattheheck said:

My CO detector expired March 2015. In April 2015 it let out a horrific, unrelenting, steady alarm. I threw the kids out of the house, flipped off the switch to the furnace, and ran out of the house and was about to call 911 when I remembered that the CO alarm has a four-beep pattern indicating carbon monoxide. Turns out the alarm had malfunctioned, likely due to being expired. Replace those suckers on time.

Likely a dumb question, but how do you know when they expire?

[Redpoppy]

Thanks all. Tomorrow is swap out day for the new house. Hopefully it isn't to difficult, seems similar to swapping out a light fixture. I'm surprised FIL is so resistant. The original house burned down in a fire and these are the ones from when it was rebuilt in 1990.

[mrspez07]

I had a smoke alarm buzz twice this morning and wake us all us this morning, but it's hard wired. DH took the cover off and it stopped. Do you replace those types?

[Norticprincess]

Ours had the expiration date under the battery backup. It was approx 10 years. New ones said it on the packaging and I wrote the install date on the tab.

[Redpoppy]

May 25, 2015 9:11:38 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

I had a smoke alarm buzz twice this morning and wake us all us this morning, but it's hard wired. DH took the cover off and it stopped. Do you replace those types?

Those are the kind we were told to replace. Depending on what year the house was built there were different regulations on number and type but anything after 1975 (I think) required hard wired in MA. The CO detectors could be plug in but I got combo since we were replacing.
Surprisingly there was only one hard wired combo option at Home Depot. Everything else was either just smoke or battery operated.

I also found out there are two types of smoke detectors as well as heat detectors. I may get one of the other types for downstairs and a heat for the garage. It was hard too find though.

[lilac05]

I was talking to my H about all of this, which led to him looking at all of our smoke detectors at the new (to us) house. He discovered today that there are NO smoke detectors in the 1200 sq foot finished basement (with living room, bedroom, bathroom, furnace, etc!)! The inspector told us the detectors needed to be replaced, bug I guess he missed the fact that there weren't any on an entire level! Yikes!

So, I'm happy we aren't living there yet. I'm frustrated that the basement apparently isn't permitted (it was a foreclosure). I'm also going to be less judgmental about people not having working smoke detectors in their home when something bad happens. I now see how easily that can happen!

[Redpoppy]

lilac05 You'd think an inspector would have caught that! And what a pain, since ideally (or maybe required) they should be hard wired and interconnected.

@bluesky I think it is a requirement but only checked/enforced with home sale. When the CO detector requirement came out they said it was just highly recommended if not selling. We have a newer rule here for heating oil lines being encased and it drives me nuts that our condo association didn't force everyone to upgrade to the rule. Our oil company made us, and I worry someone that hasn't will have a leak and we will all have to pay to remediate it. It is a few hundred dollars for an encased line to be put in, and thousands to properly remediate a leak. Our neighbors had a major full tank spill (long story but not their fault) and it was over $200,000 to remediate. Our condo isn't even worth that much.

[arch01]

Ours have an expiration date on them right under the manufacture date and it's at exactly 10 years.