Quality Smoke Alarms Needed: Box Store Kidde and First Alert False Alarming Too Much

[William Coet]

Hello,

We are having too many false alarms with alarms that are less than 2 years old and are supposed to last for 10 years.  It often occurs in the middle of the night.  It is not tenant abuse either.  We clean them with compressed air and it is not a dusty environment.  There seems to be a quality problem with the two major alarm compnaies (Kidde and First Alert).  Kidde has acknowledged this as they are not producing a line of alarms that had multiple problems.  Note: these are 10 year sealed battery units (not hardwired)

This may not seem like a serious problem but it is for the following reasons:

1.  When a CO alarm false alarms in the middle of the night the recommended procedure is to evacuate and call 911.  This is a major disruption to people sleep and lives.  

2.  Sometimes people will disable a nuisance alarm and this creates an unsafe condition

3.  The cost and time to service a faulty alarm is too much.

Questions:

1.  Are there better quality alarms out there?

2.  Any advice on how to instruct tenants to deal with a nuisance alarm in the middle of the night?

Thanks in advance for any insight