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Old 02-14-2015, 09:01 AM   #1
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Linked Fire Alarms

I have mentioned these before in older threads. A 5th wheel fire in another campground near where I am staying reminded me of the need for linked fire- alarms. I had talked about putting these in my MH then could not find a local place to buy them and forgot about doing it. I just found this link to them at Home Depot and will be buying several of them today.

Kidde Battery Operated Wireless Interconnectable Smoke Alarm-RF-SM-DC - The Home Depot

In one of my rental houses when I did some work on it the city made me upgrade to new codes. The linked fire alarms were part of the upgrade I had to have one in each bedroom and one in various hallways rooms through the house. You had to be able to hear an alarm in any room you were standing in. In the 5er fire the people were talking about barely making it out of the vehicle in time. When i look around the campgrounds i notice there are not a lot of young people in MH. I am sure that if i am in the bedroom watching TV I am not going to hear the two fire alarms that came with my coach. For some reason I have yet to figure out they were both mounted in the living room. The wireless linked fire alarms are perfect for people in MH When one fire alarm goes off they all go off. I am going to put one in the bedroom, replace one of the ones in the living room, One in the electrical compartment underneath and one in the storage bays. Not sure about putting one in the engine compartment. If a fire starts there I believe you would see it in your mirrors. I am going to strongly recommend if you have a norcold refrigerator you put one in the space behind the norcold. There have been too many fires from that appliance and the one in the 5er I was talking about started near the refrigerator according to the news.
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Old 02-14-2015, 09:05 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gemini5362 View Post
I have mentioned these before in older threads. A 5th wheel fire in another campground near where I am staying reminded me of the need for linked fire- alarms. I had talked about putting these in my MH then could not find a local place to buy them and forgot about doing it. I just found this link to them at Home Depot and will be buying several of them today.

Kidde Battery Operated Wireless Interconnectable Smoke Alarm-RF-SM-DC - The Home Depot

In one of my rental houses when I did some work on it the city made me upgrade to new codes. The linked fire alarms were part of the upgrade I had to have one in each bedroom and one in various hallways rooms through the house. You had to be able to hear an alarm in any room you were standing in. In the 5er fire the people were talking about barely making it out of the vehicle in time. When i look around the campgrounds i notice there are not a lot of young people in MH. I am sure that if i am in the bedroom watching TV I am not going to hear the two fire alarms that came with my coach. For some reason I have yet to figure out they were both mounted in the living room. The wireless linked fire alarms are perfect for people in MH When one fire alarm goes off they all go off. I am going to put one in the bedroom, replace one of the ones in the living room, One in the electrical compartment underneath and one in the storage bays. Not sure about putting one in the engine compartment. If a fire starts there I believe you would see it in your mirrors. I am going to strongly recommend if you have a norcold refrigerator you put one in the space behind the norcold. There have been too many fires from that appliance and the one in the 5er I was talking about started near the refrigerator according to the news.

That's a great idea for a S&B, but adding them to a MH could be a problem. There may be something new out there that I'm not aware of, but all of the "linked" smoke detectors that I know of require a wire running between all the detectors.
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Old 02-14-2015, 10:56 AM   #3
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That's a great idea for a S&B, but adding them to a MH could be a problem. There may be something new out there that I'm not aware of, but all of the "linked" smoke detectors that I know of require a wire running between all the detectors.
Actually there is something new out there. If you go to the link I sent for Home depot you will see those are wireless links. You put batteries in them and they link automatically. Actually first alert makes several models that are wireless. First Alert makes a model is a combination CO monitor and fire alarm. It will tell you whether it is a smoke alert or CO alert and has 11 programmed responses to select from such as living room, bedroom, basement etc and will tell you which alarm is going off. These are more than double the price. The ones at Home depot are relatively inexpensive and still give link capabilities.
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Old 02-14-2015, 12:13 PM   #4
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Not only that but if the Detector (Any of them) in this motor home goes off trust me I'm going to hear it.. The advantage of linked in a house is if one goes off they all go off so if the one near the furnace in the basement sounds off, so does the one in the upstairs bedroom.. Or the other way around.

But in a motor home.... Well,,,, Darn few motor homes have a furnace in the basement and an upstairs bedroom (Well an upper bunk perhaps but not a real upstairs with doors) ...

IN a space the size of my 38footer... IF I put in two alarms odds are the 2nd one would sound within seconds of the first in a genuine fire.
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Old 02-14-2015, 01:19 PM   #5
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Not only that but if the Detector (Any of them) in this motor home goes off trust me I'm going to hear it.. The advantage of linked in a house is if one goes off they all go off so if the one near the furnace in the basement sounds off, so does the one in the upstairs bedroom.. Or the other way around.

But in a motor home.... Well,,,, Darn few motor homes have a furnace in the basement and an upstairs bedroom (Well an upper bunk perhaps but not a real upstairs with doors) ...

IN a space the size of my 38footer... IF I put in two alarms odds are the 2nd one would sound within seconds of the first in a genuine fire.
Since we are living in our Motor Home this winter we often close the bedroom door and just use a space heater to heat the bedroom. With my hearing aids out and the door closed i am not sure that I would hear the smoke detector in the living room if it went off. I am sure there are other people with hearing as bad or worse than mine. For 30.00 having an 85 dbm alarm go off in the same room might make a difference. If you have a fire start in the basement storage area or behind the refrigerator where the living room alarm will not detect it having the alarm in your bedroom go off might give you time to get up and get out. If your lucky it might give you time to grab a fired extinguisher and put it out. If not at least it gives you more time to get out of the MH. The couple in the news were a younger couple hopefully with good hearing that heard the alarm and they barely had time to get out. I do not know about you but i want all of the time i can get.
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Old 02-14-2015, 01:21 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by wa8yxm View Post
Not only that but if the Detector (Any of them) in this motor home goes off trust me I'm going to hear it.. The advantage of linked in a house is if one goes off they all go off so if the one near the furnace in the basement sounds off, so does the one in the upstairs bedroom.. Or the other way around.

But in a motor home.... Well,,,, Darn few motor homes have a furnace in the basement and an upstairs bedroom (Well an upper bunk perhaps but not a real upstairs with doors) ...

IN a space the size of my 38footer... IF I put in two alarms odds are the 2nd one would sound within seconds of the first in a genuine fire.

I agree! My wife has super-sensitive ears so that will never be a problem!
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Old 02-14-2015, 01:22 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by gemini5362 View Post
Actually there is something new out there. If you go to the link I sent for Home depot you will see those are wireless links. You put batteries in them and they link automatically. Actually first alert makes several models that are wireless. First Alert makes a model is a combination CO monitor and fire alarm. It will tell you whether it is a smoke alert or CO alert and has 11 programmed responses to select from such as living room, bedroom, basement etc and will tell you which alarm is going off. These are more than double the price. The ones at Home depot are relatively inexpensive and still give link capabilities.

Thanks, that's good to know!
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Old 02-14-2015, 02:40 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gemini5362 View Post
I have mentioned these before in older threads. A 5th wheel fire in another campground near where I am staying reminded me of the need for linked fire- alarms. I had talked about putting these in my MH then could not find a local place to buy them and forgot about doing it. I just found this link to them at Home Depot and will be buying several of them today.

Kidde Battery Operated Wireless Interconnectable Smoke Alarm-RF-SM-DC - The Home Depot

In one of my rental houses when I did some work on it the city made me upgrade to new codes. The linked fire alarms were part of the upgrade I had to have one in each bedroom and one in various hallways rooms through the house. You had to be able to hear an alarm in any room you were standing in. In the 5er fire the people were talking about barely making it out of the vehicle in time. When i look around the campgrounds i notice there are not a lot of young people in MH. I am sure that if i am in the bedroom watching TV I am not going to hear the two fire alarms that came with my coach. For some reason I have yet to figure out they were both mounted in the living room. The wireless linked fire alarms are perfect for people in MH When one fire alarm goes off they all go off. I am going to put one in the bedroom, replace one of the ones in the living room, One in the electrical compartment underneath and one in the storage bays. Not sure about putting one in the engine compartment. If a fire starts there I believe you would see it in your mirrors. I am going to strongly recommend if you have a norcold refrigerator you put one in the space behind the norcold. There have been too many fires from that appliance and the one in the 5er I was talking about started near the refrigerator according to the news.
Don't forget to link the one in the engine compartment to the rest. The vast majority of MH fires begin in the engine compartment according to Mac the Fire Guy.
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Old 02-14-2015, 03:06 PM   #9
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That's a great idea for a S&B, but adding them to a MH could be a problem. There may be something new out there that I'm not aware of, but all of the "linked" smoke detectors that I know of require a wire running between all the detectors.

I have wirelessly linked smoke/fire alarms in the studs and stucco. Being wireless allowed the system to have one in my detached workshop on the rear of the property. When remodeling updating to linked alarm was code requirement.
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Old 02-14-2015, 03:17 PM   #10
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A smoke detector in an engine compartment will give many false alarms for many reasons and may even fail in that harsh environment.
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Old 02-14-2015, 03:52 PM   #11
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IVery recommended the wireless linked voice SD to several others. I also recommend having one be a combo fire and CO detect. I also recommend placing at least one in the basement and/or near or in the AquaHot compartment if you have one.
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Old 02-14-2015, 04:46 PM   #12
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Since we are living in our Motor Home this winter we often close the bedroom door and just use a space heater to heat the bedroom. With my hearing aids out and the door closed i am not sure that I would hear the smoke detector in the living room if it went off.
You do have a very good point there, I had not considered that.

I have very slight tinnititus but my last hearing test I still showed a threashold a shade UNDER the norm. Way under when age adjusted (Means I hear good).
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Old 02-14-2015, 09:48 PM   #13
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I am not sure about the engine compartment. There are a couple of opinions on that subject on this thread. I do not know enough about that subject to know. I have experience with something that could have been a fire When the high presssure diesel injector fuel line split. I noticed the smoke from where the diesel was hitting the exhaust almost immediately in the mirror. I do not know how many fires start in the engine compartment when you are parked. I also worry about false alarms when you are driving from the engine if you have a little bit of smoke from the engine. Curious what some of the other opinions are on that subject.
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Old 02-14-2015, 09:53 PM   #14
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I agree! My wife has super-sensitive ears so that will never be a problem!
My wife does also. Hopefully yours will not have any type of illness that the medicine makes her sleepy so that she would not hear an alarm. For my hearing. When it rains unless it is a very heavy rain I cannot hear it on the roof without my hearing aids. at 30.00 each i can link all the spaces i mentioned for 120.00. I wont have to worry about whether or not my wife can hear it. Or if a fire has started in the storage area where the living room will not detect it. I think 120.00 to feel safer is pretty cheap.
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