Important Guidance for Fire & Rescue Services

SMOKE ALARMS WITH 10 YEARS GUARANTEED LIFE

 

There is some confusion about what to look for when choosing smoke alarms to make sure that they operate effectively and without trouble over their whole life expectancy. We hope this guide helps you.

In England, Firebuy acts as a central procurement body for fire and rescue authorities, removing the need for individual services having to deal with complex EU procedures for orders over £6,000. Scotland, Wales & Eire have different arrangements.
Firebuy recognises that it does not have the expertise to validate smoke alarm manufacturers’ performance and test claims. This is the province of UKAS accredited independent certification bodies, such as the BRE Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB) and BSi via its Kitemark scheme.

So, it is important to look for the appropriate certification mark on the back of a smoke alarm – such as LPCB or the Kitemark – not just the CE mark.

The Firebuy contract clearly requires smoke alarms where “the product and battery offered have a 10-year guaranteed life expectancy” - an important requirement reflecting the need to replace any unit after that time. If manufacturers do not offer this guarantee – and certainly wording such as “10-years life expectancy” is not enough – then the Firebuy contract requires testing “to ensure compliance with the 10-year guarantee required”.

This specification makes sense as cheaper alarms without it ,are a false economy:  the cost of replacing a failed cheaper alarm negates, the 50p apparently saved at time of purchase. As John Ruskin said: “It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little”. And the financial standing and stability of the manufacturing or importing company are also important to support the long-term obligations of the Firebuy contract and 10-year guarantees.

Usability for elderly/disabled:

Raised buttons are now a design feature of our 10 Year alarms, to make operation easier for the elderly & disabled. 

Clearly, it is essential to have written confirmation from manufacturers that both smoke alarms and batteries have a full 10-year life guarantee and are designed with generous tolerances to perform after that time ie plus 10%.
Kidde has 91 years of experience in fire suppression & detection, and designs products to a standard, not down to a price, as personal safety is not an area to compromise in.

After Care:

If the occupier has problems with the smoke alarm in use, Kidde encourage homeowners/tenants to call us and not you.

Direct customer contact can be made with Kidde via telephone helplines and guidance is on our websites 24/7.
We supply comprehensive user manuals,to help keep smoke alarms fully operational throughout their 10-year life - a regular vacuum is recommended, to prevent dust build up, as illustrated in our manual.

We arrange swift replacement under the guarantee, if the occupier cannot resolve the issue. Kidde even provides its fire and rescue authority clients with a toll-free number for UK and Eire householders to use.

Nuisance Alarms:

As Brigades such as Cambridgeshire have found alarms can attract small insects (thrips) especially around harvest time; this can then cause nuisance alarms for the householder, and unnecessary call outs on Brigades; see this story:
as at December 2009, Kidde is the only supplier of Optical smoke alarms on the Firebuy arrangement who have gone to the expense
of engineering their alarm with an insect mesh fitted. Kidde's mesh has a diameter of 0.030in, as can be seen in this image.
Ensure you specify alarms with an insect mesh on Optical alarms.

The image also indicates the high quality lithium batteries we specify, made by Japanese Industrial Giant Fuji.
.
Ensure the alarms you specify use a known & trusted battery brand, not an unknown name, or even an anonymous one.
That way you can validate the batteries integrity to perform over the lifetime of the alarm.

Details of Kidde Fire and Rescue Service initiatives and ranges of smoke, (Click link to left) heat and CO alarms can be found at www.smoke-alarms.co.uk.