First Alert 3120B vs Kidde PI2010

I bought seven of these to replace the wire-connected units in my house. A few key advantages over the comparable Kidde PI2010: Most important is that the LED tells you which one sounded the alarm AND which one needs a new battery. If you have ever stood in a house with wired alarms at 2 in the freeekin' morning, trying to pinpoint the damn -bip- every minute, you will know how much swearing this feature eliminates. Trust me: This feature is a must

They are expensive and are not durable. Factor that in into a decision to go with this expensive brand. In July of 2015, I bought these along with others (same brand and type) from a big box store, to replace all of the alarms in my house. Due to work being done in my house, I did not install them until Feb

This is a pretty good smoke detector. We ordered six of them to replace increasingly annoying, late-night-chirping, 10 year old units by another manufacturer. We wanted a dual sensor (photoelectric and ionization) detector with 10-year batteries but were unable to find any that fit the bill, and so settled for the 3120B - at least the batteries were AA instead of the more expensive 9 volt. We've had a little trouble with them - the reason for four stars instead of five

Maybe someone else can reply. The instructions for the Kill-a-watt meter say that Watts are for Active Power, whereas the VA reading "is the apparent Power. (VA=Vrms Arms)". I will note that smoke detectors are in an interesting category of device for which 100% of the objective reviews are NOT based on the object's primary purpose

Strip 1/2" off the ends of the new wires. In my case, two of the wires were pre-stripped, but the orange interconnect wire needed to be stripped. It is easier to do this before you start installing the detector on the ceiling 4. Remove the old detector from the base by rotating it counter-clockwise

I like the dual smoke detection a lot. What I don't like is the battery placement. A previous Kidde single detection SA unit had an external door that when pressed would pop-open, and the 9v battery would easily slide out/in. This was great for vaulted ceiling requiring a tall ladder to reach; now battery access in this unit is risky with vaulted/difficult ceilings

Lastly, be sure to replace any brand of smoke detectors after 10 years from their manufacturing date (usually found on the back of the alarm). Good Luck - I hope this helps.

It makes for easy insulation. BEWARE of their 10 warranty. They will make good on the warranty, but you must pay the postage to get it to them and must prepay the postage to get it back. With that kind of warranty from Kidde, you can almost buy a new one instead of paying all that postage

Customer service asked me to clean them with a can of condensed air once per month. If it still happens to call back. I've noticed that all of the false alarms have been with the windows open, mainly at night. I hope there is not a real fire because these alarms are crying wolf

Units have been installed over a month now and seem to be working with no false alarms.

The next day, I heard 3 chirps come from the guest room, silent for about 15 minutes, and the 3 more chirps, then nothing for several more hours. This same issue repeats itself in the master bedroom, and my son's room (all units on the upper level of our house). According to the owner's manual, 3 chirps every five minutes means a malfunction and you should replace the unit immediately. I had just barely purchased the units and they're already malfunctioning? My issue with this is that it isn't happening every five minutes, it is completely a guess when the next chirp will be

I'm assuming these all work, and according to Consumer Reports these are well rated, so my review is focused on the installation. First issue, the battery cover is on the back / mounting side of the unit. That means you can't just open a cover like my old units had. Second, getting the unit to attach to the mount is a real pain

For the price of these, you expect top quality but I've personally had better luck with cheap $15 each builder-grade USI ones over the course of several decades of home ownership.

I received the Kidde Dual Sensor Smoke Alarm as a Spark Reviewer from Walmart and my review is unbiased.