How to Buy Smoke Alarms

Your home most likely has at least one smoke alarm, but is it enough? Smoke alarms provide an early warning that can save lives, but different fires call for different alarm types.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Protect your home right now with easy-to-install battery-powered alarms. Some use lithium batteries which last 10 years.

2. Hardwire new homes with alarms powered by alternating current (AC). AC models built into bedroom and other ceilings are linked; if one senses a fire, it triggers all others through the wiring. Retrofitting older homes can cost $1,000. AC alarms in new homes must include a battery backup in case of power outages.

3. Detect fires fed by paper, electricity and flammable fluids with ionization alarms ($10 to $50), which use a harmless amount of radioactive material. Two-battery ionization models also detect carbon monoxide gas.

4. Get photoelectric alarms ($20 to $100), which have sensors and light beams that react quickly to smoldering fires such as bedding and upholstery fires, which often kill from smoke inhalation.

5. Play it safe. For full protection, buy dual-detection alarms (about $30), which combine both fire-sensing technologies. Because these run on batteries, hybrid units work independently and are not wired to other alarms.

6. Buy alarms with a hush button that silences the horn while you clear away smoke. Buttons big enough to push with a broom handle are easiest to activate.

Tips & Warnings

• All alarms must meet the test standards established by Underwriters Laboratories (UL.com). Check the date stamp on the back to make sure it's a fresh unit.
• Some fire departments offer smoke alarms for little or no cost, and may even install them for you.
• Many fires occur in homes with smoke alarms that have been disconnected because cooking fumes set them off. Don't play Russian roulette: Get a kitchen alarm with a "hush" button.