Smoke Alarms

[Grundy]

I have a small place with the worlds best tenants, Asian students (I guess) who honour my 'no smoking' in the house tenancy terms and I do feel for them as they are all outside in sometimes near zero temperatures huddled on the porch sucking their fags. Not my place to moralise but they keep the place inside pristine and no question smoke free.
Nevertheless I'm an old worry wart and decided to do the right thing and put a 10 year battery smoke alarm (family shield sd-588H-LL) into the hallway as far from the kitchen and bathroom as as possble, but covering all the bedroom doors. Its not a budget model but not top of the line either. I just caught them out having unclipped it and put into one of the bedrooms. They humbly explained it goes off when they cook.
Oh dear !
I know from our forum gurus that the penalty they risk is massive. I have no desire to even go there and I am determined to 'own' this problem as such great tenants have saved me more stress than I care to explain.
Darn it... I reckon I should have got the kitchen type maybe instead of being a cheapskate. But its in a hall and a bit away so I thought it could cope.
Can anyone recommend if the Quell 'kitchen' brand is reliable? I am concerned it is advertised as suitable for actual flaming type fires (slower to alarm?). Further the super expensive mini type alarms now comes in 2x versions again smoke or flaming fires.
Any opinions appreciated please.
Maybe a small alarm in each bedroom and forget the common area ? Which sort of defeats the whole common area alarm concept I reckon.
Better extraction in the kitchen?
Remember I've got no wish to threaten or report them beyond already getting a bit grumpy with them which I was loathe to do.
I guess what I'm really asking are any brands better than others or is it all down to the science of installation?

[Keys]

Use photoelectric alarms.

[PC]

Do those "10 year" alarms come with a 10 year warranty?
Nope.
Can you return it if it fails within 10 years?
Nope.
Will it last 12 months with a "typical" tenant?
Nope.

A whole lot of nopes.

[Indeeditis]

Personally I'd be wary of "flaming type" alarms to be honest, or do they actually mean heat or thermal detection?

If a flame gets to an alarm in a lounge, hallway etc, I would imagine everybody is a goner already....

I purchased 3 Cavius alarms for my house and they are small, very unobtrusive and the one in the hallway only goes off when I leave the bathroom door open when I take a shower....

How much is too expensive in your view?

[artemis]

Do those "10 year" alarms come with a 10 year warranty?
Nope.
Can you return it if it fails within 10 years?
Nope.
Will it last 12 months with a "typical" tenant?
Nope.

A whole lot of nopes.

We do property maintenance and only install 10 year alarms. Usually Family Shield brand from Bunnings but will test at the counter before buying as there are sometimes problems from the outset. Bunnings don't mind, guess they would rather know there is a fault before someone buys it. Once installed we have few issues but have taken the occasional one back when it started to beep randomly. This was in the first few months, not sure about longer term issues.

[Indeeditis]

Out of curiousity, what sort of tests do you actually do at Bunnings? A lighter test or blow some cigarette smoke into it?

Modern appliances and safe guards seem so shit these days.......and it's especially embarrassing for companies that only offer a 2 year warranty against mechanical failure on parts....

[Grundy]

Thanks for the discussion so far.
Keys was on it with the photoelectric as best and that was the model I installed.
I am guessing my challenge is probably an installation position issue, however this weekend I trawled the merchants and did a fair bit of internet reading.
Seems as though there is a new 'hybrid' that is new out of the States and Europe with one brand in particular called FireAngel 'Toastproof'. This seems similar in concept to a Chubb brand (Quell ?)whereby its a photoelectric but set at a very low detect algorithm to prevent false alarms, but in a chip processor it also monitors a heat detector and if a rapid rise in air temperature occurs then the photoelectric switches to a higher detection threshold. Sounds interesting in theory but I'd be curious of any reviews some may have. This particular model is sold retail for just under 10 pounds incl delivery in the UK but retails in NZ for $47.80. I note that the Auckland Property inverstors association has a bulk purchase deal for members from the importer Harkness & Young but no idea of the price they get.
The Cavius mentioned looks good and I reckon that is branded Fire Angel in the UK as the website image looks identical.
Frankly price is no longer a big deal provided the tenants dont abuse it and if it can satisfy reliability and minimal false alarms. It appears that the 10 year life is just a lithium battery fully charged in the factory so how much of a charge it still holds when on the shelf and finally activated in the home especially as they all brag about it should be tested every week or so. I enjoyed the cynical comment as I dont know many who will keep a receipt of purchase 10 years or remember which alarm was what of several properties.
The price disparity of these things is as usual. Can I guess they are a 2 buck item in China and all the rest is marketing and layers of importer/retail margins ? But isn't everything these days.

[Keys]

We only install Cavius alarms when fitting stand alone items. Otherwise, we pay for hard wired alarms to the value of $400 for each of our clients.

Part of what we do.

[Wayne]

Use photoelectric alarms.

the sd-588H-LL is photoelectric!

[Wayne]

I've been using the Orca OM506H-L from Mitre 10 for $30 with 10 year battery.

[Grundy]

Now thats interesting.
I admit that I spent some time at our local big mitre10 studying that brand (amongst others) over the weekend and was fascinated that it had "kitchen' on the advert so it immediately attracted me as a candidate.
Maybe I'm getting a bit anal over all this but heck kiwis are acknowledged as first adopters and a good trial demographic (I recall fax machines) whereby I was lead to believe the big corporates used us as guinea pigs... anyway back to thje subject. I reckon our housing and lifestyle choice puts these consumer items into real focus. Junk or treasure..that'll occupy my day especially if it saves lives.