First Alert BRK Hardwired Heat Alarm with Battery Backup, HD6135FB

Smoke and CO alarms are essential for most spaces in a residential structure. They are not appropriate in areas where smoke, high humidity, airborne particles, or trace amounts of carbon monoxide are considered normal. This includes furnace rooms, laundry rooms with gas-fired dryers, and similar rooms. The HD6135FB heat alarm is the right device for these areas. It is similar in appearance to the BRK smokes and smoke/COs that are part of my installation, and interconnects seamlessly with them. For new construction or renovation, installation is as close to turnkey as it gets. Install a dedicated 3-wire circuit that hits all of your alarm locations. (The third wire, usually red, is a signaling trunk for the alarms. It must not be connected to current.) Install a ceiling work box at each location. A separate plastic mounting ring is attached to the ceiling box with the included screws. Connections are made to a pigtail connector: black to black, white to white, and red to orange (which needs to be stripped). No ground. Attach the connector to the alarm, and rotate onto the mounting ring. Pull the plastic battery disabling strip from its slot, and your installation is complete. This device includes an infrared remote sensing module, which responds to just about any button press from most consumer electronics remote controls. In my tests, it did not work with my Onkyo receiver's remote, but responded just fine to VOL or CHANNEL presses from my TiVo remote. This is a clever and insightful application of what amounts to "spare parts." I would guess that many people have remotes to products that they no longer use. Throwing in a couple of batteries and leaving this near the alarm is a great reuse of an otherwise-useless device. This alarm is designed to sense temperature rises, and will thus work well in locations that are inherently high-temperature, such as a furnace room. For obvious reasons I don't plan to test it with live flames, but will need to trust the manufacturer and Underwriters Labs on this one. The horn is loud, though this is not relevant in my application because an interconnected smoke in my bedroom will also sound if the alarm is triggered. The interconnect system works as designed, and the latching feature (a red light continues to blink after the alarm condition goes away, so you know which one tripped the system) is useful. I recommend this unit as part of a larger system.

I needed to replace my garage fire alarm. This is the newer version of what’s there before. I’ve had it for a few months. No problem. Easy install and looks good.

Seemed to work just fine after I wired it in and tested, as any product built now a days, only time will tell as to how long it will work, but so far so good.

Set it up in garage as smoke/co2 detectors are not recommended . Simple to wire. Seemed to work as expected using a hairdryer as a heat source. Audible alarm at a frequency that my hearing aids don't pick up well but another person said it was loud. Appears to be an inexpensive fix for fire protection.

I love First Alert products and recently replaced all my older smoke/CO ones with the First Alert 10 year re-chargeable ones. I am a safety freak but make no apologies. I found that you cannot use regular smoke/CO units in a garage because they get confused with the pollution normally present in garages. My concern was "Who is BRK". It was only after some research that I found BRK is First Alert's parent company, so you getting the same quality product. Installation is straightforward and I fount it totally compatible with my other First Alert 10-year smoke/COs.

Works great

Works as advertised

False alarm in attic first night. Loose wire.