Kidde 1275 a Bad Smoke Detector
Consider this a review of the Kidde 1275 smoke detecor. READ the comments below. Summary: This is a unit you do not want to purchase!
If you have a Kidde 1275 smoke alarm. Be prepared for a false alarm. Well, it might never happen, but based on the reviews of the Kidde 1275 at Amazon.com you won’t be the only one if your alarm does go off on its own.
Of course I am not writing this out of the blue. Many builders will install these units in new builds. They are inexpensive hard-wired smoke detectors. However, it isn’t uncommon for these units to be defective, or to go bad and go off in the middle of the night. Ours went off on Friday night at 3 AM, and then at 4 AM. I was able to find the offending unit by simply blowing up at it and setting the alarm off again. I can honestly say that you will probably not sleep as well with the feeling that your alarm will go off in the middle of the night.
Since this is a hard wired system, every detector will sound when the alarm is triggered. If you have young children, I can assure you that this is something that they will not forget. When this happened last year, we brushed it off as a one time event. My son, who was 3 at the time, kept his fan on for a couple of months because he thought that would stop the alarm from sounding.
One nice thing is that you can locate the offending alarm. It will be the unit that is blinking after the alarm goes off. In my case, I simply pulled the unit from the system. I was pretty certain that it was bad when I was able to set it off by simply blowing on the alarm from 5 feet away.
I write this review in hopes that this does not happen to you. If you are building, or outfitting your house with new smoke detectors, I would recommend that you avoid the Kidde 1275. It received 1 star out of 5 for a reason.
The following is an alternative unit that can utilize the same connection as your 1275 / 1285. It is still from Kidde, but the reviews on the unit are good. Might be worth a look:
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“computer, cell phone, tv and radio”
None of the items on your list are “life and death” devices
If there’s one thing our government SHOULD do is to take this crap off the market. 99% of what gov’t does is a waste and intrusion but stopping this would be welcomed here.
You are right Sam.
“If there’s one thing our government SHOULD do is to take this crap off the market. 99% of what gov’t does is a waste and intrusion but stopping this would be welcomed here.”
I guess the testers of these units (UL?) do their testing during the day. These beauties tend to go off around 3 in the morning!
Our Kidde 1275s (I believe)false alarmed twice this morning– first around 3:30am then again around 3:45am. They beeped a three or four times then stopped by themselves. After checking the whole house, I’m convinced there is no source of smoke/fire. I have three hardwired Kidde units that I installed as routine maintenance replacements about 2 years ago– I don’t know brand of units I replaced but they never false alarmed for 10 years.
Since most others on this post report the false alarm at night, I too am wondering if voltage fluctuations could be the cause. I live in the DC area and tonight is fairly hot/muggy so everyone is demanding power for AC units. We’ve also experienced brownouts in the past, but not tonight as the digital clocks didn’t reset. Any EEs on this post that can comment on whether a voltage fluctuation could set off the alarm?
Finally, as I was checking each alarm, I didn’t notice some type of bug on the wall near one of the alarms. I didn’t notice if that was the offending alarm that tripped the others.
Tom
This just happened to me last night! It went off three times for no reason what so ever and then again an hour and a half later. I pulled the detector that was blinking green and have not had a problem since. Does anyone have any suggestions? What model/unit should I replace it with? Thanks for your input, and I will look more closely at the detectors that I have, and purchase in the future!
We have had the exact same problem with ours the other posters here have discussed. I am assuming it is fruitless to call the manufacturer based on the comments here as well. My family is up again at 1:00 am because of these apparently faulty units and needless to say we are very frustrated and now face the expense of replacing them all.
Up this morning at 2:45am because of our KIDDE units. This is NOT the first time we have been awakened by these alarms, but it will be the last. Out of sheer frustration, most of them were RIPPED off of the ceiling and broken in half trying to remove the batteries. Suffice to say we are looking for replacements.
Thank god I am not alone in this! Our model 1285′s started going off at 3:00 and again at 3:45 this morning. Looks like its time to replace them all since my heart is still racing after being startled awake like that, not a good thing for a woman who is 7 months pregnant.
Amazing that no one talks about cleaning the unit out with a vacuum cleaner, as recommended by the manual, everytime they change the battery. I have had 8 units connected together in my house without false alarms, and the units are now almost 10 years old, time to replace them. I have been woke up by the low battery chirp from one unit, but I don’t change the batteries until the unit indicates it is needed. The batteries last about 3 years, standard Duracell’s. Whenever I change the battery, since I have the unit off the ceiling, I vacuum it out with a strong vacuum.
I will echo any complaints about how difficult it is to get the A/C plug/clip off the unit sometimes. Poor design.
I have a similar story – except that my alarms began screaming at 1:00 am. No fire or smoke. I checked the brand/model and yes it is the Kidde 1275. I went online and found this website, and while it’s a shame to see so many posts on this poor product, it’s comforting to know I’m not alone. The house was built in 2002. It’s not surprising to know that builders go with the cheapest product. In 2006 we had an addition built and used First Alert detectors. We’ll be installing those in the rest of the house soon.
Bob,
Same story with many of these. My house was also built around 2002. I agree, finding the information did give me some comfort. I am happy the site helped. Let us know how the install of the First Alert unit works out. Do you need to rewire, or is the connector the same?
We have hard-wired Kidde units (not sure what model #, I’ll have to check when I get home) We were awakened about 5am by the smoke detectors. Startled, we jumped up and ran to the kids room -there were 2 smoke detectors in the hallway and one in another bedroom that were sounding (they must be connected). None of the others in the house were going off (we have 16, give or take a couple). In the commotion I thought it seemed ‘hazy’ or ‘smoky’, but I believe that was just blurred vision from being startled awake. Oddly, we smelled nothing, could find nothing wrong. My husband ran into the attic, down to the basement, in every room (even though the sounding alarms were isolated to the upstairs, when they were screaming at us for 10 minutes it was hard to tell if more were going off). He even ran outside (it was raining) to see if there was smoke coming from somewhere. When we were a bit calmed and convinced nothing was on fire – I looked on the internet and found these posts. My husband got the ladder and pulled down the detector that was blinking green and slow red (the two on either side were blinking green and fast red, so we think not the culprits). After reading some posts, my husband admitted that there was a spider hanging from that detector. Hmmm. Well, I hope that’s all it was – but of course now I have a complete lack of confidence in not only our detectors, but our botched ‘family fire plan’…we did horribly. I can only think that’s because we were confused that there was NO FIRE OR SMOKE. Well, I am going to vacuum the units I guess, and work on our family fire plan just in case. With as many units as we have, I feel safer that we are ‘covered’, but on the other hand we just have more risk of false alarms. Good luck everyone.
It amazes me that so many of the “defective Kidde 1275‘s” go off during the first 10 days of September. Really strange. My hunch is that the warm days followed by cool/damp nights might have something to do with it. Who knows? Kidde?
Kidde 1275 going off at 2:30 AM FOR THE LAST 3 MORNINGS. TRIED RESETTING – DID NOT WORK – THEN TRIED TO GET THE AC ADAPTER OFF – VERY HARD – IN FACT THE BACK WIRE BROKE FIRST – THEN THE ADAPTER CAME OFF AND WE WERE ABLE TO REMOVE THE BATTERY – IN HOPES OF REPLACING IT – BUT NOW WE HAVE TO HAVE THE BLACK WIRE REATTACHED. WHAT WILL THAT COST???????
I have Installed dozens of houses with Kidde / Fire X smokes and smoke CO’s it seems that about one in eight installs have this problem in the first 3 months. This has cost my company hundreds and made customers very unhappy last time was in 2009 somebody should sue these @$$ holes for still selling this crap when they know it is defective. I will never trust one of there products again. P.S don’t trust them when they tell you they have fixed the
problem in the newer product.
We purchased our house 8 years ago (new construction) and have had nothing but heartache with these units. They are constantly going off, and sometimes you just can’t stop them. Today was the kicker. I was reading to my 4 year old downstairs when all the alarms went off. I immediatly went looking for any sign of smoke and found nothing. However when I entered my sons bedroom I was welcomed with a horrible smell. It was nowhere else in the house. I called my neighbor (both husband and wife are firefighters) and they came over to inspect. They detected no sign of fire but couldn’t explain the smell in my sons room. Then my neighbor decided to inspect the alarm itself, and when he took it down the odor became worse! He turned it over and the thing had melted inside! It said on the side “replace after 10 years”. I say replace them NOW! Piecs of junk!
Leslie,
That has got to be one of the worst stories I have heard about the Kidde units. Not only do they wake you up with false positives, but this unit appears to have been the actual hazard rather than the alarm that it is supposed to be.
Avoid the Kidde 1275′s!
Our Kidde (not sure if it’s a 1275 model) smoke alarm went off at 5am this morning – sounding three times then stopping, then a couple of minutes later sounding twice more – not the battery warning sound the proper alarm sound. After waking up very suddenly and charging around the flat checking for smoke or fire we calmed down and then noticed a very “guilty” looking spider crawling away from the alarm in the hall way. After reading these posts and doing a little research it looks like this could have been the cause! In the tired, shocked state I was in in the early hours of this morning I didn’t think to get rid of the spider – hope it doesn’t go for a wander near the smoke alarm again if it’s still about!
Mine work fine. I have five (5) interconnected model #1285 throughout my home, and have not had a problem. Once I burned some toast and set them off, but other than that, no false alarms. I do keep the dust down in the house, and have 3 dogs and cats that I have to constantly have to vacuum up after. One factor maybe carpeted floors. Since building this home five years ago (when the alarms were installed), I went with hardwood and tile throughout. I have noticed a marked decrease in dust within the home. Could this be part of your problem?? New carpet, which sometimes has a lot of “flurries” once installed, or perhaps an old carpet that has since degraded, causing a similar these false alarms. I also take an air compressor lightly to the units when changing the batteries, so that may help. Whatever the source of your problem, find a solution, as these little babies may save you and yours. Good Luck, Sean
this is crazy! one of our just went off last night at 4:30 AM! i thought i was going to have a heart attack! before reading this i did figure out it was the blinking one that needed to be changed. we are still unsure as to what set it off very uneasy feeling all day and im sure for many nights to come.
I have my 1275 for about 8 years…. only had one false alarm.
but I get the chirp from time to time….indicating low battery….. but when I test the battery, i get a strong
reading….. could it be that the battery MUST HAVE FULL CHARGE to eliminate the chirp?
Seems to be a quality control problem at factory. obviously the manufacture is not improving their smoke alarms. i have a model 2060. which has the same problem of randomly going off. Have changed battery, cleaned unit, and relocated to a different area in house. unit date on back is jan 2008. will buy another unit for the fix, I hope
My Kidde alarm went off at 3:30 am this morning and then again at 4:00 am. Seems this happens every 6 mos. or so–always in the wee hours of the morning. All these false positives are making it difficult to keep my two children serious about the alarms.
4:45am and then 4:55am. Why am. ?? Our detectors sounded. All of them. I did the house run in 30 seconds. Nothing burning. Kids woke up, which is good. Our bedroom detector shows green followed by a slow red every minute or so. It’s a model i12060. April 2007. Changed battery. Same. Pulled it. I’m up now. Now what? Breakfast?
Our two Kidde alarms went off this morning at 1:36am. They went off several times…scared the crap out of me and my 6-month pregnant wife. I’m just glad she didn’t go into labor! Now, I didn’t see any spiders, but I did notice a dead lightening bug lying on the floor beneath the one detector. What are the chances that the bug may have been lured to the detector by the flashing green LED light and cause it to go off?? Stranger things have happened, I suppose. Either way, these crappy Kidde alarms are going in the trash tomorrow.
My heart is still racing. Model 1275 (x6) started screaming at 3:17 a.m. I have to work on my fire planning as I failed miserably. Instead of grabbing my animals and leaving the house I started tearing around the house looking for the fire. Thank goodness there wasn’t one. Looking to replace all units immediatly since reading all your posts, which have helped to slow my racing heart. Thank you for that.