Good fire alarms with lights?

R

RedFox

New Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Messages
1,277
Reaction score
0
I am moving to another apartment soon and would like to get fire alarms with lights. The best I could find was this:

Westside Wholesale, Inc. - First Alert Smoke Alarm for Hearing Impaired

Please don't buy all of them so I can get some. ;)

Are there any places with better deals? I emailed the person living there about the number and location of fire alarms. The $57 one on that site is just the light that is for connecting to a separate alarm.

Are they all hardwired to the house circuits?
 
I have portable fire alarm with mini strobe light, it costed my parents almost $500
 
Yeah, the apartment I used to live in didn't have built in strobe fire alarm so they quoted around $420 for that and I said forget it, it's not worth it when I can't take it with me! The funny thing, when I lived in other apartment in Seattle...they installed it for free. *scratches my head*
 
sequoias said:
Yeah, the apartment I used to live in didn't have built in strobe fire alarm so they quoted around $420 for that and I said forget it, it's not worth it when I can't take it with me! The funny thing, when I lived in other apartment in Seattle...they installed it for free. *scratches my head*
Click to expand...


Maybe it was an ADA issue? If so, then RedFox take note.....
 
You could ask the fire dept if they provide fire alarm for deaf. Some fire dept provided fundings to cover the cost to purchase and install. Most of the time Fire Dept provide BRK Electronic 100S strobe fire alarm for Hearing Impaired. Same as Kidde, They're the same company..

I grabbed 2 of BRK Electronic 100S for my home for $40 which is a great deal!!. It's hard wired but it is also a interconnectable to another BRK Electronic brand fire alarm. One fire alarm goes off and rest of other will. Now, I have 4 of them in my home and it is like a disco when I tested it ( I got 2 more free fire alarm from my deaf friends who moved to new home and fire dept installed new one and told them to get rid of old one!! It's not that old! so he gave me 2). I felt much safer to have it.. But soon will need to buy BRK Electronics Carbon Monoxide detector (they're interconnectable too) for furnace room only..

You can purchase one and have someone expert with wiring to swap the "hearing' hard wired fire alarm for BRK 100S alarm. So that you can save bunch of money.

To my opinion, $500 for a fire alarm is a big big rip off... It is pricing deaf people out of their reach in budget. They are actually risking deaf people lives in many ways. I know alot of electronics. Strobe fire alarms can be sold far cheaper than that.. It's the company's greed. This made me angry when I hear some deaf people say I can't afford strobe fire alarm and Fire dept can't provide one, not even VR ect.. This is actually really sad situation if they have kids in their house.

I've spent $250 for a FM wireless fire alarm w/ bed vibrator (Alertmaster). That was back then when I had no choice cuz everything else cost over $300. I realized it's not safe having it during the day cuz I can't hear fire alarm goes off and I'm not in bed. I was worried about fire time to time cuz sometime my wife, me and my kids forgot to turn off stove, unplug heated devices. Some of equipment I have in my garage may catch on fire that I forgot to unplug before leaving.

I wish that we all deafie can protest against manufacter for ripping off too many deaf. If you go to hardware store, You'll see $5 fire alarm for hearing people while we deafie have to choose whether to buy or not cuz all are costing us over $100 and more just for one. This is hurting us too much. We all have every rights to be safe at home. Some of you may be lucky to buy but just one.. I have met too many deafie who are on SSI income and cannot afford it at all, they're not lucky. Not fair for them, not fair for me.

Catty
 
Tousi said:
Maybe it was an ADA issue? If so, then RedFox take note.....
Click to expand...

Maybe they had it for former deaf tenant and they took it down when deaf tenant moved out and save it for next deaf tenant :lol: It does happens. Save their $$$.

Catty
 
RedFox said:
I am moving to another apartment soon and would like to get fire alarms with lights. The best I could find was this:

Westside Wholesale, Inc. - First Alert Smoke Alarm for Hearing Impaired

Please don't buy all of them so I can get some. ;)

Are there any places with better deals? I emailed the person living there about the number and location of fire alarms. The $57 one on that site is just the light that is for connecting to a separate alarm.

Are they all hardwired to the house circuits?
Click to expand...

Yes, They're hard wired to house circuit! :D

Those are interconnected (means alarm will set off another alarm so it can alerts in other room for safety, They're the best!!) to another Kidde or BRK Electronics fire alarms. If you see the fire alarm wiring have black, white, red and copper (or green). You have interconnected system for fire alarm... If you see just black, white, and copper then you don't have interconnecting wiring system.

Best advice to check other hard wired fire alarms to see if they have similar Interconnected system. So that you can purchase more than one strobe fire alarm eg, one for your bedroom, one for your kitchen/living room whichever have best view for you to see strobe in case if there are fire in the house.

Catty
 
Oh god, Jake . It costs expensive about $500. :crazy: I purchased four Kidde hardware smoke detectors at $50 each. same as PurpleCatty's post. I won't buy any smoke detectors from deaf products stores. They are crook. Ha Ha.
 
I have found BRK to be the best. But they are hard-wired. And BRK now also has smoke detector/carbon monoxide detector built-in-one (they are just a couple dollars more than the regular smoke detectors) so you can install that in place of a regular smoke alarm, and then the strobe anywhere, so if carbon monoxide is detected the strobes will go off too, not just smoke. (At least supposedly, because my carbon monoxide detector has never gone off!)
 
so, how can I see alarm flashing while in bedroom as device is in hall?
 
RedFox said:
I am moving to another apartment soon and would like to get fire alarms with lights. The best I could find was this:

Westside Wholesale, Inc. - First Alert Smoke Alarm for Hearing Impaired

Please don't buy all of them so I can get some. ;)

Are there any places with better deals? I emailed the person living there about the number and location of fire alarms. The $57 one on that site is just the light that is for connecting to a separate alarm.

Are they all hardwired to the house circuits?
Click to expand...

if you are renting the place - i believe it is landlord's responsibility to accommodate you. but you'll have to check with the certain people on that matter - like lawyer or fire chief.
 
Whoa... that's expensive!

I hate it when they make devices for the deaf and hard-of-hearing... expensive. :(
 
There is a Maryland Fire Department charity that has been distributing, for free, to one per deaf bedroom a visual fire alarm. Thier criteria is that the person is a Maryland resident and that they hold onto the alarm wherever they live. The alarm they are distributing is: Gentex Corporation :: Fire Protection It is quite expensive.

I don't know if other Fire Department charities doing it.
 
dbarovian said:
Oh god, Jake . It costs expensive about $500. :crazy: I purchased four Kidde hardware smoke detectors at $50 each. same as PurpleCatty's post. I won't buy any smoke detectors from deaf products stores. They are crook. Ha Ha.
Click to expand...

I know, but my parents paid for it :lol: I will have it useful for a long time to come.
 
VamPyroX said:
Whoa... that's expensive!

I hate it when they make devices for the deaf and hard-of-hearing... expensive. :(
Click to expand...

Dallas and Fort Worth Fire Department offer free alarm equipment for deaf in apartment or house.
 
Wokamuka said:
There is a Maryland Fire Department charity that has been distributing, for free, to one per deaf bedroom a visual fire alarm. Thier criteria is that the person is a Maryland resident and that they hold onto the alarm wherever they live. The alarm they are distributing is: Gentex Corporation :: Fire Protection It is quite expensive.

I don't know if other Fire Department charities doing it.
Click to expand...

That's exactly the one I got when someone mentioned it here earlier. I googled for it and found the one with battery backup for $135 and one without for $130. So I got the one with a place for a battery, only $5 more. I had the money to burn, so I went ahead and got two.

I've been working overtime when they needed it at work and will do that again on Friday because a coworker is out on vacation all week. Just Friday's overtime would pay for 60% of the alarms. They also had last Friday off as a paid holiday, but I am usually off on Fridays because I work 4 10 hour days. So they told me to take a day off to make up for that, which covers 2/3 of the price.

So it's more than paid for by the paid day off and overtime. :eek:
 
RedFox said:
That's exactly the one I got when someone mentioned it here earlier. I googled for it and found the one with battery backup for $135 and one without for $130. So I got the one with a place for a battery, only $5 more. I had the money to burn, so I went ahead and got two.

I've been working overtime when they needed it at work and will do that again on Friday because a coworker is out on vacation all week. Just Friday's overtime would pay for 60% of the alarms. They also had last Friday off as a paid holiday, but I am usually off on Fridays because I work 4 10 hour days. So they told me to take a day off to make up for that, which covers 2/3 of the price.

So it's more than paid for by the paid day off and overtime. :eek:
Click to expand...

And it's more than paid for by saving lives. :cool2:
 
Back
Top