SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20161009-96A0F-2147412191. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Kidde KN-COPE-IC (Kidde Combination Photoelectric Smoke/CO Alarm Model KN-COPE-IC). Incident: This model of smoke and CO detector was installed in two different homes, and both have had problems that make me believe they are malfunctioning and cannot be trusted as life safety devices. One of these units malfunctioned around April 2016, causing the green AC power indicator turned off, even though AC power was connected. The unit had to be reset by removing it from AC power and battery power, and when reconnected it seemed to function again. Later, on 10/8/2016, it had a false fire alarm when no fire or smoke was present. It failed to activate the other hardwired alarm connected to it, and failed to silence itself when the hush button was pressed. When the button was pressed, it seemed to put the alarm into test mode instead, which activated the other hardwired alarm. The alarm could only be stopped by removing AC power and battery power. These two incidents happened at my home. The second malfunctioning unit is located at a different residence, has had two false alarms in about 9 months. No smoke or carbon monoxide was believed to be present at the time of the alarms.