SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20241002-1EA16-4931588. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Kidde P4010ACSCO (Hard wired, photo-electric smoke/CO detectors, with 10-year battery back-up). Incident: Within 6 months of installing the detectors in his home, they began giving false alarms. The consumer contacted the manufacturer to report his concerns. The manufacturer�s recommendation was to clean the detectors, but they did not instruct how they should be cleaned.The consumer saw that a different manufacturer�s brand, recommended to take theirs apart to blow out the smoke chambers. He tried that with the ones he owns and still had the same problem. The consumer consulted his local fire department and one of the firemen suggested that he vacuum them. He purchased a product that enabled him to vacuum them, but that did not address the problem. Even after vacuuming the detectors, the continued giving false alarms. The frequency of the false alarms varies. Sometimes, a few months will pass before they alarm and in other cases, this can happen every few days.Sometime the detectors will alarm and by the time he reaches the detector, they will cease alarming. However, the issue has become more frequent lately.He spent $650 to purchase 10 of these detectors. He plans to purchase a different brand of detectors for around $1200.