Change Your Clocks, Change Your … Alarms

While the spring and fall Time Change dates have become synonymous with the ritual of changing the batteries in smoke alarms, there is another equally important date that fire safety officials say Canadians do not pay attention to with enough vigilance – the date of expiry of their smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. These alarms are useless when expired. Maybe even more than useless... dangerous! Because you might be relying upon a smoke alarm that wont work properly.

Fire prevention associations, along with testing and standards organizations, agree that smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years whether models are battery operated or hard-wired into a home’s electrical system. For CO alarms, their lifespan varies between 5-7 years, depending upon its “end of life” rating as determined by the CSA 6.19-01 standard. The exception is Kidde brand alarms, which are the only carbon monoxide alarms in Canada certified by the CSA for seven years. Do you know the date that you had your alarm system installed? Have ten years gone by?

Ron Bannister assures us that he or Dave will accept expired smoke and carbon monoxide alarms at the garbage depot on-island when brought in during the Wednesday or Saturday open hours. They will recycle them.

originally distributed November 11,2011