Smoke Detectors

I don't think it matters if the house has no occupant. Chances are no one will ever hear the alarm inside a closed house from the street. They will see the fire and smoke though, at that point, smoke alarms don't help anything. Personally, I'd leave the batteries in and working.

I ask because you hear stories all the time when disaster strikes, where the fire department makes a point to say "There were no working fire/Smoke Detectors in the Home". I don't know if that creates a snag when negotiating a settlement with the Insurance company or if the fire officials are just stressing the importance of detectors.

IIRC, I get a small discount on homeowner's insurance by having functional fire alarms. I doubt insurance would deny a claim if no one home, batteries removed, but no real reason to not leave the batteries in. I would leave them, even if gone long term.

So much fine print, where insurance is involved, such as, insured household occupied, which yours may not qualify, if gone for 3-4 months? May want to ask your agent.

Jerry

RobWNY wrote:
I ask because you hear stories all the time when disaster strikes, where the fire department makes a point to say "There were no working fire/Smoke Detectors in the Home". I don't know if that creates a snag when negotiating a settlement with the Insurance company or if the fire officials are just stressing the importance of detectors.

Just a side note, the American Red Cross has a program to install free smoke detectors with 10 year batteries. We had them do it for our 5th wheel in a NW park and in our park model here in Arizona. Chris

I have the smoke detectors that claim a 10 year battery life and installed Lithium Ion 9v batteries in them. I'll leave them in but will check with my insurance agent regarding this.

"There were no working fire/Smoke Detectors in the Home".

Fire Dept stresses this because of casualties/deaths to OCCUPANTS

Insurance Company......????
ANY statement from Agent should be in writing/signed-dated!



Oh..just leave the batteries in it.
Why do you think you need to remove....occupied or not????????

I remove the batteries - what good is an alarm when there is nobody around to hear it?

If you have an Amazon Alexa device, you can enable a feature called Alexa Guard. The device will listen for breaking glass and smoke detector alarms. If it hears either, it will send a push notification to your phone to let you know. I played a breaking glass sound effect and pushed the smoke detector test button to try it out. It notifies your phone, and lets you listen in to hear what's happening in your house.
Obviously not the same as a full security system. But a cheap way to let you know that something might be going on.

NatParkJunkie wrote:
If you have an Amazon Alexa device, you can enable a feature called Alexa Guard. The device will listen for breaking glass and smoke detector alarms. If it hears either, it will send a push notification to your phone to let you know. I played a breaking glass sound effect and pushed the smoke detector test button to try it out. It notifies your phone, and lets you listen in to hear what's happening in your house.
Obviously not the same as a full security system. But a cheap way to let you know that something might be going on.

I don't have an Amazon Alexa device but I do have an alarm system with glass breakage, motion, temperature, water and entry sensors along with some cameras that activate with motion. Besides being monitored by the alarm company, I get phone notifications as well.

Yes, leave the alarms on. Doesn't hurt anything, and might help save your house.

In my town, we (I am in the fire department) certainly do respond to a few calls a year where a neighbor or a passerby hears an alarm going off and that person calls 911.