Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector, Hardwired with 10-Year Battery Backup, Voice Alerts, LED, 85 dB, 30CUA10-V, 1 Pack

What I can't evaluate is how well these work since we haven't set anything afire since I put these up. And I'd prefer to keep it that way. Was replacing our should-have-been-replaced-long-ago original smoke detectors and got 2 of these--one for the basement and one for upstairs. The voice feature seems to be a gimmick until you realize if the alarm does go off, the voice announcement will make it much easier to know if you have a fire or a CO alarm. The detectors I was replacing were Firex with a different quick-connect. There are adapters available and I did use those. Unfortunately, those adapters were made to go vertically into the back of the detector, and on these particular ones the connector kind of nestles in horizontally. However... a few snips to remove some excess plastic and the connectors worked fine. The other 5 detectors I replaced were Kidde smoke (not CO) detectors. When pressing the test button on those, these detectors would also go off and announce "fire!". So interoperability within the Kidde family seems to work fine. Yay! Note that these have a permanent 10-year battery and at the end of 10 years (apparently which is tracked via a timer?) the alarm will start going off at 30 second intervals, requiring you to remove it and permanently disable it to drain the battery and shut it up. Again, having had these up for days, not 10 years, I can't say for sure exactly how that works. And most detectors these days, even some with replacable batteries, apparently will similarly self-expire after 10 years. To be fair that may be good: when I replaced the ~20 year old detectors, some would barely beep when tested, and a few had batteries that apparently had expired without any notification to us. (All had had batteries replaced some multiple times over their lifetime though.)

My Kidde 30CUA10-V was sold by Kidde through Amazon Fulfillment. This means I paid MSRP but it also means I got a freshly manufactured unit (2 months since the manufacturing date in Mexico), "white boxed" (actually, the plain box was brown without any hidden RFID retail devices), with no instructions for amateur installers. Since there was no price incentive to buy any particular unit, I purchased the most expensive (not too much more than the cheaper Kidde models, but much more expensive than Asian imports). I didn't trust the cheapest imports to work during a fire or CO1 event. My unit is a replacement for an earlier-generation Kidde, an AA battery+A/C unit that lasted about 7 years. There are no useful instructions, no tools, and no supplies (wing nuts, for example). Installation took me about 30 minutes as a very slow amateur. You might install in 5 or 10 minutes. The process is to turn off the power (mine is a dedicated circuit), unscrew the old bracket (the old bracket looks nearly identical to the new bracket, so I did not remove the screws, just loosened the screws), remove the old connector by unscrewing three wing nuts, install the new connector by twisting on the old wing nuts, tighten the new bracket, poke the wires back in the ceiling, screw on the new smoke/CO2 alarm, reset the circuit breaker, and push the test button. My unit is now mounted 90 degrees from what Kidde says is best aesthetically, perhaps because my old unit was mounted non-aesthetically by the builder, or perhaps because the new screw holes in the new bracket are 90 degrees off from the old holes. I've included a photograph so you can judge whether my unit is 90 degrees from being aesthetically perfect. I did not give this unit 5 stars. To get that rating, the instructions would need to tell me what tools I needed before I began (Phillips screwdriver, flashlight). The instructions should say explicitly whether the old Kidde mounting bracket would still work. The box should contain a cheap plastic male-female adapter to convert the old connector into the new connector. A cheap adapter would make installation a snap.

If a smoke detector false alarms once or twice in 10 years, maybe because someone was cooking or a neighbor was smoking nearby or something, OK. If a smoke detector—and not a cheap one, but a quite expensive one—false alarms 4 times in two years, in the middle of the night, for no obvious reason, it is a serious problem. I bought 4 of these expensive, Kidde brand detectors because I wanted to spare no expense for my family’s safety. First, we got false alarms (that would then set off all the alarms in the house) because one of the detectors we didn’t replace was too old (Kidde support told me they had to be made within the last 10 years or so.) Why different models would cause false alarms in newer models (all our units are hardwired) was beyond me, but OK. So I bought a newer model to replace the old one. More false alarms, even though all the models were Kidde and from 2025, but they weren’t all IDENTICAL models, so OK, I’ll replace the ones that don’t match with the exact same model. Fast forward to tonight at 2:40 AM, when all the models start going off at once. A fire, obviously, so my wife and baby and I leap out of bed and I go frantically trying to find the source of the fire. Guess what? No fire! But after they all eventually shut off (which took about 2 interminable minutes), I noticed the unit in my bedroom didn’t have the green LED lit anymore. So the unit is dead after only a few months? Maybe that’s why the alarms all went off—after all, if one unit dies, it makes sense they should alert you to a fire! The only burning that has ever happened in my house has been the hole in my wallet from buying these terribly expensive and consistently defective smoke detectors. And for the record, my house was built in 2014. Maybe it’s a wiring issue in my house, but it sure doesn’t seem like it to me. In any case, I will be looking for another brand and will be contacting Kidde customer support because I am at my wit’s end.

This is a dependable Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector. I bought two ten years ago and the battery in both died within a day of each other. The 10-year battery backup guarantee is accurate. Although they never went off in that time as a warning of Carbon Monoxide in my home, they offer a peace of mind that if there ever is, they will. The chirp is loud enough to be heard through the house and beeps every 2 minutes - at least for a dead battery. I was so impressed with the last ones, it was the only brand I considered buying when they needed to be replaced. They also get the highest rating among CO detectors. It is so simple to use, just plug it in. The chirp is loud enough to be heard through the house and beeps every 2 minutes - at least for a dead battery. Why look any further.

The most important thing to note is that they have 3-wire connections. Two for the A/C power, one for the communication between multiple units. My home was built in the 80's and came with two hard-wired smoke detectors. I am surprised my house doesn't have a third wire already installed, but nope. So, they can't communicate with each other and will operate stand-alone. Unless I had a third wire run, and I'm not going to. I had a pair of Nest Protects that expired and the product was discontinued. They communicated with each other through Wi-Fi and so they only had a two-wire connection. The First Alert that is sold as a Nest direct replacement gets poor reviews. Looking at other products, some don't have an app, like this doesn't. Some have pay apps. Some don't have 10-year battery. None have all the features that the Nest did. Maybe in 10 years somebody will come up with something as good or better than the Nest. But this is at least modestly priced. I saw one review here complain the price was too high, but actually, this is less than half the cost of some "smart" units. This product will be good enough.

Easy install and no issues so far .

No more chirping and battery changes in the middle of the night! These things last for 10 years with no need for maintenance. These are a direct replacement for old style smoke alarms and are compatible with most home wiring. You may need to change the wire adapter, but it’s very easy to install. The green indicator light is super bright and easy to see from the ground. They are very sleek looking. These are an incredible value for how long they last.

Great alarm with a 10 yr life battery. Install it and forget about it needing service for 10 years. Now all I have to do is push the test button once a month.