Any smoke detectors that use AA batteries?

June 5, 2015 5:28 AM

I'm tired of the 9 Volt batteries.

It's June, 2015, and the world is loaded with technological marvels. However, home smoke detectors (not wired onto power lines) still use the silly 9 Volt batteries. Are there any that use AA batteries; even if they need four of them, it's still better than having to stock 9 Volt batteries.

I recently bought some Carbon Monoxide detectors that use AA batteries. Now I want that feature for my new smoke detectors.

posted by mbarryf to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

What about a 10-year smoke detector so you don't have to worry about batteries at all?
posted by rawralphadawg at 5:32 AM on June 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

There do appear to be some that use AA, although this model is a duel smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector.
posted by rawralphadawg at 5:34 AM on June 5, 2015

I use these First Alert smoke detectors. They are powered from two AA batteries and can be networked together to create a "whole house" alarm so that when one goes off, they all go off.
posted by davidvanb at 5:59 AM on June 5, 2015

We have the non-networkable version of the First Alert detectors davidvanb linked to above. They use AA batteries and were pretty cheap (under $20 each in our area at Home Depot less than two years ago).
posted by TinWhistle at 6:46 AM on June 5, 2015

Likelihood of remembering to replace smoke detector batteries after one year: pretty good.

Likelihood of remembering to replace smoke detector or battery after ten years: low.
posted by amtho at 8:09 AM on June 5, 2015

My understanding is that most smoke detectors use the silly 9V batteries specifically because so few other things do, as a safety feature.

The idea, supposedly, is that you won't be tempted to steal the battery out of the smoke detector when the battery in your TV remote control or radio goes flat.

[Citation Needed]
posted by sourcequench at 8:25 AM on June 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

A few Kidde NightHawk smoke/CO2 alarms use AA batteries: KN-COSM-XTR-B (what I have), KN-COSM-BA and KN-COSM-XTR-BA.

Amtho: the ten-year sealed battery detectors are very good (almost annoyingly too good) at letting you know when it's time for replacements.
posted by JackBurden at 8:49 AM on June 5, 2015

I think one reason is that smoke detectors operate at very low current draw, to the point where the dominating factor is often the shelf-life of the battery. 9V batteries have way smaller cells than AAs, so you're wasting a lot less battery. One corollary of this is that you should keep a relatively small stock of smoke detector batteries on hand, so that you're using relatively new batteries.

I've seen one claim that they're 9V instead of AA to discourage people from using rechargeable batteries. It is true that rechargeable batteries are ill-suited for smoke detectors; they have a lower capacity, a higher self-discharge rate, and a faster voltage drop near the end (so the low battery warning chirp may not work right). But I don't put much stock in that theory; smoke detectors have used 9V batteries for way longer than good rechargeables have been available.
posted by aubilenon at 11:07 AM on June 5, 2015