Hardwire Smoke Detector with 9V Battery Backup and Front Load Battery Door | Model I4618AC

I am thoroughly impressed with the Kidde I4618AC Alarm Hardwire Smoke Detector. Its reliable performance and 9V backup give me peace of mind, ensuring my family's safety even during power outages. Installation was a breeze thanks to clear instructions, and the sleek design seamlessly blends into our home decor. The loud alarm is impossible to miss, effectively alerting us to any potential dangers. This smoke detector's durability and longevity make it a must-have for every household. Rest easy knowing that the Kidde I4618AC has your back in safeguarding your loved ones and property.

I bought these to replace my old Firex alarms that were about 12 years old. I was encouraged by the review from the man who said he wasn't handy but found the rewiring to be straightforeward. So I bought of these and have taken them out a number of times but am just flummoxed. I don't see any pre-stripped wires, just the three prongs sticking out from the back. Are there any instructions? I can't find them on the website and of course the help line is open only during business hours, not during the evenings or weekends when I try to install these.Currently, because I did find the breakers that control the alarms and have that turned off, we are without any smoke alarm protection. I bet this is some small, obvious thing, but I can't figure out where to get to these wires in order to rewire the new alarms. Any help will be deeply appreciated.UPDATE:Finally, I hired an electrician to install the alarms. Once I saw how he did the first one, I realized I could have installed them all very easily. The info I was missing was that the connectors for the old Firex had to be removed first--as you do that you will see where each of the the new wires needs to go. A ten minute operation.You do need to change out the holder, the piece that attaches to the ceiling to which you screw in the alarm box. But that, too, swaps out without a problem.The best part of these alarms is that you can change the batteries from the front of the box. In other words, you don't have to remove the alarm from the ceiling to get at the battery compartment in the back. The battery compartment is behind a sliding door on the front of the alarm.

As I changed the batteries in my detectors last Daylight Savings, I noticed a sticker on my old 1275 models that stated a 10 year life span from the date of manufacture. DOM showed 2002 and an expiration date of 2012. Ooops. Obviously you can't get this dinosaur anymore so I looked for compatible alarms that had the same plug pattern (triangular) as my hardwiring. The Kidde website was very helpful finding a replacement. I only had to change the mounting frame. Quick and easy. I love that the battery backup is on the facing surface. Great product and the perfect replacement.No more dismounting and unplugging. Stay safe people. Check your expiration dates, change your batteries, clean out the sensors with canned air and test them once a month.

I only installed these a few days ago and so can't comment on the lifespan yet - this review will hopefully be of use to anyone who (like me) is replacing old Firex wired units.My house was originally fitted with Firex 120-1182 hardwired ionizing smoke detectors with battery backup, These units have reached the end of their life - and anyway, I was tired of the frequent false alarms when we were cooking. I decided to replace the bedroom units with updated ionizing detectors and the ones in the hallways and kitchen with photocell units. I contacted Kidde user support to confirm this was recommended and the different units could be mixed on the same wiring.For the photocell units I chose the Kidde PE120 Hardwire with Battery Backup Photoelectric Sensor Smoke Alarm. I can confirm the units DO have a 'push to hush' button and the button works - it is the small transparent button on the front face of the unit close to the edge, and clearly visible in the pictures. The battery door is at the back of the unit, making replacement annoying. A further small annoyance is that the base plate does not come with screw holes punched out, you have to push out the blanks with a screwdriver. This can be annoying when you are up a ladder, I recommend pushing out all six blanks (three pairs) before installation.For the ionizing units I chose the Kidde i4618 Firex Hardwire Ionization Smoke Detector, recommended by Kidde as the replacement for the Firex units I had. These are practically identical to the Firex units, but puzzlingly the base plates of the Firex units will not accept the Kidde detectors - a minor annoyance, replacing the base plate can be done in a minute.The Kidde wiring connector is different to the old Firex one. You can use the KA-F adaptors (sold separately) which attach to the back of both of the units mentioned above and seem secure to me (Kidde user support recommends replacing the wiring because they say the fit can be loose - I did not find this to be the case) or you can replace the wiring using the new Kidde connectors supplied. In the end I chose to replace the wiring because the KA-F adaptors are bulky and in my setup there wasn't enough space behind the detector. I am no electrician and I was hooking up each detector in 2 minutes, it was a really easy wiring job. Obviously switch off the power at your fuse panel first.I went into detail here because I was puzzled about what to do and only found partial answers on the web. Hopefully this will help others in my position.

I had 8 Firex FADC detectors that were 10+ years old. I started getting false alarms (always in the wee hours of the AM) and research led me to find that you need to replace these units after 10 years. The i4618 has a nice feature that if one of the alarms does start giving a false alert - the red light will tell you which one is the culprit. Same goes for the low battery chirp. Looking forward to both of those when the time comes!Because I already had boxes for the FADC units, the 14618's were easy to install. Had to take down the old mount plate (2 screws) and replace with a new one. And had to replace the wiring harness (finding the unmarked breaker was the longest part of the job). But installation was less than 5 minutes per unit.Units have been in place for about 3 weeks with no false alarms!PS - Don't repeat my mistake. I bought a dozen 9v batteries and then found out each unit already came with a battery!

Just like another reviewer, my home was built in 2001, and it was equipped with Firex 120-1072B units in each room wired for interconnectivity. One of my units began to sound randomly even when there was no fire. I changed the batteries in all units, but one kept beeping (the one by the kitchen exposed to cooking). Considering that recommendations are to fully replace smoke detectors after 10 years I decided to replace them all. After searching online, I found that the Kidde i4618 is the current replacement model. I also got the Kidde KA-F Universal Smoke Alarm Adapters so that I did not have to fuss with any wiring or even have to turn off the breakers.The adapters fit easily although it took a very firm hand pressure to snap them on. (It really is a snap on adapter from both sides, to the old connection and then to the detector, so no tools required other than a screw driver to loosen the old mounting bracket and replace it with the new one.) The mounting brackets fit easily with the existing screws from the old detectors' mounting plate. The mounting plates were the tiniest bit bigger around, so perfectly covered paint lines going around the old detectors (no paint touch up required!)Again it took very firm hand pressure to snap on the adapter to the new smoke detector plus this made the detector beep loud which startled me at first. Connected correctly the light goes green. One I thought connected correctly had a flashing red light so I pressed harder to snap the connector on more firmly into place, and it went green.The detector, attached by wires, simply rotates snuggly into the mounting bracket. It took me less than 10 minutes per detector, and was of course easier after the first one where I was scared at first to press really hard to snap everything in place.I would recommend these smoke detectors (and the adapters).

I needed to replace a faulty Firex 120-1182B smoke detector. It was flashing red every 15 seconds or so and causing multiple other alarms to chirp randomly (even with new batteries & clearing the memory by disconnecting from all power and pressing the mute/test button for 20 seconds). For those that aren't aware, Kidde bought Firex several years back and this is the replacement for that Firex model. The packaging actually says FIREX on it with a smaller KIDDE located in the corner. As others have stated, the wiring harness on this KIDDE i4618AC unit is different than the Firex 120-1128B smoke detector. Do not panic and don't bother buying the wiring harness to connect the old & new model. The picture on Amazon's website does not show you that this "hard wired" version is nearly identical to the wiring harness of the Firex 120-1182B unit. The Firex model has a 3-wire harness and this Kidde replacement has a 3-wire harness. The Firex model uses white, black & yellow wires. White & black are your AC electric & the yellow is the interconnecting wire to the rest of the fire alarms in your house (all of which work with this new model without issue). The new Kidde i4618AC wiring harness has a white, black & red wire setup. If your Firex was connected to the yellow (interconnected wire), simply connect the red wire instead of the yellow wire. This is not rocket science and you don't need to be an electrician to swap this thing out. Here's your replacement process.The 1st step is not mandatory, but recommended.1) Turn off the breaker that controls the power to your smoke detectors to avoid electric shock during replacement.2) Remove old smoke detector from the ceiling by twisting it counter-clockwise.3) Unhook the old smoke detector from the wiring harness by pulling it out of the back4) Loosen the 2 screws that are holding the mounting plate to the ceiling.5) Remove the mounting plate by simply rotating it to allow it to pull off of the mounting screws (you'll see what I'm talking about once you have the smoke detector out of the way)6) Pull the wiring harness wires out of the ceiling so that you have access to the 3 wire nuts7) If you are worried about switching wires (or your specific housing wires all appear to be painted and indistinguishable, simply unhook 1 wire at a time from the wire nut, and install the new wiring harness using the same wire you are disconnecting. (In other words, if you disconnect the black wire, simply connect the black wire from the new harness before proceeding to the next wire). This will avoid confusion. As noted before, the yellow wire from the old harness is replaced by the red wire from the new harness.8) Shove the wires back into the ceiling and install the new mounting plate. You must use the same mounting screws that were used to hold the old one in place (mounting screws are NOT included in the new unit packaging).9) Remove the dust cover from the new smoke detector & remove the plastic battery saver tab from the battery compartment. A battery is included with the smoke detector but I have no idea if it's a true alkaline battery (like Energizer or Duracel, so I replaced mine with a new Duracel so that I was sure).10) Connect the wiring harness to the new smoke detector and secure it onto the ceiling by a 1/4 right turn.11) Restore power to the smoke detectors if you turned off the power at the panel in step 1.I did not bother turning off the power before installing my new smoke detector. While unhooking the yellow wire from the original wiring harness, the rest of my smoke detectors sounded the alarm. I recruited by son to press the mute button on a different alarm and that took care of it. I'm not sure if disconnecting the power will eliminate that issue for others, but be aware that there's a chance your other alarms will sound during the install process, so you might want to avoid this project if someone in your house is sleeping.Hope that helps someone out there.Happy replacing.

Just replaced all five alarms in the house. They arrived ahead of scheduled time. The product packaging was perfect with no transit damage. Installation was simple (hardwired into my home) each tested perfectly. This type of alarm has the easiest battery replacement of any I looked at. I highly recommend this product

Very good

Fantastic deal. Exact model recommended to replace my discontinued one which needed to match the other 3 that still work. I was very surprised to get free shipping from US to Canada. That only seems to happen from China, never the US

Love it