Smoke detector service - worth it?

Uh, where do you get that from? No such requirement exists in your Residential Tenancies Act (or regulation) or Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (and regulation). Heck, there isn't even a requirement to test them at all (not that I would suggest not even testing them!)

 

Suspect you need to do some more research

 

Smoke alarms alone do not save lives, proven fact.

"There are five major strategies for reducing the death toll in home fires. First, more widespread public fire safety education is needed on how to prevent fires and how to avoid serious injury or death if a fire occurs. Information on the common causes of fatal home fires should be used in the design of fire safety education messages. Second, homeowners or property managers need to install and maintain smoke alarms and residents must develop and practice escape plans. Third, wider use of residential sprinklers must be aggressively pursued. Fourth, additional ways must be sought to make home products safer from fire. The regulations requiring more child resistant lighters are a good example, as are fire-safe cigarettes. And finally, the special fire safety needs of high-risk groups, such as young children, older adults, the poor, and people with disabilities need to be addressed."
Chapter 2 – Parliament of Australia

 

If its a requirement in your state, then yes its worth it
If its not a requirement in your state, then no its not

 

Interesting discussion about the worth of Compliance Reports provided by the smoke alarms companies. I just thought it worthwhile to share some real world experience.

When we owned Smoke Alarm Solutions, we were providing our service to about 225,000 properties. With that many properties, it is understandable that we would be servicing properties that actually had a fire. During our 7 years at SAS, I can remember at least 6 properties that had a fire, one of which resulted in the death of the tenant.

In every case, the Fire Authorities were at our office the next morning asking for proof that the smoke alarms had been serviced. We provided them a copy of the most recent Compliance Report, and where necessary - further proof of service, such as the technicians run sheet for the property in question, copy of the Entry Notice to the tenant, email proof of the Compliance Report to the PM and/or landlord etc.

In every case, this satisfied the Fire Authorities.

I'm not advocating using a smoke alarm company or doing it yourself - that is your personal choice. But I did want to share the value of good record keeping when it comes to smoke alarms. When a fire actually happens, such records are your greatest protection.

 

Oh, I have. There is no such requirement for a standard self-contained property - different rules apply to strata properties with building fire safety systems. There's actually a really good write-up in another thread that covers this off: Fire alarm compliance $99/year [NSW]

Thanks for contributing Sue, and I have a lot of respect for the fact that even in your industry you freely state that it is ultimately a personal choice. Record keeping is absolutely going to be the thing that saves you if someone comes knocking, and like I've said from day dot, owners need to decide if they see value in having someone keep up to date on various state regulations, performing the required checks, and in most cases any necessary maintenance.

The one thing I will finish that off though, is that any owner should read the agreement with their prospective smoke alarm company if they want to engage one very carefully - that one of the big companies actually includes verbiage to the effect that the "compliance report" they issue is not even a professional opinion is a little beyond the pale!

 

I actually agree with you Mat regarding the terms and conditions. It's fanciful that they try to avoid their professional obligations like that. It would never have happened in my day!

And for Queensland landlords who have to upgrade their smoke alarms to meet the new legislation - definitely do your homework on the brand of alarms that are installed. One of the big companies is installing 10 year battery alarms (where the battery must last 10 years) but they only offer a 3 year warranty. That's just wrong. And I am reliably told that another smoke alarm company has a fault rate of up to 40% on their 10 year battery alarms they are installing. Upgrading the smoke alarms to meet the new rules is expensive, and the last thing you want is to find that the alarms don't last the distance or continually cause false alarms. In my view, the brand of alarm installed is as important as the price you pay.

 

I'm hesitant to answer this because I have a vested interest - my company sells smoke alarms and I don't want to use this forum as promoting my own product. But as you asked for my opinion, I believe Red Smoke Alarms are by far the best choice and have a full 10 year warranty.

Clipsal is the biggest selling smoke alarm brand in Australia and comes with a 5 year warranty and they would be my second choice. Brooks are a great alarm and offered by one of the bigger companies, but they are so expensive and not worth the additional cost in my view. Another couple of the bigger companies use "no-name" alarms with limited warranties and I would be careful about those.

For Queensland landlords, when upgrading your property I do suggest you investigate a product called a Smoke Alarm Controller. When you have 5-6 interconnected alarms and they false alarm, the noise is deafening and the tenants have great difficulty in knowing which alarm is causing the problem and have no idea how to silence them. This causes great inconvenience for the tenants, and usually results in a maintenance call to the property manager.

The Smoke Alarm Controller is a wall mounted switch (no wiring required) and with the press of one button, it instantly silences the alarms should they go off. It can also show exactly which alarm is causing the problem. Personally I think it's a must in any property with interconnected alarms.

I'm happy to answer any questions about brands of alarms (good and bad) but I would prefer to do so not in a public forum. Please feel free to contact me directly if I can assist.

 

They need batteries and/or a power supply.

I think it is misleading to say that a smoke alarm alone does not have the real potential to save lives.