Daily Finance – by Mitch Lipka
More than 1 million alarms intended to alert people to smoke and carbon monoxide in their homes are being recalled because of a defect that could cause them to fail, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday.
The Kidde smoke alarms and combination smoke detector/CO alarms are hard-wired, and can fail following a power outage, the CPSC said. About 1.2 million were sold in the U.S. and about 112,000 were sold in Canada. The problem, Kidde said, is in the programming code of the devices.
The recalled Kidde residential smoke alarm is model i12010S, manufactured between Dec. 18, 2013 and May 13, 2014. Combination smoke/CO alarm model il2010SCO, manufactured between Dec. 30, 2013 and May 13, 2014, and combination smoke/CO alarm model KN-COSM-IBA, manufactured between Oct. 22, 2013 and May 13, 2014, were also recalled.
Directly Connected to Household Wiring
All of the recalled alarms are of the type that gets connected directly to household wiring. Both the il2010S and il2010SCO have 10-year batteries sealed inside, while the KN-COSM-IBA model uses replaceable AA backup batteries. All the recalled alarms are white and round and have the name “Kidde” molded on the front.
The Chinese-made alarms were sold between January and July for $30 to $50 at Home Depot (HD), Menards, Amazon.com (AMZN), along with electronic supply stores and other retailers.
Consumers who have any of the recalled alarms are asked to contact Kidde to get a free replacement from Kidde at (844) 553-9011 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. EDT, or the company’s recall site.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/09/11/kidde-smoke-alarms-carbon-monoxide-detectors-recalled