I live in a home “grandfathered” by the latest fire safety residential codes. I only had 1 smoke alarm on each level as old as my home (18 yrs)! Not good. I highly recommend reading on recommended locations on NFPA and IAFF websites for the latest code locations. The First Alert smoke/CO combo z-wave advertised in the ST marketplace is what I bought to get up to code. Easy installs and worth every penny to protect your family! You may not be required to meet code in older homes, but why not invest in the safety of your loved ones?
I have two of these devices and hopefully I will never need to find out whether they work as intended.
How certain are you that adding these smoke/CO detectors brings you “up to code?” I’m no expert, but I think fire codes dictate not only placement of alarms, but also things like power source (a/c vs battery) and interconnection (i.e. if one alarm goes off, all of them do because they’re directly wired to one another).
Mark - you are correct that new construction does require hard wired interconnected detectors. My point (and it seems you’re like-minded, since you have a couple of these), is that for anyone living in a home built before the increased smoke detector requirements, the First Alert combo detectors tied to ST is the perfect way to increase safety to latest standard regarding proper coverage locations. Regarding interconnection, First Alert does make a “One Link” version that wirelessly set them all off just like if they were all wired in. The problem is that it’s not Z-wave. I sent them a note months ago asking that they essentially make an “all-in-one” - smoke, CO, z-wave, One Link, Voice. We’ll see if that happens - that’s a bit of a utopian request that may not have a wide market audience except for people like us Ultimately, the local authorities/fire marshal rules need checked to determine what is needed (that’s my legal disclaimer).