A reader recently asked a question: How often should I change a smoke detector?

Smoke detectors whether is battery or electric are designed to last ten years and you should replace them every ten years. What is nice about some of the new models that are coming out is that they have a ten year battery built in. So once it starts chirping letting you know that the battery needs to replace, the whole unit is at the end of its life, so you just throw the whole thing out. What is nice about the ten year battery is a lot of people forget to change them once a year.

So you install this once and it’s going to last the whole life of the unit. Another thing that I like about some of the newer units that are coming out is that they are designed to have a permanent battery. So this actually, once you plug this into the back of it, it cannot be removed. So once the battery is installed, you can never remove it. And what it’s nice for landlords, if you have commercial property, you also have a mounting bracket that has two lock-in pins.

So once you put this into the ceiling and you lock down the main body of the smoke detector, it’s permanently in place, so they can never shut it off, they can never remove the battery and they can’t remove it from the mounting. So if you are looking for just a goof proof excellent smoke detector, you can pick one of these and all the major manufacturers make them now. So a ten year model and if you are a landlord, you can get them with a lock-in battery.