Is it worth getting multiple hard-wired smoke detectors connected to an alarm system?

This is a tough question because it depends on how you feel about a very, very unlikely event (a fire starts at all, it is at the end of the house far from the central detector, we are away when it happens).

If I were making the decision, the cost vs. the very unlikely scenario would not be worth the extra expense of the $150 detectors.

Also, you may not stick with the alarm company, and then you would have wasted the money tying them all together.

I suggest going with independent detectors and save some money, too.

I’d have to agree with @PerryDolia .. unless you have a filthy habit of leaving oily rags by open flames or you fall asleep while smoking .. or you have a leaky gas stove… chances are there will never be a fire… then again… occasionally people win the lottery.

One side effect of multiple hard wired smoke detectors is that when they beep (for new back up batteries), you can’t tell which one has the old battery. One beeps, you replace the battery. Another beeps the same day, you replace it. Then you decide to replace them all, but another still beeps. We unplugged ours.

Unless you travel a huge amount, I would opt for the cheaper ones if only because the primary function of a smoke alarm is to wake everyone up so they can get out of the house before they are injured, trapped or killed.

However, if you often go out of town or frequently indulge in long trips, then you might consider adding more hard-wired detectors.

We have one hard-wired detector that never went off, even when my son set fire to his room about 10 feet away from the darn thing, so we opted for cheap battery-powered detectors. Ours were actually free because the fire department was giving them away at Earth Day. Of course, so far none of them have gone off, but then my son hasn’t set any fires recently.

Thanks for all the advice! Anyone know how much the distance matters – that is, how close to the actual fire does a smoke detector have to be to detect?

They recommend one on each floor of the house, but the thing is that the smoke has to actually contact the detector to set it off. Since fire tends to be hot, the smoke rises, so that is why detectors are on the ceiling. However, when I have watched firemen test detectors they hold a source of smoke within about 2 inches of the thing to get it to respond.

I would tend to put a detector in any rooms where you have a higher risk of fire, such as the kitchen, the furnace room, or other room where a heating element is activated, as well as the one on each floor.

In our house we made sure to put one in my son’s room. Just in case.