At Auscan Services, we are all about quality; using quality products, delivering quality services and ensuring our customers’ homes are protected at all times.
At Auscan, we work with customers throughout each year to repair and install smoke alarms. The importance of smoke alarms is now recognised, but with a vast range of products on the market it can be difficult to know where your money should be spent, and which brands offer the best protection.
There aren’t many household products you buy where the stakes are literally life or death, but with smoke alarms they really are. 3 out of 5 people who die from a fire in their home, DO NOT have working smoke alarms.
To increase the safety of your family, it’s critical that your home has smoke alarms that you can count on to work without fault.
We’re proud to source and supply Brooks smoke alarms for our customers. Brooks is a 100% Australian owned company and are specialists in fire and carbon monoxide protection. Brooks smoke alarms are designed for Australian conditions, providing the best protection all year round.
Brooks also consistently provide high quality products across their ranges through their intensive quality control testing – where during the manufacturing process, every single alarm is tested at multiple points. Brooks smoke alarms are also CSIRO tested and Activfire certified, where they have been independently evaluated and verified as quality smoke alarms for Australian homes and businesses.
With various retailers now selling smoke alarms to the public, it’s important to understand and recognise the value in buying a trusted brand model over the cheaper market options.
Different Types of Brooks Smoke Alarms
Source:https://www.brooks.com.au/home-smoke-alarms/
What Type of Smoke Alarm is Best?
Photoelectric alarms are the best type for homes, and recommended by most fire authorities. Photoelectric smoke alarms are usually much faster at detecting smoke from smouldering synthetic material than ionisation alarms. In a typical house fire, burning material smoulders and smokes for a long time (possibly a few hours) before flaring into flames. It’s crucial to detect the fire early in the smouldering phase so you can deal with the fire or escape the house; the longer the fire goes on, the more smoke can fill the home and become an inhalation and visibility hazard.
Studies have shown that photoelectric alarms typically respond to smoky fires within about three to five minutes. Ionisation alarms can take much longer – up to 20 minutes or more – by which time escape can be much more difficult. The cost of a photoelectric smoke alarm is slightly greater than an ionization alarm, but the trade-off is a performance that fire authorities agree is superior.
What’s Important to Look For in a Smoke Alarm?
- Standards Australia certification or ActivFire registration: This ensures the alarm complies with the Australian Standard for smoke alarms, AS 3786, as required by law
- 10-year battery: pre-installed non-removable 10-year battery, typically a lithium battery, which will last for the life of the smoke alarm
- Test button: This allows you to check the alarm is working
- Interconnection: alarms can be connected to each other, so that if one goes off, so do the rest, helping ensure that everyone in the home is alerted as soon as possible
- Maintenance: all smoke alarms require some maintenance, whether that be regularly testing through pressing the ‘test’ button on your alarm at home each month, or having a qualified trades person carry out annual testing. Battery-powered smoke alarms require new batteries every so often, while photoelectric alarms now contain a 100year lithium battery that offer a prolonged period of consistent use
- Durability and warranty: due to the technology used in smoke alarms, smoke alarms have a life span of approximately 7 years. Choosing a product that offers prolonged usage and consists of a fair warranty, will provide additional protection to your home and reduce your changes of purchasing additional smoke alarms than necessary
Benefits of Brooks Smoke Alarms
- 10-year lithium battery, so you won’t need to worry about changing batteries each year
- 5 year product warranty
- Include a ‘hush’ feature for when the alarm is triggered accidently – providing time to clear an environment of fumes that triggered the alarm without the alert tone sounding (automatically resets back to normal after 10 minutes)
- Built-in high audibility warning sounder
- Innovative and robust optical chamber design with an integral fixed insect screen reducing the possibility of nuisance alarms
- Designed for simple installation, commissioning and maintenance
Hearing Impaired Smoke Alarm Solutions
Brooks also offers smoke alarm solutions specifically designed for the deaf and hearing impaired. In the event of a fire, as well as sounding an audible warning, the alarm will activate a high intensity strobe light and a vibrating pad located beneath the sleeper’s pillow, to alert them of the danger. This can be interconnected with conventional audible alarms in different locations within the home. If one alarm senses smoke, all alarms will sound, the strobe will flash and the vibrating pad will vibrate.
Features of Brooks smoke alarm systems designed for the deaf and hard of hearing:
- Stand-alone unit designed for use with Brooks RadioLINK™ smoke alarms and accessories
- Wireless interconnection to RadioLINK™ units
- High intensity strobe light with wide angle light output
- Plug-in vibration pad for use under a pillow or mattress (unit will alert user if the pad is unplugged or wiring is damaged with a flashing LED)
- Visual radio-frequency and power indicatorsUnique house-coding capability
- Can be connected to compatible alarm clocks with 3.5mm mono jack plugs (will cause a constant vibration alert without triggering the strobe or auxiliary devices)
- Rechargeable battery back-up with low battery power warning
- Wall or surface mountingDesigned for 7-day standby
- Additional strobes and vibration pads can be added for other rooms
For people who wish for more information on smoke alarms suitable for the deaf or hard of hearing, can contact us at Auscan Services to discuss appropriate solutions.
For more information on smoke alarm subsidies, which varies between each states, Deaf Services Queensland can be contacted for more information
(link: https://www.deafservices.org.au/Services/Community-engagement-development/Smoke-Alarm-Subsidy-Scheme).
You can’t be cheap on safety, Brooks smoke alarm solutions confidently provide the best protection for your home and loved ones.
Buy smart, stay safe.
Contact us today at Auscan Services, to organise your FREE home safety inspection. We also love working with local businesses, so please also contact us to discuss your business requirements!
