How long do smoke alarms last?

Smoke alarms are required by law to expire after 10 years because their sensors become less effective over time. In fact, they are required to warn you that they have expired by chirping every few minutes and no battery fixes an alarm that has simply reached its expiration date.

How to find the date

Take the alarm down and look at the back. Manufacturers stamp a manufacture date there, usually printed near the model number. If it was made more than a decade ago, or you cannot find a date at all, it is time to replace it.

Why the test button is not enough

Pressing test only confirms the horn sounds and the battery has power. It tells you nothing about whether the sensor can still detect smoke. An old alarm can pass the test and still fail to alert you in a real fire. That is why the calendar matters more than the beep.

Replace just the problem one, or all of them?

You should usually replace all of them, and here's the honest reason. Most alarms get replaced because they've reached their 10-year end-of-life, so if one's expired, the others are right behind it. Doing them together is safer and cheaper than paying for repeat visits.

There's also compatibility: your current model may be discontinued, and newer alarms often won't link up with older ones. For interconnected systems that really matters, they all must work together and "speak the same language," or some won't alert when they should or they could false alarms.

The exception: if your alarms are fairly new, still available, and just one is defective, then yes — we can swap that single unit with a matching model. Either way, we'll tell you honestly which situation you're in. Wondering whether to do it yourself? We cover that too.

Not sure how old your alarms are? We will check the date on every one and replace what is due, with the price in writing first.

Request a quote or see our pricing.

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