Smoke Alarm Safety Tips

Since the invention of smoke alarms, thousands of lives have been saved. Having properly working smoke alarms in your home can help to protect your loved ones in case of a fire. Keep these smoke detector maintenance tips in mind to ensure that your smoke detectors keep your family safe.

• Replace all of your smoke detectors every 10 years. After a decade, smoke alarms are 30 percent more likely to fail.
• Use a vacuum to clean the dust off your alarms at least once a year. Dust covered alarms are more likely to not work properly than clean alarms.
• Replace the batteries in all of your smoke alarms at least once a year. Do not use long life batteries, especially in older alarms since it could cause them to not work properly.
• Install both ionization and photoelectric alarms in your home. Ionization detectors can better detect fast flaming fires while photoelectric alarms work best to detect slow, smoldering fires.

Along with properly maintaining your smoke alarms, properly installing your alarms can help to ensure the safety of your loved ones. Smoke alarms should be installed inside or right outside all bedrooms in your home. There should also be at least one smoke alarm on every level of your home. While you want a smoke alarm installed near your kitchen, make sure that it is far enough away so that it will not go off every time you are cooking.

Along with keeping your loved ones safe, properly installing smoke alarms in your home can help to keep the cost of your homeowners insurance low. Contact the insurance professionals at Jack Stone Insurance Agency Inc. in Antioch, California for all of your home insurance coverage needs. We will work with you to ensure that you have the right amount of protection, all at the right price.