Smoke Alarm Installation in Toowoomba

Photoelectric is the only type that complies. It uses a light chamber. Smoke drifts in, scatters the beam onto a sensor, and the alarm sounds. It picks up smouldering fires, the slow ones that start with an electrical fault or a heater near a curtain, well before a flame shows.

Ionisation alarms respond to fast flaming fires instead. They hold a small amount of radioactive material, Americium-241, and they're slower on the smouldering fires that hurt most people. They also nuisance-trip off cooking, which is how batteries end up in a drawer.

If the cover doesn't say photoelectric, assume it needs replacing. Glenn checks the type and the date on every alarm while he's there, and the old units go with him for disposal.

Both meet the law. Which one suits your place comes down to the roof space.

Wireless is what most existing homes get. The alarms talk to each other over radio, so there's no cable to run between them. That matters in a Queenslander where pulling cable means lifting original boards, and in anything with a tight ceiling cavity. They run on the sealed 10-year battery, and Glenn checks the signal between every alarm before he leaves.

Hardwired suits new builds and homes that already have alarm wiring. It's the standard for new construction, and there's no radio path to worry about. Retrofitting it means getting a cable into every alarm position, which isn't always possible.

Glenn looks at the roof space and tells you which one your house can take.