Hot Startup for Fire / Intrusion Integration: Encore's FireFighter

In a lot of cases, interconnected smokes can be easily connected to an alarm panel very reliably with a wire-in relay module. You can buy them for less than $20 normally, connect a relay output to an input on a panel (or a wireless contact if you need) and you're done.

Granted, this requires connecting to the interconnect wiring which a lot of alarm dealers may not want to do, but it's not particularly complex.

We have found too many false alarms come with builder smokes. I think this is a cool idea but until contractors start installing better smokes and in the right places (NOT IN KITCHEN OR OUTSIDE BATHROOM!) we'll stick to installing our own full or supplemental fire systems.

As a 30+ year veteran in the security industry, aside from the liability and the false alarm factors already noted, this harkens back to the days of the manufacturer who produced wind-up detectors and deployed a high pressure close measure that included pictures of burned children all while charging ridiculously high prices for detectors that never really worked. My point is not that FireFighter will resort to these drastic measures, but it is a perfect breeding ground for less than professional salespeople to sell complete peace of mind with a product that has way too many variables to consider. Our industry has a bad enough reputation with door knocker programs. Do we want to promote and install will-work-if shortcut products?

When I was installing commerical & residential fire and intrusion systems, many homeowners commented to me that their monitored, UL-approved smoke detectors very rarely alarm (which is very good in itself!), while the single-station units seem to go off quite easily. A fire alarm design engineer once explained to me that the cells used in the simple/cheap 'single-station' smoke detectors were too 'coarse' and vulnerable to false alarms compared to the refined detectors of commercial-grade units, and thus couldn't be confidently monitored for FD dispatch. Maybe this is no longer true and the technology has improved, but Encore's market seems to be retrofitting structures with existing detectors. My bet is that many AHJ's will push back and/or homeowners will remove the Encore units after being fined for too many false alarm dispatches. (BTW, it IS pretty clever to use audio detection tuned to the Code 3 cadence, but that non-supervised connection likely wouldn't qualify as fail-safe in a fire alarm inspection).

Btw, I am curious what the consensus is here about this product. Here's a poll:

So, the FireFighter is UL-listed, but not necessarily the detectors that it is listening to ...

1.5 These requirements do not cover single- or multiple-station fire alarm devices, automatic fire detectors, or alarm indicating appliances, such as bells, horns, and the like. They do cover accessories which are external to the control unit and are dependent upon the control unit function, such as end-of-line devices, annunciators, and remote switches

That leaves the liability, I think, on the property owner and not on Encore. But the installing dealer is still in the mix. And probably not in a good way if the limits of the devices are not very carefully explained & understood clearly.

Neat but way too much liability on our side so with this I would have to worry if they don't install the smoke detector properly, what happens when there is a fire. . The moment you touch in any way your clients purchased smoke detector it's your responsibility they communicate properly. People change devices and do not notify the dealer. If the house burns down because their smoke detector they bought didn't work quickly enough, Who's fault is that? Just a bad idea.

I completely agree with Andrew. As professional security dealers we are in the business of preventing the "1 in a million" scenarios. We have to try to insure that our stuff is bullet proof. The Firefighter reeks of "cheap gimmick" and has way too many potential short comings to be of any ethical use by professionals.

How many news reports do we hear where people died in a fire and that smoke detectors were either missing or had power and/or batteries removed? If a big loss is sustained in a fire and you are monitoring the prem the finger will be pointed at you. Sure you may be able to dodge the liability if the fault is with others but is it really worth the grief and the court case?

If there are rampant false alarms you will also get the blame and probably get stuck with the hefty FD dispatch charge (in my locale it's $700 per truck). If you don't install the detectors then you have no control over their placement. You also will likely run into issues if/when they reach end of life. If the original smokes are 120V builder installed units then your options are either replace them yourself (in my locale this requires a licensed electrician) or bouncing your customer to another contractor who may or may not know what they are doing.

I'm all for saving money but given what's at stake it's far too risky IMHO.

UL985: Fifth Edition; Household Fire Warning System Units

Does this device comply?

As I understand the Code, all detection and annuniciation components of a monitored fire alarm system must be be supervised so that a faulty system reveals itself. This is usually accomplished by EOL resistors, two-way wireless chatter or regular communication test signals. Much engineering and reliability testing goes into the entire chain of communications before ANY jurisdiction blesses introducing a new technology into the system.

It seems obvious that the one-way audio link that the FireFighter device uses to listen to an otherwise unsupervised single-station detector simply doesn't meet Code. And, by adding an essentially 'casual' device to an otherwise 'formal' designed and engineered system, a licensed installer is risking malpractice.

Just saw a startup called Leeo today that released a similar device, essentially a night light which connects to wifi and sends alerts to you and/or others when it hears a fire or CO alarm. No central station monitoring (sorry RMR fiends).

Demo video here: