Kidde KN-COB-LCB-A Tamper Resistant Plug-In Carbon Monoxide Alarm with Battery Backup

Product Details

Product Dimensions: 2.5 x 7.5 x 11.2 inches ; 8 ounces
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
ASIN: B000IHURGC
Item model number: 21006927
Batteries: 1 9V batteries required.

By : Kidde
Price : $19.28
You Save : $9.72 (34%)

Product Description

Amazon.com Item Description
The Kidde AC/DC direct plug-in carbon monoxide alarm with battery backup (model KN-COB-LCB-A) supplies you and your family with a warning signal to safeguard against hazardous levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in your property. With an increasing number of state and neighborhood governments passing legislation requiring CO detectors in houses, it is by no means been a improved time to safeguard your family members against carbon monoxide exposure.

KN-COB-LCB-A CarbonMonoxide Alarm with Battery BackupAt a Glance:

Mounts to any wall outlet
Alarm sounds if unit is unplugged or comes loose from outlet
9-volt battery backup for continuous protection even during energy outages
Loud 85-decibel alert when deadly CO gas is present
Five-year limited warranty

Functions
It easily installs in any AC wall outlets, and it includes a battery backup (9-volt battery included) that delivers protection even through energy outages, when several CO incidences happen. The KN-COB-LCB-A utilizes advanced electrochemical sensing technology to monitor for carbon monoxide levels in your house. A tamper-resistant function deters tampering or theft of the unit, alerting you if the unit has been unplugged or if it has come loose from the wall outlet.
Offering a clean, low-profile design, it functions two color LEDs for at-a-glance status updates. The green LED shows that AC energy is present and that the alarm is working effectively. The red LED will illuminate when the alarm detects carbon monoxide and indicates that you and your family members will need to move to fresh air. When the unit detects carbon monoxide, the alarm sounds 4 short beeps (rated at 85 decibels at 10 feet), followed by five seconds of silence, and then followed by another set of four short beeps. Also, when the battery runs low a chirp warning will sound for up to 12 hours to remind you to replace the battery. This carbon monoxide alarm is UL Listed and delivers a 5-year restricted warranty.
What is in the Box
1 Kidde KN-COB-LCB-A AC/DC direct plug-in carbon monoxide alarm, 1 9-volt battery, and operating directions.

AC/DC Plug-in Carbon Monoxide Alarm plugs straight into AC wall outlet. Contains 9V battery backup. Carbon Monoxide Alarm goes into alarm mode when removed from outlet to deter tampering. Delivers a seven-year life. U.L. listed.
See all Item Description

Technical Details

9-Volt battery backup provides continuous protection
Loud 85db alerts you of deadly CO gas
Includes tamper-resistant feature
The Low Battery Hush silences low battery chirp warning up to 12-hours to maintain protection
Kidde?s carbon monoxide alarms meet the requirements of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), an independent facility that tests products for compliance with widely-accepted safety standards

Customer Reviews

This unit has a "tamper resistant" feature that you most likely don't want, at least if you're buying a CO detector for your own family's use. Our unit broke in conjunction with this "feature", after barely one year of ownership.
The "tamper-resistant" feature is more like a theft detector -- it triggers an ear-piercing alarm if somebody tries to unplug the unit or even bumps it, and it's difficult to turn off. We learned this the hard way last night at 2am when my young son accidentally bumped our unit on his way to the bathroom, triggering the alarm and waking up everyone in our building for no good reason.
The instructions on the back of the unit don't explain what to do when this happens. So you don't know if you should evacuate the building or smash the thing with a sledgehammer and go back to bed. I ended up finding a screwdriver and removing the battery to shut it up, then using a different carbon monoxide detector to confirm there was no hazard in the room. That won't work for a lot of people.
Even today with the manual I couldn't figure out how to shut it up. It looks like when I reinsert the battery I should have two minutes to plug in the unit before the alarm sounds again, but that doesn't work - the alarm sounds as soon as I put the battery back in. Did I press reset too hard last night and break it? I don't know. I just know that my unit is essentially useless now. Not good.
For anybody who's wondering "why'd you buy a unit with a tamper alarm if you don't like it?", here are some points to consider:
1) When you buy it, it's not even clear it has such an alarm. The description on Amazon just says "tamper resistant feature"; that could mean anything. Who knows, maybe it's resistant to having bubblegum stuck in the air vent or something. The alarm is not prominent on the packaging or in the manual.
2) The alarm is not suitable for home use. You're not going to steal your own unit, right? A short chirp every minute might be nice to let you know it's accidentally been unplugged, but there's no way you need a continuous 85 decibel alarm to tell you that at 2am!
3) Even in a hotel or other setting where a loud anti-theft alarm might be valuable, it's still messed up. An honest hotel guest who accidentally bumps it won't know what the alarm means. A thief won't know to plug it back in and will probably just smash it to shut it up.
4) An 85 decibel alarm feels like it's coming from everywhere. In a home with several smoke and carbon monoxide detectors it's hard to tell which unit is activated. Yet the whole time this unit is blaring away none of the lights flash to indicate this is the one that's activated. This is lame.
5) You're not supposed to unplug the unit from the wall, yet the instructions are on the back of the unit. Doh!
On the plus side it successfully monitored the air in my kids' room for a year (I think, anyway). On the minus side, my kids now think a carbon monoxide detector is something to be distrusted.

I bought 2 of these and 1 of them is a menace, always going off in the middle of the night and we can't shut it off. So, we keep it outside in the garage but it still goes off sometimes. The other one is not going off for no reason, but if it gets bumped out of the outlet- the shrill is relentless and it is not easy to reset. The directions are on the back of this thing, but you have to sit through the shrilling beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppp while you read the instructions. It's enough to drive a person CRAZY. Babies are screaming, pets are running. It's unnecessarily loud.