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Free Home Fire Safety Visit and Smoke Alarm Installation @ Fire and Emergency New Zealand

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Free Home Fire Safety Visit and Smoke Alarm Installation @ Fire and Emergency New Zealand
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beatthatflight on 10/06/2025 - 14:17 fireandemergency.nz (512 clicks)
Last edited 10/06/2025 - 14:34 by 1 other user
What to expect

A Home Fire Safety Visit is a free service for anyone who would like fire-safety advice to reduce the risk of fires in their own home.

During the visit we can help install smoke alarms and replace faulty ones. If you cannot afford to purchase smoke alarms, tell us and we can help.

The visit will take up to 30 mins. Our crew will help you with:

Escape plans
  • We will talk through an escape plan personalised for your home.
Risks in your home
  • We will help you identify the biggest fire risks in your home.
Check & install smoke alarms
  • We will check existing alarms, replace faulty alarms, and install new ones for free.
Home & Garden Fire Safety Smoke Alarm

Related Stores

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Comments

  • CheapAzChips on 10/06/2025 - 14:47
    +4

    Tangentially related question/rant: why does it seem like so many smoke alarms on the NZ market are so crappy? Case in point: Bunnings sells several models of FamilyShield(bunnings.co.nz) and Defenda(bunnings.co.nz) alarms, many/most of the reviews for them are 1-star, and most of the complaints are that after a while they go off at random times of the day and night.

    How can administrators of the NZ/AU standard, which is meant to verify the "safety" of safety devices, be content with maintaining certification for devices that are so irritating that people routinely deactivate them??

    Can you tell I've tried several, and haven't found an affordable one I like yet?

    • beatthatflight on 10/06/2025 - 14:50
      +1

      We have the el cheapo cheapest Bunnings ones. I used to find it going off in the middle of the night until I actually did the regular cleaning of the alarms and changing of their battery. Now doesn't seem to happen any more. Still works too, I won't point fingers but when someone is cooking they still go off sometimes :P

      • CheapAzChips on 10/06/2025 - 14:54

        This has happened in less than a year with a sealed alarm that should last 10 years, among other things. But reading the reviews on the linked page, I know I'm far from alone on the issue. Fair Go did an episode about this a while back, but they really didn't come to any conclusion. The thing is, I have bought maybe a dozen over the past few years, and have had about half fail in a year or two. That's spectacularly bad for a safety product.

        • beatthatflight on 10/06/2025 - 15:01

          Looks like they still require cleaning, from their descriptions :/ But yeah, that's odd and led me down a rabbit hole to https://www.cavius.co.nz/nz_building_code/ which points out that from Nov 2024, the requirement is changing to have interconnected alarms as a minimum. That's kinda cool.

        • beatthatflight on 10/06/2025 - 15:04

          and from a chatgpt discussion:

          To be certified:

          Manufacturers send their product to an accredited lab for testing.

The lab tests sensitivity, sound level (usually 85–100 dBA), response time to smoke, resistance to humidity, false alarms, etc.

If passed, the smoke alarm is labelled as compliant and may carry a certification logo (like the UL mark).

          Nothing about it say, lasting longer than a week :/

          • CheapAzChips on 10/06/2025 - 15:06

            @beatthatflight: Yeah, sort of one of those common sense things that gets overlooked with layers of bureaucracy. And the interconnected thing in your other comment would be absolutely cool… If they were reliable. Otherwise you're going to get every single alarm in your house going off every time there's a faulty one. Suddenly it's not sounding so cool.

      • AleBeerenhoff on 10/06/2025 - 15:08
        +1

        Yeah the whole cleaning thing was something I wasn't aware of tbh, until I started ranting about our alarms going off in the middle of the night…then ate humble pie after reallising there is a cleaning regime we need to be doing on the regular…have not gone off since (for no valid reason). TIL

        • CheapAzChips on 10/06/2025 - 15:22

          Thanks, I can't say I've ever cleaned mine, so maybe humble pie is on the menu. But if I have to clean them all monthly or even quarterly, including in the rental, I'm going to go nuts. We have high stud ceilings.

    • lga9135 on 10/06/2025 - 14:52

      Wow 28 1 star and none higher! scary to think what could happen with these as your primary protection

      • Jizah on 10/06/2025 - 14:54
        +4

        They do feel like the sort of device people wouldn't flock to review, unless there were issues.

        "Woke me up before my house burnt to the ground. 5 stars"

        • Alan6984 on 10/06/2025 - 15:40

          Nice!

          Found this one in a dusty corner under a stack of old Forum Posts, hidden behind the old ChoiceCheapies banner that Wakrak won't let us throw out:

          "Hasn't gone off and annoyed me for seven years. Only lost three houses to fire in that time too! 4-Stars (the trim looks kinda weird else I would've given five!)"

    • Is2u on 10/06/2025 - 16:14
      +2

      We use the cavius ones and never had a problem, they also have a ten year battery so it’s good to not have to worry about changing the battery often.

    • SmartEntity on 10/06/2025 - 22:46

      ……. is it not obvious?
      If you have mortgage you need insurance
      If you have insurance you need fire alarms

      If you have a rental you need fire alarms

      Now I'm not saying you shouldn't have fire alarms, I am saying the above are legally required. So if people must legally have fire alarms naturally they will just get the crappiest because its the cheapest.

      The same applies to everything.

      If you force people to spend on xyz that people otherwise won't bother with they are going to spend the least to meet their legal requirement.

  • YCNZ on 10/06/2025 - 17:01

    We have the relatively-expensive orca wireless ones, and they're uh… not stunning. It's super-hard to work out which one is going off, the batteries are failing after 4 years on a few, and false-positives are a big thing.

  • Robohotic on 10/06/2025 - 17:20

    The last two smoke alarms I purchased came from AliExpress.
    So far they are working well.
    They take AA alkaline batteries.

    • cutcutcut on 11/06/2025 - 09:08

      Are they wifi connected ones?

      • Robohotic on 11/06/2025 - 16:11
        +1

        no they are not WiFi connected.

  • kingjj on 10/06/2025 - 20:37
    +2

    I complete these home fire safety visits regularly. It is not uncommon to identify issues with simple fixes that home occupants are unaware of. You don't need to be an OAP or on a low income to make use of this service and it doesn't need to take long either. Would recommend it to anyone who wants peace of mind.

    We install FireHawk smoke alarms during these visits (when owners don't provide their own/we identify an immediate need to) and I'm yet to receive a call to return to sort out issues with them (not an endorsement mind you). The crew will happily install any smoke alarms that are provided though (I've done a fair few of the newer wireless interconnected ones recently, they can be quite the pain the setup…).

    • beatthatflight on 10/06/2025 - 21:04

      Great work! Any thoughts on the ones from bunnings etc above? Ie why they seem to freak out at random hours fairly soon after purchase (relative to the expected 10 years)?

    • Alan6984 on 10/06/2025 - 23:06
      +7

      Is this where taxpayers money are being wasted on…….

      Actually, it is being 'wasted' (to use your term) on having to put out fires and treat burn victims.

      • FarOut on 11/06/2025 - 07:43
        +2

        @Alan6984
        Spot-on reply, Alan! Prevention is always better. Thank you!

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