Kidde Recalls Combination Smoke/CO Alarms Due to Alarm Failure

Recall Insight

This CPSC action (record #17031) was formally reported on November 10, 2016. It is classified under Moderate severity, with a current status of Active. The recalling firm is not specified in the federal record. Federal records indicate About 3.6 million (in addition 1.5 million were sold in Canada) units are affected.

The documented reason for this recall is: The alarm can fail to continue to chirp when it reaches its 7-year end of life if the batteries are replaced, leading consumers to believe it is still working. This poses a risk of consumers not being alerted to a fire … Distribution information was not included in the agency filing, so consumers should assume broad potential exposure until the firm publishes point-of-sale details. The remedy documented by the agency is: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled alarms and contact Kidde directly for a free replacement alarm based on date of manufacture or a discount on a new alarm. — consumers holding this product should act on that instruction rather than relying on general guidance.

To put this record in context, PlainRecalls indexes 83,949 recalls across the FDA, CPSC, NHTSA and USDA FSIS going back to 1995. Within the same product category, the database holds 6 closely related recalls, of which 6 were also issued by CPSC. That clustering is a signal — repeated actions in a narrow category often indicate a systemic quality-control issue, a supplier-wide contamination, or a design defect that has propagated across product lines. This recall is roughly 10 years old; older recalls can remain relevant because many units enter resale, rental, and secondary-market channels where the original warning never reaches the end user. Always cross-check the recall number against the official agency page before relying on any summary.