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Smoke Alarm Recall: Half a Million Alarms Defective

By Ceylan Pumphrey, Esq. on March 22, 2018 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Product liability law helps to keep consumers safe from products that have design defects, manufacturing defects, or don't provide sufficient warnings. When a company realizes that a product it provides to consumers has a defect, it usually issues a recall.

The realization can occur after people have already been injured by the defective product, or before any reported injuries. Luckily, Kidde, a well-known brand in fire prevention, has been able to identify a manufacturing defect in its smoke alarms before any reported injuries and has now issued a recall of close to 500,000 smoke alarms.

The Details of the Recall

Kidde has recalled certain smoke alarms because there may have been a yellow cap left on the alarm during manufacturing, which can compromise the alarm's ability to detect smoke. Approximately 452,000 Kidde dual-sensor smoke alarms sold in the United States may be defective.

There are also approximately 40,000 smoke alarms that were sold in Canada that may be defective. The models being recalled are PI2010 and PI9010, which were sold at various department, home and hardware stores throughout the nation as well as through various online stores, including Amazon.com. The potentially defective smoke alarms were sold from September 2016 through January 2018.

In order to check if your smoke alarm is affected by this defect, you'll need remove the detector from the wall or ceiling and look through the opening on the side to see if there's a yellow cap. If there is a yellow cap, then you should contact Kidde for further instructions on how to receive a free replacement smoke alarm. If there isn't a yellow cap, then the smoke alarm doesn't have the manufacturing defect and you can reinstall the alarm back on the wall or ceiling.

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