Kidde, a division of UTC, announced a recall last week of its NightHawk talking combo smoke/CO alarm after discovering that the detector can fail to chirp, even after consumers replace the batteries.
The recall covers NightHawk detectors with the model number KN-COSM-IB and manufacture dates between June 1, 2004, and December 21, 2010.
The company said the alarms, which are hard-wired into a home’s electric power, can fail to continue to chirp when it reaches its seven-year end of life if the batteries are replaced, leading consumers to believe it is still working.
About 3.6 million of the detectors were sold in the U.S., while another 1.5 million were sold in Canada. They were sold by electrical distributors and home centers across both countries and online at Amazon.com from June 2004 to December 2010.
The company has thus far received eight reports of incidents with the recalled alarms but no injuries have been reported.
