Replacing carbon monoxide alarm

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We have a wired in, Kiddecarbon monoxide alarm (model 4MCO) in the lounge which decided to die at exactly 3:05am last night 🙄.

It’s an expensive one to replace, at about £65. Is there any reason why we couldn’t just buy a freestanding one that can sit on a bookshelf and will cost about £11 instead?

Will something like this affect the house insurance for instance?

It’s definitely at the end of it’s life cycle rather than needing back up batteries.

I've had battery carbon monoxide alarms over the years & the gas engineer just tests them with the annual gas safety check. Mine failed last year so just replaced it with another battery one. I would imagine the wired in ones are superior but as you say, dearer. Maybe you could ring your insurance co or use their chat help?

Freestanding ones are fine, they work just as well.it’s only to prevent people having dead battery and them not working.

I've got a battery one attached to the wall. It started the beeps of death, found I couldn't replace the battery so bought a whole new alarm. It seems terribly wasteful to have to throw the whole unit out!

@Ifailed ours that started beeping also had a battery that wasn’t replaceable, it was fitted by the engineers when they fitted the new boiler.
The one I bought to replace it does have replaceable batteries, so that option can be bought thankfully.

@RiceRiceMaybe
I made sure I got one that takes standard AA batteries. The original was put up by heating engineers, I guess they use the cheapest ones available.

I have to thank you op for starting this thread. Our replacement one has been sat by the skirting board (where I have vacuumed around it!) waiting for it to be screwed back into the ceiling where the old one was for weeks.
It is now fitted where it should be.

Thanks all! I’ll just have to dig up the house insurance details, was hoping to avoid it! 😬

@Ifailed I agree, it’s so wasteful, a big, bulky plastic disc that can’t be re-used with new batteries.

It was fun at 3am… loud beep at every 30 seconds. I couldn’t work out how to disconnect the fucker. Once I was properly up at 6:30am I finally managed to remove the whole disc from the mains. Awful design. Really wanted to take a baseball bat to it 😡

@RiceRiceMaybe thanks for the advice 🤗

I had a fire/crime prevention survey last year (free from a charity) and they installed carbon monoxide and fire alarms, all battery operated and gave me a certificate for each one.

What is key is that you test them regularly, but you don't need a fancy one when a battery operated one does the job just as well.

We have stand alone ones and they are fine.

The sensor inside has a limited lifespan which is why you can’t change the batteries on some of them.

Ah thanks, that makes sense.