Best Smoke Detector for 2024
Keep your home safe from fires with our picks of the best smoke detectors you can buy.
Our Experts
Our Picks
It's just good practice to have the necessary safety and security for your home. Smoke alarms are an affordable but effective example of a must-have home safety device. Fires happen unannounced, which is why having a fire alarm can be crucial in saving your home from a fire. You may not need them often, but when you do, they could literally save your life.
You will need multiple smoke detectors installed, depending on the size of your home. NFPA recommends that you install one on every floor, in each sleeping area, at the top of each stairway and at a stairway-adjacent ceiling if you're in a basement. To help you pick the right smoke detector for your household, we tested six smoke detectors and found the top three. Whether you're shopping for a new unit, or if you want to replace your old one, here are the best smoke detectors to buy.
As the name suggests, this Kidde smoke detector is equipped with dual sensors that allow it to efficiently detect either type of fire. It's no surprise that it had the best performance detecting a slow-smoldering fire, averaging 24.1 seconds after initial exposure to smoke, and similarly, the second-best performance detecting a fast-flaming fire, averaging 17.9 seconds.
It's powered by a 9-volt battery, plate-mounted and features both "hush" and "test" buttons for weekly testing.
If you're looking for efficiency and reliability at an affordable price, the Kidde PI9010 is where your search should start.
Best smoke detector for the price
Kidde Firex Smoke Alarm i4618AC Ionization Sensor
This ionization detector is a perfect fit if you're on a budget and just want to make sure your home has a reliable smoke alarm. Featuring a compact size and easy installation, the Kidde Firex i4618AC is battery-powered, but you can also wire it to a 120-volt circuit so that battery life is never an issue.
As expected from an ionization detector, it had the best performance detecting a fast-flaming fire in just 16.9 seconds, and the second-best score detecting a slow-smoldering fire, in 28.1 seconds.
The only possible downside is that ionization detectors like this, in general, are prone to false alarms, triggered by pollutants that are not always smoke particles, which is the only reason this smoke detector is not topping the list.
Best smoke detector for a smart home
Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm
If you are looking for a high-tech device that you can control and communicate with, the Nest Protect is perfect for the task. It features a single button that has "hush," "test" and "reset" functionality, and you can hard-wire it to a 120-volt circuit or run it on a battery.
It features two alert modes: Heads-up, characterized by a yellow glow in the background when smoke levels are rising, and Emergency, when the smoke concentration in an area has reached a critical level, displaying a red light. The device will speak to you in English, letting you know which area of your home needs immediate attention. This is particularly useful if you have a large home and need to know exactly where the emergency is located.
The Nest App allows you to interconnect other Nest Protect smoke alarms in your home, displaying them all in a single dashboard. From there, you can easily hush and/or test all or any of your smoke detector devices at the press of a button. Sensors, alarms, voice, battery level and Wi-Fi connectivity checks are all part of the assessment.
The Nest Protect ranked fourth in our quickness of response test, but its ample functionality, versatility and smart features make it a very compelling option for those looking to upgrade their smart home security game.
Our smoke detection test chamber lets us test how quickly each model raises an alarm when smoke enters the environment.
How we test smoke detectors
When it comes to detecting smoke, time is of the essence. That is why we designed a test that simulates a real-life emergency.
The first thing to know is that there are two main types of fires that these products are designed for: smoldering fires and flaming fires.
A smoldering (or slow-burning) fire refers to the combustion that occurs at the surface of a solid material. Smoldering fires produce large amounts of thick smoke but can't sustain a flame. Think of a cigarette slowly burning but never actually bursting into flames.
Smoke detection testing in progress.
A smoldering fire can and will become a flaming fire if proper action is not taken immediately.
Flaming fires are the ones we're more familiar with, and they usually arise from the ignition of any flammable material, such as a flammable substance, wood, paper, etc. These generally produce less smoke than a smoldering fire but are more destructive.
We built a chamber that houses the smoke detector under test and fed to it the two different types of smoke through a chimney. Then, we timed the quickness of the response. The faster the smoke detectors' alarm was triggered, the better.
To simulate smoke coming from a smoldering fire, I ignited 300g of charcoal and let it heat up for 10 minutes before feeding the smoke. I wanted to make sure most of the coals were ignited and that the smoke was thick enough to trigger the alarm.
Recreating a flaming fire was easy, just 30g of shredded paper did the trick. Again, I ensured a significant amount of smoke was present before feeding it through the chimney and into the chamber.
To the great discomfort of my neighbors, who had to endure smoke alarms going off randomly, and to whom I sincerely apologize, I repeated the whole process three times per smoke detector model under test and per type of smoke, totaling six test runs per smoke detector. Finally, I averaged the response times. You can check them out in the chart below:
Other smoke detectors we've tested
First Alert SA320 Dual Sensor Smoke Detector: Ranked third in both tests, a solid option at an affordable price. The silence/test button is stiffer than most other models, which can be a pain if you're trying to hush a false alarm or conduct a weekly test.
Kidde Firex PI2010 Hard-Wired Dual Sensor Smoke Detector: Lowest overall performance detecting a slow-smoldering fire, taking 83 seconds. Second-lowest performance detecting a fast-flaming fire, in 27.9 seconds. The device needs to be hard-wired, but it comes with a 9-volt battery as backup.
Onelink Battery Powered Smart Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector by First Alert: This model looked great at first: App-controlled, useful smart features and the ability to pair up with other smart home security devices make it a strong contender for the best for smart home. It did not impress us in the smoke detection test. It had the lowest performance detecting a fast-flaming fire and the second-lowest performance detecting a slow-smoldering fire, taking almost twice as long as the Nest.