Smoke Detector & Carbon Monoxide Information

Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector Requirements

Smoke Detector Image

For ease of use, the informational links are based on when your house was built. However, if the property was renovated with additional bedrooms, added an attached garage or major alterations including gutting, re-configuring bedroom walls, installing hard-wired smoke detectors, etc., choose the link for the time period when the renovation was performed. The year the renovations were performed will supersede the original construction date.

Once smoke detectors are hard-wired they need to remain hard-wired!

Every level of the home must have at least 1 smoke detector and 1 carbon monoxide detector installed.
Smoke detectors older than 10 years old need to be replaced. 

Carbon Monoxide detectors need to be replaced every 5 to 7 years depending on the manufacturer's instructions. 

On December 1, 2016, the State of Massachusetts updated the smoke detector requirements for residences built prior to 1975.  Most of these residences will have only battery-operated smoke detectors.


Smoke Detector Inspections


A Certificate of Compliance is required for the sale or transfer of a property (M.G.L. c 148 s.26).

Please call 413-562-2329 option #1 or (413) 572-6307 during normal business hours to schedule an appointment for a smoke detector inspection.  If your home is a multi-family dwelling, please specify the number of units.  Questions may be asked as to when your property was built and if there were major renovations to your home and when they occurred.

Inspection Fee: 

In Person:

The inspection fee will be collected at the time of the appointment in the form of a personal check, bank check or money order and made payable to "City of Westfield". (Cash is not an option.) 

Online:

The fee may also now be paid online within 24 hours of scheduling your appointment. (This option is not available if paying for an appointment that has been scheduled for the following day.) Online payments may be paid by a credit or debit card, an electronic check, PayPal or Venmo.  There are varying processing fees with a credit/debit card payment. Paypal and Venmo's fees are $2.50. The electronic check's processing fee is $.50 (fifty cents). 

  

Single Family Home, Condo, or Mobile Home:  $40
Multi Family Dwellings:  $40 for the first unit; $10 for each additional unit
                    For example:   Two Family $50
                                                   Three Family $60

In the event the property fails due to incorrect smoke detectors, expired detectors, lack of detectors, etc., the re-inspection fee is $40.  This fee is also available to be paid online using the link above. 

To obtain a copy of the requirements your house must have for the inspection, please refer to the information at the top of this webpage.


Public Service Announcement


1.  Kidde photoelectric smoke detectors have been updated.  

The business office has received a few phone calls from residents regarding the inability to decipher what type of smoke detector they were purchasing when looking at the packages.  It appears Kidde recently updated their smoke detector packaging (Image #1) and they no longer have the type of detector specified on the front or back of the package.  The type of detector, for this specific model, is now labeled with the letter P in a double circle on the bottom of the box (Image #2).  

Kidde appears to have also updated the hard-wired smoke detectors since the 3-prong attachment is now in a different location (Image # 3) than their earlier models.  The 3-prong attachment is inserted sideways into the back of the detector and is located in between the UL Certified Label and the battery compartment.  (Scroll further down on this webpage and you will see a picture of an older model hard-wired detector in order to compare the 2 locations.)   

Please Note:  The images below are for references to the new packaging and the wiring prong location only. This particular model of a combination hard-wired smoke and carbon monoxide detector is just an example.  This model does not meet the specific requirements for a combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector that is required by the State of Massachusetts.  

When a smoke and carbon monoxide detector are combined in one unit, the detector needs to "talk".  Specifically, there is a voice alert which will announce which alarm is going off  such as "fire" or "carbon monoxide has been detected".   The detector below does not have the voice alert feature.

Image #1                                                                                            Image #2                                                                      

Picture of the front of a new smoke detector box                             Picture of the bottom of the smoke detector box showing what type of detector it is.



Image #3

A picture of the back side of a smoke detector showing the new connection of a hard-wired detector.


    










2.  Detectors  need to be UL or ETL certified for the United States. 

When purchasing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors from a large online website(s), please make sure the detectors are UL or ETL certified for the United States.  Our Deputy has found detectors that are not certified for use in the U.S.A. at some of his smoke detector inspections.  The detectors were manufactured for other countries. These detectors will not pass their smoke and carbon monoxide detector inspection for a real estate sale and a $40 reinspection fee will need to be collected.        
                                                                                                                                                       

Frequently Asked Questions:


How do I know how old my smoke detectors are?

Remove the smoke detectors from their bases to see the information on the back of the detectors.  There should be a sticker or stamp with the manufacturing date.  In the example below, the date is listed as "2012 Oct.08".  Smoke detectors need to be replaced if the date is over 10 years old.    If you are unable to find a date located on the back of the detector, then the detector is very old and needs to be replaced. Detectors also turn yellow as they age.  

Image of the back of a smoke detector showing an example of a manufacturing date.

How do I know if my smoke detector is photoelectric or an ionization detector?

If the detector is a photoelectric, it will be labeled as such either on the back of the detector, a sticker on the side of a detector, or sometimes with a letter P on the front of the detector.  

Ionization detectors could have a letter i on the front of the detector, labeled on the back of the detector or may not be indicated at all.  

What is the difference between a photoelectric smoke detector and an ionization smoke detector?

Photoelectric detectors use light to detect smoke and are more effective in detecting smoldering fires.  They are also less likely to alarm from the steam from cooking or hot showers.  

Ionization detectors use radiation to detect smoke but are more effective in detecting flaming fires.  These detectors are known for having nuisance alarms by going off with steam from cooking or hot showers.