Best Smoke Alarms

Mains-powered optical smoke alarms with a rechargeable back-up cell, from Aico — the brand fitted as standard in a large share of UK homes and social housing. Unlike battery-only units these wire into the ring and can be interlinked, so one triggered alarm sounds them all. This is the fit-and-forget option for anyone wanting proper hard-wired cover rather than relying on a single stand-alone detector.

• Mains-powered with a rechargeable back-up so it works in a power cut
• Can be interlinked so every alarm sounds together
• Optical sensor suited to slow, smouldering household fires

A sealed optical smoke alarm with a 10-year tamper-proof battery and an escape light that guides you out in smoke. The set-and-forget home-safety basic that needs no battery changes for a decade.

• Sealed 10-year battery — no annual battery swaps
• Optical sensor responds well to slow, smouldering fires
• Built-in escape light helps you find the way out in smoke

A sealed 10-year optical smoke alarm from one of the UK's best-known fire-safety brands. Fit and forget: the lithium battery lasts the alarm's whole life, so there are no flat-battery chirps to tempt you into taking it down. Thermoptek sensing is designed to react fast to real fires while shrugging off cooking steam.

• Sealed 10-year battery — no changes, no 3am low-battery chirps
• Thermoptek optical sensor reacts quickly to smouldering house fires
• Test and silence button so nuisance triggers don't get it disabled

A Wi-Fi smoke alarm that pairs with X-Sense's base station so a fire in one room sets off alerts across the house and pings your phone when you're out. Useful if you sleep at the other end of the house, have a garage or loft you rarely check, or want to know about a problem while you're at work. It needs the SBS50 base station and a 2.4GHz network to do the smart side, so it's more setup than a standalone alarm.

• Interlinked and app alerts mean you hear about a fire even if it starts in a distant room
• Phone notifications are handy for second homes, garages or when you're away
• Photoelectric sensor suits smouldering fires common in bedrooms and living rooms

A single sealed unit that detects both smoke and carbon monoxide, with a 10-year lithium battery designed to last the life of the alarm, so there are no annual battery swaps. It suits a spot that needs to cover both risks at once, such as a hallway near a boiler or a small flat. A test button and end-of-life warning are built in.

• One unit covers both smoke and carbon monoxide
• Sealed 10-year lithium battery, no yearly battery changes
• Fewer devices to fit and maintain in a small home