I am replacing 11 year old detectors which have been producing false alarms... The existing harness wires are BLACK, WHITE and YELLOW... The new detectors have harness wires which are BLACK, White and RED... I'm not sure what to do with the existing YELLOW and new RED wires...

Thank you in advance!

What brand and model did you buy and does the new unit refer to the red wire as a traveler to other detectors? http://www.ehow.com/how_2377897_wire-smoke-alarms-parallel.html

What color wire is the yellow wire in the old unit hooked up to? The yellow wire is a 3rd wire between all the smoke detectors so that if 1 goes off, they all go off. The reasoning is that a basement detector may go off and you may not hear it on the 2nd floor. Doesn't the instruction manual tell you how to wire? Your brand may use red as the connecting wire.

Thank you ma0641 and ballengerb1 for your help... I will have to check to see exactly what the YELLOW wire is connected to in the old unit... The brand is Kidde FIREX model i4618... Below is the only info regarding the RED wire from the manual..


• For alarms that are used as single station, DO NOT CONNECT THE RED WIRE
TO ANYTHING. Leave the red wire insulating cap in place to make certain that
The red wire cannot contact any metal parts or the electrical box.

• When alarms are interconnected, all interconnected units must be powered
From a single circuit.


Thanks Again!

The existing YELLOW wire is connected to an existing RED wire, capped, in the junction box..

Do I connect the RED wire from the new harness to the existing RED wire?. Will this still keep all 6 detectors interconnected?

Thanks Again!

It should but just to be safe put a test lead on the red wire and your other lead to ground, should be no power

Connect the red to the yellow. Kidde must use red, FireX uses yellow. That way you will have a good protection system.

Thanks to you both!. I connected new RED from harness to existing RED in junction box... Turned breaker on, detector's green power light came on!. Turned breaker off, and replaced remaining detectors, all with green power lights on!. I can sleep tonight without keeping one eye open, knowing my family is protected... Thanks Again!

Glad we could help Uncle Joh, Pop Pop Brian!

What if your just replacing one detector. New one having the red wire instead of the yellow wire. My basement and upstairs dectectors have a yellow wire and are wired to the yellow wire in the ceiling. If I hook up the new detector with the red wire to the red capped off wire in the ceiling will it still work with the other dectectors? Or do I need to hook the red wire from the connector plug up to the yellow wire in the ceiling to work with the other dectectors. This is all confusing and I for one thing don't understand why there is yellow and red wires. I just need all my detectors to work together and the instructions with the product is not helpful. Appreciate any help on this.

All wires must be connected for the detectors to be tied together.