KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ
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Temperature sensors in Honeywell smoke detectors – contract considerations
April 2,  2022
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Temperature sensors in Honeywell smoke detectors – contract considerations
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Ken,
          The Honeywell 5808W3 wireless smoke detector has an option for low temperature sensing when the detector head senses 40 Degrees F or less that we program to report and notify the customer. It sends a separate zone in from the normal fire zone. There is also a detector maintenance zone we also enable to send in if the detectors sensitivity falls outside normal sensitivity limits.
          When our company has done take over jobs on these systems, I have noticed that other companies do not enable the low temperature or maintenance zones probably due to them not understanding there are 2 other zones this detector offers. We use the Kirschenbaum Contract All in One and tell the customer about the low temp sensor built into the wireless smoke head.
          It seems logical that if the detector is located on one floor or area of a house that it might not sense a freezing condition on another floor. Since this low temperature sensor is mostly a spin-off option from the intended smoke detector zone and not intended as the first line of protection, does the All in One Contract protect us in this situation where complete protection from low temperature is not possible?
          Should we stop programming the low temp zone since it was not contracted for?
   Thank you,
Anonymous please       
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Response
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          You need to be really careful with this issue.  Either you are contracting to provide low temperature, or you’re not.  That means that low temperature is specified on the contract, in the Schedule of Equipment and Services, as one of the detection devices to be monitored. 
          What you cannot do is contract to install smoke detectors and then, without mentioning it in the contract, activate the temperature detection device and program an identifiable signal to the central station.  What you cannot do is a “favor” for the customer, adding detection service that is not called for in the All in One contract.  You may have read this before in my articles, “no good deed goes unpunished”.  Do not do any alarm service without a contract, and that contract must specify that it covers the services you are performing.  A good example of very bad practice is having a monitoring only contract and then doing repair service for that account thinking you have contractual protection for the repair service; you don’t, at least unless the contract provides for repair service.  And, to be clear, a provision in the monitoring contract that provides that repair service is not covered is not a way to mention and cover repair service.  This should be so obvious it need not be discussed here.
          This is why I recommend the All in One; it covers the sale, installation and all after-install services, such as monitoring, repair service and inspection.  However, it won’t cover a device or service that is not mentioned in the contract.  You can’t use a Commercial Security All in One and throw in a smoke detector because no fire detection or fire alarm service is mentioned in the contract.  You can however install smoke detectors and monitor for smoke in using the Residential All in One because that contract does cover security and fire alarm services. 
          I suppose it’s not uncommon for detection devices, like smoke detectors, to provide other kinds of detection service, such as low temperature, as the Honeywell 5808W3 wireless smoke detector is capable of according to you.  If you are activating features of the device, here the temperature sensor, then you should specify that in the contract. 
          Also if you are installing devices that you think will prove to be inadequate or improperly placed, that information needs to be stated in the Schedule of Equipment and Services and acknowledged by the customer in the Disclaimer Notice.  In this scenario you would make clear that while the smoke detector will also serve as low temperature, you have recommended that low temperature detectors be installed where they belong, which is not necessarily where smoke detectors belong.  For example, smoke detectors are not found in bathroom cabinets with water pipes that are on outside walls, an area to freeze sooner rather than later if the structure suffers loss of heat.  A smoke detector with low temperature on another floor or on a ceiling, where the smoke detector belongs, would not be installed in a cabinet typically.  Smoke and heat rises, which leaves me to believe that it gets colder closer to the floor first, not the ceiling.
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Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq
Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC
Attorneys at Law
200 Garden City Plaza
Garden City, NY 11530
516 747 6700 x 301
ken@kirschenbaumesq.com
www.KirschenbaumEsq.com