Do Not Buy Orca Alarms !
Do Not Buy These Products - these are by no means the cheapest alarms on the market but they consistently do not work, and each of their models is stricken with many different problems. Getting them replaced is painful, and we urge you to avoid them.
We bought multiple alarms for all our bedrooms (we're heavy sleepers) and singles for living areas. All were the more expensive supposedly better photoelectric model.
1) Their normal 9v photoelectric alarms drain the batteries very quickly, but inconsistently, suggesting shorts within that drain it. A 9V may last 3 months or 12 months, without any activations. This has happened 5 times.
2) Sometimes their standard 9V models go nuts and ring out, for no obvious reason. Replacing the battery results in it going nuts and ringing out again. This has happened 4 times.
3) So we opeted for the more expensive 10 yr battery models, and the same issues arose. Sometimes they rang because we were searing a steak and the wind was blowing into the house not out, so that made sense. But sometimes they just rang. We don't smoke, no one was barbequing, and the house had been fully rewired, but the alarms would just ring. They were unusable after this.
This has happened 5 times.
We then were p*ssed off at the choice of either agreeing to be being ripped off and/or having to waste so much time as we had to jump through hoops to get them replaced at Mitre10, which is why we ended up with some more new Orca's. Yet they all crapped out. ALL THE REPLACEMENTS CRAPPED OUT TOO !!!
Once you add all the batteries they waste, all the time and travel costs associated with buying and replacing and testing and installing them, Orca's are very very expensive.
So we bit the bullet, bought the 'nominally' more expensive Cavitus Alarms and have not had one problem since. Not one!
After 6 months, we can honestly say Cavitus Alarms are fantastic.
We're disgusted that Orca knowingly make and sell such poor products, that mislead people, may well risk their health and lives, and fill up NZ's landfills so fast. This shows contempt for their customers, and disregard for sutainability.
The products have a 50% failure rate yet they keep pumping them into NZ, knowing on balance they are more likely to profit from it.
What a rotten business model!
(PS! Check Reddit - there are multiple complaints going back years about Orca rubbish.)
Firms like this do not deserve to be in business - according to OpenCorporates, in NZ they are sold by the Newfield Group Ltd, registered to the Suckling Family in Hawera.
SHAME ON YOU SUCKLINGS !!! SHAME ON YOU