Well, do they exist?

Go to Wal Mart and get a can of .99 flat black spray paint & take the cover of the smoke detector off and paint...VOILA! Black smoke detector!

Go to Wal Mart and get a can of .99 flat black spray paint & take the cover of the smoke detector off and paint...VOILA! Black smoke detector!

Exaclty!!!

Just be sure to only paint the cover then put it back on no problems

How the hell do you get the covers off? It looks like its built to go on and not come off without breaking it.

Mine are BRK brand. White. I planned on painting, but they say in the cover: DO NOT PAINT. So there you go... I'm painting it anyway, just cause they told me not to! Seriously though, if you only paint the cover then I see no reason why it would matter. I still need to figure out how to remove the cover...

There's obviously a reason they all say DO NOT PAINT. I can't imagine it would be worth it to take that risk.

I painted my smoke detectors and they worked just fine afterward.

I think the reason they say "do not paint" is because some knucklehead would go ahead and brush on paint like he was Huckleberry Finn whitewashing a fence!

If you are careful not to plug the vents and such it works great... I actually painted them carefully with a small fine brush while they were ceiling mounted and that way I didn't have to worry at all about clogging the important vents to the interior of the detector.

Just use common sense and it'll look great. One day my wife said, "hey there's a smoke detector" and I said yeah it's been there for months. :)

I'd take the cover off and then spray them. You can get a kit from home depot where the spray paint is where you can use your latex paint as spraypaint so it will match the ceiling color.

I used it for my in wall speaker grills and it did a great job.

I just did this on my BRK smoke detector, and looks great. My cover detached from the rest of the housing by prying slightly on 3 plastic tabs.... no screws held mine. Brnad was BRK.

Use Vinyl Dye rather than paint. paint coats, Vinyl dye is actually absorbed by the plastic and wont cover small screw holes or grill holes and won't scratch off either since it doesn't sit on the surface of plastic.

it's especially good on Speaker grills since paint can fill the little holes up and scratches off so easy.

You can buy it at any auto parts store. Its the only way you should paint plastic.

Ok, a manufacturer called 'Hochiki' make a black smoke detector and base.
In the UK they are supplied by a company called 'Fire Suppression' -

Fire Suppression Limited Unit 18,
Douglas Road Industrial Park
Douglas Road Kingswood,
Bristol BS15 8PD.
UK Office: 0845 127 9915 UK Fax: 0845 127 9959 ...

When you speak to them you have to give these codes:
Black unit code: ALG-E(black) = £26
Black base code: YBN-3(black) = £2.50

Hope this helps.

Ditto on the method mentioned by several here:

1) Find pry tabs (one under a label), and open detector case.

2) Remove guts (noting how it all goes together).

3) Spray paint flat black with Krylon plastic-coat spray paint.

4) Re-assemble when dry.

5) Mount to ceiling.

6) Chuckle to self when county inspector was about ready to fail me for not having a smoke detector in the room, and I had to point out the black detector on the black ceiling. He had looked right at it.

We advise not to paint the detectors for two reasons, the main reason is as you guys have already pointed out - the detector just won't work if the internal smoke chamber grill is coated with paint. Secondly the ABS plastic of the cover can be weakened by certain paints.

If you do paint an Hochiki detector you WILL invalidate the 3 year warranty instantly. :eek: Also a painted detector may no longer be within the British Standards, worth checking with LPCB or BSI. So best stick to the standard "ivory", "white" or "black". By the way the code for the black base mentioned above should be YBN-R/3 black. This base is designed for the ALG-E black which is an analogue smoke sensor. There is also a black conventional smoke detector available, the SLR-E3 black (base is YBN-R/6 black).

We can undertake to mould our detector casings in other colours but this would only be for orders in the 1000s. Contact our head office for further details. Please note we are a manuafacturer and cannot sell direct to end users, Hochiki products are readily available from most security/fire/electrical wholesalers in Europe/Africa/Middle East and Indian subcontinent, as well as the States through wholesalers to our sister company Hochiki America Corporation:

Hochiki Europe (UK) Limited
Grosvenor Road
Gillingham Business Park
GILLINGHAM
Kent ME8 0SA

Tel: (01634) 260133
Fax: (01634) 260132
email (for UK): sales@hochikieurope.com
email (overseas): export@hochikieurope.com

They do exist... SimplexGrinnell can get them for you as well. However, they are not stand alone residential detectors.

That's a reply to an old thread! I couldn't find any black ones in my area or online, so I purchased one that was compatible with my system and painted it. I disassembled the device and painted the plastic parts. I bagged the circuitry and painted the rest flat black.

I reassembled it and it's working very well.

CJ

Kinda weird to have three one and done posters in one thread.

Kinda weird to have three one and done posters in one thread.

I agree. Wierd.

I thought so too!

Still waffling on whether I should paint mine, despite the "DO NOT PAINT" admonition - I imagine when its installed, and I see how ugly it is as white, my mind will be made up. I wish I knew what the "or else" was that goes with the "DO NOT PAINT" though - don't care if its just warranty, but - code violation? fire insurance issue? ninjas appear?

I would imagine that the sensor would be damaged by the fumes and over spray. If you can disassemble the unit and remove the board then painting would not be an issue. Someone over in China put it together, you surely should be able to disassemble it and reassemble when painted! If you really fear the lame weakening of the plastic thing.. they say that about motor cycle helmets, batting helmets and goalie masks too... you could most likely get flat black latex paint to stick to it long enough got get it hung up.. there won't be much handling so should stick well enough... Still would want to take the board out first..

I think they want to be really sure that you don't paint it because most people would just spray away. I disassembled the unit and bagged the innards. There is no way that plackpaint on the outside will make a difference in how it performs. I am certain that I didn't get any paint on the inside.

Agreed. The electronic guts and actual smoke particle detector that were sitting in a sealed box while I flat-black Krylon'ed the case will never notice that the smoke partcles passed by some black plastic on their way in to the detector.

My inspector didn't bat an eye (and actually didnt even SEE it on te black ceiling originally)... and never asked if it wasn't originally black from the manufacturer.

For piece of mind, test it with a match held up to it every so often until your confident the paint isn't eating thru the surface and destryoing it's guts, or whatever.

-sc

Every time I see the title of this thread I think "Where is John Lock"?:eek::D

Even when the innards are safely stored away I cringe when there is mention of rolling on some thick coats of latex. Plugging the air vents could be a real performance issue.

Grab a can of spray enamel and inspect the vents before and after.

Wanted to just throw in the suggestion with others recommending vinyl dye as opposed to paint. To get the smoothest finish on plastic it is much better to do 3-4 light coats (aiming for ~30% coverage each pass). If it gets too thick it won't fully absorb into the plastic and dries uneven.

Because it is commonly used to coat scratch bumpers there is a wide selection of gray and charcoal colors that could go along with a theme.