Lacking explanation in the manual for my new Kidde KN-COPE-IC smoke and co alarm

Question

I have put up two of the Kidde KN-COPE-IC alarms and it comes with an enormous manual but doesn't explain the multi-function button on this alarm. There's a drawing of the large button under the alarm saying "Test/Reset/Hush button. I have tested the alarm by pushing the button and it works. Let's say I want to hush it. How do I do that? Pushing it was test. And how do I reset it? Do I push one for test, two for hush and three for reset? I really want to know but do not want to scare up everyone repeatedly (including neighbors) with me trying to find out.

Also, it doesn't say if the green LED should be on or off generally, only what happens if something is wrong. I am probably stupid here but so be it. I do not want to mess around with the alarms more than I have to. They scare my whole family out of the house when I work on them which I guess is the purpose in the first place. Anyone who work with these know?

Answer 1

TL;DR When there is no alarm, button is "TEST". When there is an alarm, button is HUSH for smoke alarm (quiet for 10 minutes) and RESET for CO alarm - with alarm starting again in 10 minutes (if low smoke level still present) or immediately (high smoke level or CO detected).

From the downloadable manual, and reading bits and pieces (it is definitely more confusing than it should be):

• After power-on (and in theory weekly), press the button once to do a test cycle - beeps, "Fire! Fire!", beeps, "WARNING! CARBON MONOXIDE!", beeps.
• If you have a fire/smoke alarm from a known, relatively safe/under control condition (e.g., smoke from cooking), the fire alarm will sound and you can press the button to HUSH the alarm. It will announce "HUSH MODE ACTIVATED", green LED will blink every 2 seconds for 10 minutes, and hush mode will deactivate after 10 minutes. Meaning that if there is still smoke detected after 10 minutes then the alarm will sound again. That prevents you from hushing the alarm thinking you can solve the problem and discovering that you can't (e.g., because there is a real fire and you can't put it out within 10 minutes).
• If in the 10 minute HUSH mode, pressing the button will cancel the HUSH mode. As in: small cooking smoke/fire sets off alarm, HUSH, clear the smoke, reset to clear HUSH - and if it starts to alarm again then you know you have another (real!) problem. The HUSH mode is not totally off - heavy smoke will override even during HUSH mode.
• If you have a CO alarm then the button will reset, and if CO is still present at dangerous levels then the alarm will sound again immediately (i.e., 10-minute HUSH is for smoke, not for CO, though it is the same concept of "press the button to see if it will clear").

LEDs:

• Red - flashes during alarm (smoke or CO) and low battery
• Solid green = AC and battery - i.e., normal
• Green - 30 second blink = battery (no AC)
• Green - 1 second flash - indicates this unit is in an alarm status, no flashing during an alarm indicates a different (but linked) unit is in an alarm status. Depending on the situation and unit locations, this can help narrow down a smoke or CO source.
• Green - 2 second flash - HUSH mode
• Green - 16 second flash - previous alarm