Yesterday while cooking I set off the smoke detector, no I did not burn anything. They go off when I cook over a high heat. And yesterday once they started going off they would not stop. I ended up having to disconnect them all (they are hard wired with an interconnect) and I replaced them this morning. Aaaaaaaand let me tell you, I had a sleepless night last night knowing there were no detectors installed.
https://www.southernliving.com/how-often-should-you-replace-smoke-detectors-8774122
I replace 'em every other fire.
This is why I just go ahead and buy the new ones that come with batteries that last 10 years. You’ll have to replace the whole unit when they die anyway.
YSK that those old detectors will most likely not have the same plugs as the old ones, either. Prepare to figure out what circuit they’re all on and a rewire with new dongles (pigtails? Not sure of the right name). Ah, what a fun weekend. 15 min turned into a couple of hours.
New ones had the same pigtail as the old one (both were Kiddie brand), but I did have one I had to rewire. As far as I can tell, they do not have a dedicated circuit, so I had to shut down the entire house.
Depending on the building code / age of house it may or may not be on an individual circuit.
I think newer homes don’t so there’s one less point of failure that can prevent them for going off in a fire. I could be wrong though.
Mine were Kidde as well. They were installed by my dad maybe 17 years ago when he built the home. I eventually found the breaker after a fun game of yelling “Is the light on?” I laughed when I found out it was on the same breaker as the septic aerator (which I had apparently also attached to a garage circuit overhead for work lights and ceiling outlets for tools due to the wall circuit overloading). Fun fact for the people who may not be familiar with septic aerators - when they lose power they have a box on a separate circuit for the failure alarm (which isn’t very loud but annoying af).
When done replacing your smoke detector, be sure to give me the spent one.
Mmm, yummy americium.
Living in a country where smoke detectors basically don’t exist and house fires are extremely rare (rare, not nonexistent, we had a pretty terrible fire in a bar on silvester) I always wonder if we are just stupid for not having them or why there are so many in places like the USA.
I’d say stupid. I live in a country where most houses are brick walls + concrete floors, and smoke detectors are still common + since a few years also mandated by the government.
The government mandate came after it was found that of the dozens of people that died every year from house fires, 95% suffocated in their sleep.
Some numbers for my region: ~7m population, 70% of houses had smoke detection before the mandate, on average 63 died per year from house fires.
Some incorrect approximative math: Lets assume that the amount of dead could have been halved if those 30% houses had 2 smoke detectors per person (lets say 2 cheap ones for 2x20 euros per 10 years): 7m x 0.3 x 2 x 20€ /10 /63 x2 = a cost of 267€ per year per life saved. Imo that’s a no brainer, it’d be stupid to not invest in smoke detection.
We had 0.2 deaths / 100k population but I feel stupid for not having one. You are right, they cost basically nothing for some piece of mind.
Plus new smoke detectors are usually also carbon monoxide detectors. So you get twice the peace of mind, cause carbon monoxide is a silent killer. It has no color, no odor, no warning signs at all. It’s happened where a whole family goes to bed and doesn’t wake up.
That we actually have. Our apartment has ventilation (not sure if that is the right word, it replaces the air continuous with fresh air from the outside) and integrated into that system is a carbon monoxide detector.
What is even crazier in my opinion is that you can get poisened by smoke while sleeping as you usually don’t smell smoke during sleep.
I guess I’ll get some of those 20 buck ones, they just need to spot something burning.
Other countries use less flammable materials in their construction. Wood frame construction is very common in the US due to drastically lower cost of wood vs block. We also had something called balloon frame construction for many years which made it much more likely for fire to travel within the walls. That being said not having detectors isn’t a great idea either since most are combo smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
combo smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
In Mexico/central america they don’t shut the windows with the heater on like we do in the cold north.
I live in Latin America and I don’t even have a heater. My climate control options are “window open” and “window closed.”
Aaaaaaaand let me tell you, I had a sleepless night last night knowing there were no detectors installed.
This seems really weird. Smoke detectors are important, but the odds of a fire any given night are incredibly low. To me, replacing a detector would be a chore I’d get to within a week, and I definitely wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
Reminds me of this, couldn’t find the OG image unfortunately.
Hate it when people overlay unnecessary text, I guess it’s for the simpletons
There are no gangsters here. You do not know what that word means.
You mean those things that make noise when I don’t want them to?
Yeah, I removed the batteries.
Dying from smoke inhalation in my sleep sounds like one of the easier ways to go.
If your smoke detectors go off when you are cooking, then the smoke detectors are too close to the kitchen. At least where I live, building code mandates one smoke detector in each bedroom, one in each hallway leading to a bedroom, and at least one smoke detector on each floor of the home. Generally, avoid placing smoke detectors near kitchens or exterior windows which, when open, are right next to a grill or other cooking appliance. Otherwise you’re going to be getting a lot of false positives.
The closest detector to the kitchen was in a bed room.
There had been a different detector in the living room but had gotten knocked down a while ago and broke (and never replaced), it was not on the interlink system, and when the other detectors would go off while cooking the one in the living room would not.
As you can see from my image, the detectors I replaced were from 2005, and needed replacing for quite some time.
Such a waste. Especially when the detector has WiFi in it. Gotta be a better way to do this.
The ones we have installed respond to IR signals from your TV remote. It doesn’t matter what button you use on the remote, just point the remote at the smoke alarm and it will turn off
This is only true for the Americium based smoke detectors. The newer photoelectric cell fire detectors don’t decay like Americium detectors, and as long as you replace the battery it’ll be good for however long it’s internal components (capacitors and whatnot) will last.
Technology Connections has a good video about this subject:
I was about to link to the same video. From what I remember though both types have strength and weaknesses in regards to the type of fire.
Edit: watched it again so ionization smoke detectors are better at detecting active fire, although his conclusion is that the benefit is not as big and overall photoelectric ones are better.
This is plain WRONG and DANGEROUS.
The issue is NOT the Americum but the natural degration of the photoelectric cells and the accumulation of dirt within the test chamber.
Even before that time the risk for false alarms is increased substantially by degration before the chances for sucessful alarming decrease rapidly. Due to that they actually withstand aging actually worse than ionisation based devices.
Sientific sources?
here.
(Besides: Americum has a decay time of over 400 years,btw)
Your third source is about the 2020 follow-up study of the 2017 study in your first source. You’ve “only” got three independent sources even though it looks like four (“only” in scare quotes because three is still plenty).
A follow up is a absolutely regular thing and does not diminish neither study.
I didn’t say they were diminished. I said they weren’t independent.
A motion to rename every element that’s named after a place. All in favor updoot, all opposed downdoot
Edit your comment and I’ll maybe come back and bother with voting.
*dooting
No vote. Doot!
Okay, let’s start with Helium (named after the sun)
That’s a celestial object, not a place. The sun is traveling at 230 km/s around the galaxy. It’s not a “place.”
The sun is a place. The moon is a place. Earth is a place. A specific location on the earth is also a place.
Anything you insert into a sentence describing the origin point of something traveling is a place.
The half life for americium 241 is like 450 years. The 10 year replacement has nothing to do with decay. It’s just a non specific safety in case any of the electronics or board etc start to fail. Photoelectric detectors have the same 10 year recommendation as a max.
It’s actually recommend by many organizations (like the NFPA) to replace photoelectric detectors more often than ionization detectors, if anything.
It’s tuned to a specific output and isn’t exactly field adjustable. Certainly it will continue to be radioactive long after you’re dead, but that doesn’t mean it will still be working properly.
I know exactly how they work. I’m a firefighter and a hazmat technician. Plus I work on and repair electronics as a hobby. Your smoke detector failing after 10 or 30 years has zero to do with radioactive decay. It’s from contamination (dust) and sensor degradation. Once the metal plates inside get enough buildup from dust (like smoke dust and regular dust) and contamination from humidity, the charge that’s supposed to be detected between those plates from the ionization stays lower all the time. That means less actual “smoke” is needed to drop it below the threshold. This happens MUCH faster than radioactive decay reducing what it will ionize.
According to the one i just had to replace, combo carbon monoxide detectors need to be replaced. I don’t know how the carbon monoxide part works, but i wonder if it’s a reagent or something.
Alec in his own video mentions that the issue isn’t that the Americium decays, but that the electronics themselves age and fail, which applies to both the ionization detectors and photoelectric detectors.
This is one of the things you just don’t wanna mess with, as such a failure is completely unpredictable, and from what I know some manufacturers are even beginning to make detector units with non-replaceable batteries, intended to be replaced whole when the battery dies after years of runtime, to make it impossible to keep using a detector after its rated lifetime.
I know some manufacturers are even beginning to make detector units with non-replaceable batteries, intended to be replaced whole when the battery dies after years of runtime, to make it impossible to keep using a detector after its rated lifetime.
I’m sure that’s the reason say they do it, but that smells like standard corporate planned obsolescence and profit seeking with a great PR team.
Yes, but no. You really should replace your detectors every decade. They will likely work perfectly for twice that, but is it worth the risk over like $100 in smoke detectors?
So it does sort of force you to replace it after a decade, but you should anyhow.
It’s also well worth it, because getting on a chair or ladder and buying new overpriced 9v batteries every year (if you’re all proper about changing them) is a pain in the ass compared to once a decade. The more of a pain it is to get to your detectors, the more a 10 year one becomes worth it.
You’re supposed to hit your test button once a month to check their functions, but I dont think anyone anywhere actually does that. If they tell me they do I’ll just assume they’re a liar.
And if you live for rent, at least over here in Germany your landlords are obliged to replace them regularly, but like you say that just means they’ll replace them with previous ones that have been checked and had batteries replaced.
Hehe.
You want to bet your life on that? You want to bet the life of your kids on that?
This is anecdotical but I moved into an apartment with a 30 year old ionizing smoke detector, and the failure was it was too sensitive, I assume because there were less electrons being emitted from the radioactive element, any faint smoke caused it to go off. Eventually it got into a state where it would always be in an alert state, and was beeping 100% of the time, which was when the landlord finally replaced it.
My assumption with the 10 year replacement recommendation for Americium based smoke detectors is to replace it before it becomes too sensitive and annoying, because they were worried some people would remove the battery and just live without an active smoke detector.
There’s no radiation drop after just 30 years from americium 241. It has a 450 year half life. After decades electric components start to fail and\or things get dirty. After 30 years of getting smoke in it, there was probably a layer of dust\smoke over where the radiation is at that were blocking some of the radiation all the time, that made it more sensitive.
Same issues will happen with photoelectric detectors. It’s recommended to replace both types after no longer than 10 years. I have no idea where the person you responded to got the information about them not needing replaced as often as ionization detectors. If anything, it’s actually the opposite.
You should know I passive aggressively want to die.
That’s a reasonable reaction to the current state of things.
But are you fine with dying from burning or smoking inhalation?
Smoke inhalation yes burning no
Better by fire than by ICE.
I’m genuinely curious: why do you need smoke detectors? I’m asking as an european that has lived without them all their life in more than one country. They are not mandatory here and not even common. What’s the reason to install ther? (I know the reason is to detect smoke, I’m asking the underlying reason behind the need to detect smoke)
In Germany they are mandatory for a while now. And at least my landlord sends a company to check if they still work every year, so I assume that’s mandatory too.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347808687_Analysis_of_the_effectiveness_of_the_smoke_alarm_obligation_-_Experiences_from_practice has an overview of the regulations and an analysis of the impact in Germany.
sends a company to check if they still work every year
Wtf, isn’t it just pressing a button…? Though I guess you avoid the risk of people forgetting.
It’s also required in Sweden, but the building owner is responsible for installation, whereas the people living there are responsible for testing that it still works.
The main goal is probably to have documentation proving it was checked, but the technician is also responsible to fix any issues. I already had one smoke detector replaced because the noise level was a bit below what it should be.
Possibly a difference in construction materials. Most stuff in the US is made of wood and other flammable materials. From what I understand, brick/stone based materials are the most common in European buildings.
Wood as a construction material is not really the problem, it burn fairly slow. The problem is our furniture and other stuff changed from wood to MDF and petroleum based based products, reducing the time you have to react from 15 minutes to 3 minutes.
If you look at a map of where smoke detectors are mandatory and where not in the EU, it’s more about rich vs poor: https://www.q-certified.eu/en/smoke-detector-legislation-in-the-european-union/
Nah, OP is just a troll. Most European countries by now have legislation to mandate them or are currently introducing these. All of them heavily advise them.
If you are asleep and your house catches fire, the idea is that the smoke detector will wake you up with enough time hopefully to escape the fire. That is really their primary purpose.
Some European countries do require them. Germany and Britain require smoke detectors in all residential buildings, for example.
Here in France rentals must have them, I believe. But I’ve never known anybody whose home caught fire. Maybe it has to do with building materials and regulations? In my région buildings are stone. My house had 90cm-thick granite walls. Radon is a bigger concern than fire.
Also in Italy, it’s rare for houses to catch fire.
But even if you live in a house made of concrete (Le Corbusier would be proud), things inside of the apartment can still catch fire.
Detect fires, save lives.
They prevent death.
They are mandatory in Ireland, so please stop the “Europe” stuff.
House fires were a huge cause of death and in apartment blocks they also can let one person’s mistake kill hundreds of others.
They are mandatory in Ireland, so please stop the “Europe” stuff.
I haven’t said they are not mandatory in Europe. I have said that I am European and haven’t seen them in the countries I lived in.
Tell me, are Spain and Italy countries that for some reason disqualify you from being European or did you just have a rough morning?
No but it isn’t wise to generalise two of Europe’s less… regulated countries to just “Europe”. Pretty much every European country north of the Alps and west of the Vistula have mandatory smoke alarms/fire detection. It’s not a mystery why. 5000 Europeans a year die in residential fires and social housing, ie paid for by the tax payers, is disproportionately damaged by fire every year.
You can say where you’re from. Nobody’s coming to find you.
And yes, I’m probably more emotive about this issue than average. I’m sure that’s not a mystery why either.
I work in EMS. When we respond to house fires in the middle of the night there’s kind of two different ways they go. When people have smoke detectors and their house catches on fire in the middle of the night they’re the ones who call us and we get on scene to find them outside their home in their pajamas, watching their house burn, very shaken up but ok. They never need anything from us ambulance-wise except maybe some blankets. When people don’t have smoke detectors in their homes and they catch on fire in the middle of the night a neighbor or passer-by calls the fire in and we get on scene and the firefighters are dragging bodies out to us.
As I mentioned in another comment, I almost died in a house fire. I had an aerosol can in a pile of clothes that caught fire from a heater, that can exploded and woke me. Otherwise I would have slept through the fire.
Your comment hits me really hard (I am sure not as hard as being on scene where they did not have detectors). But reading some of the dismissive comments I was starting to think I was over reacting, you assured me I was not.
nice try, big detector
I don’t even have smoke detectors. lol
RIP. Please get at least one.
It’s been ~6 years. lol
But it’s not a bad idea. I will.
