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Smoke/CO Alarms?

Hoover the spiders out of it.

(Or have the service company change the head, the ultimate solution for the building I live in, where in a cupboard, duly fitted with a detector, horace & boris would move in about this time of year, and cause endless false alarms.)
 
i use these carbon monoxide alarms all the time . had one fail but mostly been very good

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fireangel-...y=&hvtargid=pla-579817863291&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

recently had a house wired with alarms to light fittings that communicate by radio becuase it was 3 storeys high and and less hassle than hard wiring

just having a house rewired now with hard wired alarms and heat alarm to kitchen which is the law now i believe

https://www.fireangel.co.uk/for-professionals/standards-regulations/fire-building-regulations
 
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I buy ones from Wickes which flash every 30 secs to show you that the battery is live. About £20 I think. They have lasted four years so far with no problem.

One on each floor is recommended.
 
stevec67 said:
Yes. Shut the kitchen door.
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Not as simple as that. Despite grilling with the oven door closed and kitchen door closed when I opened the door to take the sausages to the dining room the alarm goes off. There was no obvious smoke in the kitchen.
 
Fireangel ST 622 smoke alarms 10 yr life but they do fail earlier sometimes. Very low false alarms. CO is also fire angel and again no false alarms. BG recommended the CO alarm
 
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Seems like I might solve my problem with the hall smoke alarm by changing the existing ionisation alarm for an optical one.
 
Rug Doc said:
I have a bunch of permantely wired in mains powered Nests.
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I'd love a Nest one but as I live in a block of flats I have to have the one that's prescribed. Having said that, I guess there's nothing to stop me fitting a Nest one as well, although it'd be slightly pointless. I really like my Nest Thermostat, very cool bit of kit.
 
cctaylor said:
Not as simple as that. Despite grilling with the oven door closed and kitchen door closed when I opened the door to take the sausages to the dining room the alarm goes off. There was no obvious smoke in the kitchen.
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Well, that is its job. Now either you have an incredibly sensitive alarm, in which case replace it with one that does the job without being too sensitive, or you have a ventilation issue in the kitchen. Ovens and grills generate smoke. You need to extract it.
 
stevec67 said:
Well, that is its job. Now either you have an incredibly sensitive alarm, in which case replace it with one that does the job without being too sensitive, or you have a ventilation issue in the kitchen. Ovens and grills generate smoke. You need to extract it.
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That, and clean the oven !
 
Carbon Monoxide (CO) detectors have a limited life chemical element -these used to have a 5 year life-newer units will last for 7-10 years. They will then audibly signal end of life -monitored units will also notify your central station of both alarms and end of life conditions. If you are not using a monitored alarm system - I STRONGLY recommend CO alarms that "talk". BEEP-BEEP is all too likely to lead to someone moving into a pool of CO to investigate / a talking CO alarm makes it instantly obvious that it is not a smoke alarm and that you need to NOT enter the area that the alarm is protecting.
There are two types of smoke detectors :a.) Ionization detectors have a limited life and will have a expiration date printed somewhere on them. They are very good at catching fast flash fires ( molotov cocktails , propane or natural gas fires) . b.) Photoelectric detectors basically shine a LED onto a photo sensor -as the light gets obscured ( smoke ,dust,steam,water vapor) - the alarm will trip. Photoelectrics are better at quickly responding to the low flash /high smoke output fires that are the main threat in most household fires (cigarette in couch). If you break a old smoke detector open -you'll see that it resembles a fish's gills. This construction is designed to keep bugs and dust out of the detectors sensing chamber. Unfortunately -this means that if the detector has a reset feature - it is likely to reset and then immediately ( within seconds) go right back into alarm . This is because while the filter arrangement is good at keeping stuff out of the sensing chamber - it's very slow at clearing smoke out of the chamber - this isn't a defect - but sure isn't convenient.
You should have a smoke detector in any room that people sleep in and detectors installed in hallways or stairways that are part of your escape route . I find it interesting that in a lot of households - the kids in the house are a lot more knowledgeable than their parents about what to expect in a residential fire. "Survive Alive" houses are doing some good work.
 
Buy kidde optical detectors. They will detect a smouldering fire in its early stages , whereas as ionisation detector won’t. This is to do with how each type responds to smoke particle sizes . For example optical devices are used in offices, hotel rooms etc. CO detectors will not alert you in the event of a fire.
 
matt j said:
My old man's house has about the same, but then he was a Fireman and a Gas Man so double the paranoia!!
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My best mate is a H&S officer for a group of hospitals, prior to that he was H&S for the Fire Service. I've never seen either a smoke alarm or a CO alarm anywhere in his house, and he has a houseful of old hifi that he collects along with a massive fire load in the form of thousands of records and CDs. Takes all sorts.
 
I guess it resonates a bit more when you're actually pulling dead people from houses, is all I can assume.
 
He's seen his fair share of that, along with picking up body parts from the roads, don't you worry. Still drives a selection of old bangers with bits hanging off.
 
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