To whoever tests their smoke alarms by pressing the button - don't. I've got one that bleeps when you press test, but fails to sound an alarm when smoke is blown directly into it!
Roll up a piece of A4, light the end, then blow it out. Waft the smoke into the alarm.
A lot of the problems like this are due to dust etc getting into the guts>
Brian
That is entirely consistent with Home Office tests. Smoke from burnt then extinguished paper, candle, taper, string, rope and matches were all found to be ineffective in up to 97% of tests. You need proper smoke matches to produce enough smoke to simulate fire conditions and to trigger the alarm, although there are also aerosol test sprays that will trigger the alarm and that don't smell.
Colin Bignell
OTOH a shower with the bathroom door sets ours off, or chip frying, as indeed did a log that rolled off the fire into the hearth..thank heavens. Not that it would have set fire to anything but it filled the room with smoke (no one was in it at the time).
What type of detector and how old also makes a difference.
This is a brand new smoke alarm. I even tried adjusting the sensitivity with a POT I found inside. It's now in the recycle bin.
Not good enough. If paper catches fire, I want to know about it. I filled this detector with smoke and it ignored me completely. The other two I bought work fine.
Toast is better. B-)
It's a (the name escapes me - the one that isn't ionisation). And so is another which works fine. And so is an ionisation one too.
All three are brand new.
I have a toasted sandwich maker and it always gets left on for 3 hours afterwards. Gives the teflon a good clean though!
Return it for a replacement then!
It was free. It was lost in the post so I was refunded long ago. It finally arrived and was crap.
Anyway my point is that you can't trust the test button - I bet you it just sounds the piezo!
Just give my missus a call.....She can set of *Next doors* alarm when cookin :-)
ROFL!
Then buy a fire detector, not a smoke detector. Generally, paper produces relatively little smoke when it burns.
You got a better rate of success with burning paper than the Home Office tests.
Colin Bignell
Opening the oven tends to (a) not produce very much smoke unless you've burnt something and (b) set smoke alarms off.
Neil
It does, however, release particulates that will be picked up by some types of detector and have the same effect as smoke.
Which is what the silence button is for on some kitchen specific alarms.
Colin Bignell
Have you asked yourself just what you get for less than a fiver in B&Q?
I set light to a rolled up piece of A4, then blew it out, there was a LOT of smoke. And the other two detected it just fine.
Just burning they wouldn't work, but when you blow it out there is smoke. Much more than a match.
It was actually 99p each. And two of three worked.
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