Smoke Alarm Li-Ion Battery. Bucket Of Water Approach To Stop Ringing ?

Hi, Happy Holidays.

Would like your opinions on this.

Got my son and daughter-in-law a First Alert Smoke/CO alarm for their house.

They are both as non-technical as you can imagine.

Thought a bit about what to tell them to do if the Alarm goes off, falsely. Apparently, this is a fairly "common" occurrence.

Alarm has a 10 year, non-replaceable, sealed battery.

Did a Google search, and these batteries are apparently Li-Ion.

The alarm also has a small slider switch, with a break-away tab in the back, to permanently disable the battery, and any ringing.

My guess is that at 3:00 AM, it's not a very good option for them to start playing with.

So, I told them to just dump it in a bucket of water.

But, having found out that it is a Li-Ion battery, this doesn't sound like a good idea anymore. Explosion hazard in water, etc. ?

Any thoughts on this bucket of water approach, etc. ? Other ?

Thanks, Bob

Reply to
Bob
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How about just "remove the battery"?

Reply to
Bill

I don't think putting the smoke alarm in a bucket of water is a good idea. I have installed these types of alarms. The battery is not serviceable or accessible.

I think that some of these models have a hush feature for false alarms. You just have to push the test button and it gives you a few minutes of delay. Check the instructions.

I seem to recall that the disable switch is to be used at the end of the smoke alarm's useful life before disposal.

John Grabowski

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Reply to
John G

Why isn't anytime a good time to use the switch? I'm assuming the case you're talking about is where the alarm goes nuts for no reason and won't stop sounding. In that case, the switch sure seems like an easier option than looking for a bucket of water.

I haven't heard of any Li-ion batteries exploding in water.

Reply to
trader_4

Hammer

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

The potential problem is for non-technical people finding the switch at

3 AM. AFAIK, water should not be a problem. Better solution may be to buy them a new one in 9 years.
Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Why do you think it will malfunction. I think that is pretty darn rare.

If the alarm goes off at 3AM, they should assume tthere is a fire or CO.

I had a neighbor whose smoke alarm kept going off for days or weeks, and he finally took it somewhere to be repaired (so I was told. maybe he just removed it). Not too long after something burst into flames and

1/4 or 1/2 of the inside of house was destroyed. Fortunately no one was injured, or at least no one was killed. There had been smoke that entire time that the detector detected, but that the people couldn't smell. Of course they should have gotten another detector when they removed that one, but I would not assume it's defective.

I doubt it, because Li batteries explode when they get too hot, from either sending power out or taking it in too fast. . There's no reason water woudl make either of these happen** and more importantly it would cool anything that got hotter than the water.

**Unless maybe it was salt water and made a decent conductor.

However you may ruin the detector and it might not have been bad.

Put the thing in the refrigerator and you will barely hear it even when you're in the kitchen. It will probably stop too, because it's shielded from what ever smoke or CO was causing it to go off. . Then take it out in the morning, take it outside and see if it starts up again. If it doesn't it's probably good (because the batteries will sound much longer than one night) Then take it to the same location it was in and see if it goes off then. If it does you have a real problem.

Reply to
micky

snipped good advice.

If you failed to teach your son basic home safety, you should take a do-over! You don't have to be technical to understand that your first priority when the alarm goes off is to get the $^% out of the house. Defeating the alarm is the last thing you should do.

I bet that if you asked nicely, the fire department would come over and do some basic testing with calibrated equipment for free.

Avoiding false alarms is a high priority for detector vendors. Yes, they can break, but it's very unlikely. If it goes off, get out!

I have an air quality particle counter. I've done some experiments with smoke. The particle counter detects a lot of particles long before the smoke detector alarms. I've found overheated components in computers when I couldn't smell anything. Did I mention, if it goes off, get the hell out?

Reply to
mike

Good grief. Give people some benefit of intelligence. From the post, it's clear he's talking about a malfunctioning alarm. And IDK about you, but mine go off occasionally and I don't run out of the house like a little girl. I find out what triggered it, if it's real, etc.

Sure, at 3AM when an alarm is malfunctioning and there is no fire, call the fire dept!

Yes, run like a little girl!

Yes, now run along, this forum is for people who aren't afraid of their own shadow.

Reply to
trader_4

I see no evidence that it's a malfunctioning alarm. Statistically, it's more likely to be smoke or CO just below the threshold that spikes for some reason.

Disabling the alarm without finding the reason is evidence of lack of good sense.

And IDK about

My CO detector went off once. I know it was the detector because the reading was off scale and the other detectors read zero. I did not put it in a bucket of water and go back to sleep without investigating.

That's not what I recommended. Should have been done the first time it went off. BUT, I expect that they would at least give you advice at 3AM.

EXACTLY! If you don't know what you're doing, get the hell out. Run down to the store ASAP and get a new one. Your old one is either useless or you will have evidence that it was a good idea to get out.

Graveyards are full of people who thought they were really smart.

Reply to
mike

This paragraph refers to when one is cooking and he's burning the grease in the oven, or I suppose on the stove, and he knows the origin of the smoke.

Reply to
micky

Me too. I thought it sort of silly when my brother gave me a CO detector, but it went off one night. Somehow I either knew or suspected it was the oil furnace. I turned off the heat and opened the window, and I couldn't decide when to close the window. It was gettting colder in my bedroom and with no furnace, there woudl be nothing to reverse that. I guess I waited a half-hour.

Later the repairman took apart the flue and the six-inch pipe had 2" of soot lining it, leaving just a 2" diameter path for exhaust gases. He vacuumed it out. This might have been the time I thought I could adjust the air intake for the furnace. But it took weeks or months for the flue to get so clogged that the alarm went off. I never had any symptoms, headache, etc. before then. I might have had a little headache that night, I can't remember.

In almost all places, if you call the fire department at 3AM with a question like this, they will show up with at least 4 men and one engine. You probably have to beg them not to come and if you've already said the smoke/CO detector is sounding, I think they'll come anyhow.

Does it make a different sound for CO and smoke? When people are alarmed, will they remember which sound is which? Does it display something to indicate which it is, and if the detector is near the ceiling, can someone see what it displays? My detectors are 2 separate things so it's clear which is going off, but I'd be willing to buy a combo if I was sure these questions would not be a p[roblem.

Reply to
micky

If fire, can smell smoke. If CO, oh for goodness sake, boilers exhaust the gases into the outside world, not into the house. You don't need a CO alarm.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

Not if you're asleep. And not if you're not home, as in the case of the neighbor whose alarm had been going off occasionally for weeks.

Really, so no one ever dies of CO? I guess those news stories are early examples of Fake News. or maybe some people don't use boilers? or boilers can break.

Reply to
micky

That is a scary opinion.

Reply to
Thomas

Is your boiler exhaust inside the house? Only really old fires did that.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

I was talking about determining if there was a fire or if the alarm was broken.

And put CO outside.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

If the CO alarm goes off, the answer might well be yes. Things don't always work the way they should. We call that BROKEN. Your advice turns broken into DEAD.

Reply to
mike

Your boiler cannot break that badly.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

Maybe you're right...maybe. But, that's not the issue. If the CO alarm goes off, GET THE HELL OUT anyway.

Reply to
mike

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