Cheap battery operated smoke alarms... grrrr....

[RichardS]

A few months ago I decided that it was prudent to fit a smoke alarm, much against the wishes of SWMBO (it's ugly, if it goes off, I'll hit it with a brush, etc etc).

What I _wanted_ was to get 2 mains interlinked ones with battery backup, and a "shut up" button in case of nuisance tripping due to smoke from grill pans, etc. Ideally, it shoudl have also had a 15 second or so warning that it was about to go off so that it could be overridden before incurring the wrath of SWMBO who might have been asleep in bed whilst I was burning toast...

However, enquiries here, online, in electrical wholesalers, etc, indicated that such a beast did not exist, and for interlinked ones once one had gone off then the other would operate independently and need resetting independently if indeed I could find one with "shut up" button.

So, as a stop gap measure I fitted a cheap battery operated one.

Now, this doesn;'t have an override, so the only way to shut it up is to remove the battery.

When the smoke has cleared, the battery has to be replaced, in which case it will sound for up to 60 seconds. So, replacing the battery late at night isn't an option.

Of course this one now will not shut up at all - have left it for 5 mins and it still continues sounding.

The result? The battery is sitting on the stairs...

Completely useless. In fact, worse than useless - it's modus operandi means that it's more likely to be left disabled than not.

This one's going back, if I can find the invoice.

So, does my ideal out there exist? if not, why the hell not? A product that works in a conceptually perfect way but is impractical or irritating beyond belief in practise is no good whatsoever - surely a pragmatic product that encourages it's proper use rather than complete disablement isn't too much to ask?

As I say, grrrr.....

Richard

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Christian McArdle]

It is not permitted to install smoke alarms near kitchens for this very reason. You should use a mains interlinked heat detector alarm. Then, on the same floor, but far from the kitchen door, fit an optical detector. Use ionisation detectors upstairs. This should prevent accidental operation except in cases where you really would hope it went off.

Christian.

[RichardS]

It's about 4 metres away, in the downstairs hallway at the moment. Of course, the missus never remembers to put the extractor on when grilling things....

Perhaps the optical detector would have been a better bet.

cheers Richard

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Steve]

Our smoke-alarm is in the hallway, just off the kitchen, and sometimes goes off when the grill is being used. A waft of a newspaper underneath it, or even just a hand, always shuts it up.

[Rick Dipper]

i got all 3 in the screwfix catalog and have them in a line on the ceiling. i had a big fire in the grate last week that smoked. they went off, they all shut up when the smoke cleared.

Rick

[SarahH]

just a quick delurk in passing :-) I really got fed up with our smoke alarm going off all the time in our hallway. We've put in a fireangel detector. It goes between your lightbulb and socket. If it goes off by accident you just flip your light switch on and off. Works very well, 'cept the test mode is to turn the lightswitch on and off quickly. if you do that in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping its a bit of a bugger.... SarahH

[Martin]

Had a B&D one some years back, was a right pain in the ... So I bought a decant (Kiddie) combined smoke and Co one, has only once gone-off by accident, when I was soldering some copper pipe up-stairs (so it does work!). Don't but cheapies, good ones don't cost that much more and do a better job.

[Mike Barnard]

Hi.

I'm new to the group but I happen to be a Firefighter. May I take a moment to say to SWAMBO that this could be one of the most important gadgets you ever install? If she cares about her family that is.

"The total number of fires attended increased by 3% to 529,400." It

*can* happen to you.

I have a 'hush' detector downstairs. It sometimes goes off when cooking and I press a button on the alarm to silence it. It beeps once a minute or so for 15 minutes to warn me it is in hush mode, then resets to normal.

I don't know individual brands. Just ensure it has a British standard Kite mark. Got mine from B&Q, about 7 quid, a year or so ago.

Better than none, believe me.

This shouldn't happen. Putting a battery in makes it beep once at the most. I fit loads of detectors for free due to a local fire safety scheme and never has one activated for 60 seconds on fitting a battery.

Sounds like a defective unit.

They're so cheap you shouldn't wait. But invoice or not if you demonstrat instore they should be happy (!) to take it back. :)

Also, ask your local fire station for the number of your fire safety department. They'll be happy to help.

[RichardS]

Well, I think that I'm slowly winning the battle with her - the old one is still installed but currently inoperable. She's not demanded it's removal which is a positive step.

Having read a lot of the posts (thanks, folks) then I'm going to go out and find a much better optical model with a hush function, which should sort out the nuisance tripping. Once she finds that we can have protection without the tripping then the next stage of detectors upstairs can be carried out.

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Christian McArdle]

The upstairs ones are more important anyway. They are closer to the bedrooms, so will be heard at night. Smoke rises, so in a real fire, they might even activate earlier than the downstairs ones, even in a downstairs fire.

Christian.

P.S. the beeping of the hush feature must be the most annoying thing ever. Why would I want a 3000dB beep every five seconds to remind me not to set fire to myself, whilst the alarm is in hush mode? It just encourages people to remove batteries instead.

[Pete Cross]

I bought a couple of linked detectors from an alarm specialist shop in Middleton about £ 20 each. Fitted one in shed the other top of landing and connected both to 24 hr loop on house alarm. apart from the landing one telling me occasionaly that the bacon is ready on a Saturday morning they've been no trouble at all. I test twice a year with a smoking candle, NB I also added magnetic door switch on shed to 24hr loop and that used to go off in high winds untill I added an extra shed door twist thing ( don't know what you call 'em, bar of metal; with hole in middle, screw to shed half overlapping door ) near the bottom of the door. These have 5 connections each, ground,+12v,link to next one,and a pair of normally closed contacts for a 24hr loop.

there must be similar readily available if you check out alarm suppliers.