I'm tired of the downstairs smoke detector shouting every time something goes mildly wrong in the kitchen - it's positioned in the hall but seems very sensitive. What's the best type to have near a kitchen and who sells them?
Dave S
We have an optical smoke detector near ours and have no problems. Indeed an ionising one on the upstairs landing will trigger before the optical one which is outside the kitchen door!
It only triggers on visible smoke whereas an ionising one triggers on visible and invisible smoke. House fires generally produce visible smoke whereas cooking produces invisible smoke, even before the food is actually burning.
We bought ours from Lidl for £3.99 about two years ago..
sPoNiX
Well, IN a kitchen a heat rise detector is recommended...but I'm not entirely sure if it's a good idea in a circulation area. They are more expensive....!
Comments, anyone?
You supposed to use a heat sensor in the kitchen, and an optical on the same floor in the hallway as far from the kitchen door as possible, but away from any dead space near walls.
I have this arrangement, with ionisation types upstairs. The only time they have gone off is when tested or when the toaster set itself on fire.
The most common type are ionisation types, but these aren't suitable for near kitchens. All smoke detectors should really be mains operated with battery backup and linked by cable to set all off simultaneously.
Christian.
I use an ionising type with a button that switches off the alarm if it goes off ...
Yes, but such an installation doesn't comply with building regulations.
Tests have shown that warning devices with significant chance of false alarms do not invoke suitable behaviour patterns in the occupants. In the case of smoke alarms, the reaction is "the ****ing alarm's gone off again!" rather than "let's get the **** out of here!". Think the boy who cried wolf.
Besides, the button annoyingly beeps extremely loudly for ten minutes, even if there is no smoke, encouraging battery removal.
Having had my smoke detectors installed for 6 months without a single false alarm and one genuine one, I'm very likely to take it VERY seriously if it goes off.
Christian.
In message , Christian McArdle writes
So how do you identify which sensor has been set off?
Say, for instance you have a wastepaper basket fire in the back bedroom. If you only have one sensor going off, you can locate the fire and deal with it more quickly than if you had to check every room, thus gaining potentially valuable seconds.
I wrote a FAQ a while back which can be found on:
The Ionisation alarm described does meet requirements of Bldg Regs for New Build; the button you refer to does not turn off alarm, but is a HUSH button that densensitises alarm electronics for approx 7 minutes.
Saying that, an Optical, sometimes called Photo, are best for locations near Steam.Ion for upstairs/living areas, and generally react quicker.
See
They are still inappropriate for a kitchen, even with a hush button. An excerpt from Building Regulations Approved Document B (Fire Safety).
B1.16 Smoke alarms should not be fixed next to or directly above heaters or air conditioning outlets. They should not be fixed in bathrooms, showers, cooking areas or garages, or any other place where steam, condensation or fumes could give false alarms.
Therefore, I think we can safely say that an ionisation type alarm in a kitchen is not permitted, hush button or not.
Christian.
The point of the alarms is not to help you put the fire out, but to ensure your life is saved by warning you of the fire. There is plenty of evidence to show that even in a 2 storey house, a smoke alarm going off downstairs will not wake people sleeping in upstairs bedrooms. The obvious problem then is that you would be waiting for the fire to spread to an upstairs alarm before it wakes up the occupants, by which time the primary escape route (stairs to front door for example) may be blocked. Most people (in my experience) care very slightly less about the house burning down, than about dying in their beds because they didn't hear the alarm!
If you really want to know where the fire is then you should go the whole way and fit a proper fire detection system with alarms linked to a zone controller. That way all the alarms go off (thereby saving the peoples lives as required) and provided your controller panel isn't the cause of the fire it will tell you which sensor detected first and which zone the fire/problem is in.
Hope this helps answer your question.
Fash
You have the wrong attitude to survive a house fire. Get out. Stay out. Fire extinguishers are for extinguishing the stairs/door/hallway so you can get out. The only time to attack the fire itself is if it is very small and contained and you have a suitable extinguisher to hand. A household extinguisher will only tackle a tiny fire, which is unlikely to exist unless you were in the room when it started. By the time the alarm goes off in another room, it is probably too late to attack it with those piddly 1kg powder things they sell.
Personally, I have a 6kg ABC powder and a fire blanket in the kitchen, a 9l foam upstairs and a 2kg CO2 standing by when I'm doing "hot" DIY work such as pipe soldering. I would strongly suspect that the fire blanket is the most likely to be used out of all four, followed by the CO2 if the torch set off a joist or something. I know CO2 isn't official suitable for solid fires, but it is far more portable, works on vertical surfaces and would be applied within 3 or 4 seconds of the fire starting. The 9l foam is more likely to be used to smash an escape window than put out the fire!
Christian.
... and you have been trained to use a fire extinguisher.
Fire extinguishers/blankets/etc are remarkably useless in the hands of someone who's never used one before, and you really don't want to be wasting your time doing something useless when you should be getting out. You're probably more likely to spray yourself in the face or with your hand frozen to the extinguisher or end up blowing a small confined fire all over the room than you are to actually put out the fire.
"Stephen Fasham" wrote | geoff wrote | > Say, for instance you have a wastepaper basket fire in the back | > bedroom. If you only have one sensor going off, you can locate | > the fire and deal with it more quickly than if you had to check | > every room, thus gaining potentially valuable seconds. | The point of the alarms is not to help you put the fire out, | but to ensure your life is saved by warning you of the fire. ... | If you really want to know where the fire is then you should | go the whole way and fit a proper fire detection system with | alarms linked to a zone controller.
Fit a sprinkler system and the back bedroom waste bin will be extinguished automatically, possibly before a detector outside the room has been triggered.
Owain
In message , Owain writes
In a small private house?
In message , Christian McArdle writes
That might be received wisdom, but I know that it's not what I would do
Which is why I gave that particular example
Yes, I should get a fire blanket
Bucket of water
In message , Andrew Gabriel writes
Yes, if you don't know how to use one, in a panic situation you're buggered.
When one of my extinguishers needs recharging, I insist on doing it myself.
The last water one cleaned up my bike a treat
It's probably worth asking the technician next time one comes around to your work if you can discharge it yourself, I'm sure he'll be well bored of doing it and it just might give you the experience which would make the difference
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