Every time we cook something in the broiler, every smoke
detector in our house goes off. I'm talking detectors on the
first floor in the foyer next to the kitchen, up the stairs
in the second-floor hallway, and up the second flight of
stairs in the attic.

The smoke detectors also go off frequently when we do frying
on the stove top, and even when we reheat partially
eaten casseroles (because the area of the dish that no longer
has casserole in it has little pieces of food that "burn"
while the remaining casserole is reheating).

As a result of all this, we find ourselves removing the
batteries from some of our detectors on a regular basis.
This is Very, Very Bad, but it makes it somewhat easier to
understand all those stories about people who die in fires
because their smoke detectors were missing batteries.

If we leave the batteries in all the time and just press the
little "shut up for ten minutes" button on all the detectors
for each false alarm, there's another problem -- we're
teaching our three young children that they should ignore the
alarms. And, of course, pushing the shut-up button doesn't
help much after the kids are in bed and the alarm has already
woken them up.

Is there any decent solution to this problem? Is there a
smoke / fire / heat detector on the market which is good
enough to detect a real fire soon enough to give good warning
without going off every time we cook dinner?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 13:03:49 +0000 (UTC),
(Jonathan Kamens) wrote:

Every time we cook something in the broiler, every smoke
detector in our house goes off. I'm talking detectors on the
first floor in the foyer next to the kitchen, up the stairs
in the second-floor hallway, and up the second flight of
stairs in the attic.

SNIP

Is there any decent solution to this problem? Is there a
smoke / fire / heat detector on the market which is good
enough to detect a real fire soon enough to give good warning
without going off every time we cook dinner?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Are the detectors wired together with a/c power? In other words, when
you test one, do all the detectors sound off? This is code in my state
for new installations.

It only takes one bad or overly sensitive detector to trigger them
all. It isn't uncommon when you have 6 or 8 detectors to have a bad
one. I had to have one replaced in my newly built home when it started
going off for no reason whatsoever. It is VERY irriitating to have ALL
the detectors screaming repeatedly in the middle of the night!

John

John Davies TLCA 14732
http://home.comcast.net/~johnedavies/
'96 Lexus LX450
'00 Audi A4 1.8T quattro
Spokane WA USA

John Davies writes:
Are the detectors wired together with a/c power?

Nope, they're all independent and battery-powered.

First Alert's Web site claims that they have a dual-mode
(ionization and photoelectric) battery-powered detector which
is smarter about detecting real fires vs. false alarms. Does
anyone have any experience with this detector or another one
like it?

The smoke detectors also go off frequently when we do frying
on the stove top, and even when we reheat partially
eaten casseroles (because the area of the dish that no longer
has casserole in it has little pieces of food that "burn"
while the remaining casserole is reheating).


Maybe the issue isn't the smoke detector, but the exhaust fan on the
stove? Perhaps it's not venting correctly or needs the filter replaced?
Just a thought.

jen

writes:
Maybe the issue isn't the smoke detector, but the exhaust fan on the
stove? Perhaps it's not venting correctly or needs the filter replaced?
Just a thought.

Our kitchen does not exhaust to the outside; perhaps it would
if the house were less than 118 years old. I'm sure if it did
we'd have less of a problem, but this is not really the point.
We're looking for a solution that's less expensive than
remodeling our kitchen.

Jonathan Kamens wrote
Every time we cook something in the broiler, every smoke
detector in our house goes off.
As a result of all this, we find ourselves removing the
batteries from some of our detectors on a regular basis.
This is Very, Very Bad, but it makes it somewhat easier to
understand all those stories about people who die in fires
because their smoke detectors were missing batteries.

Something like 50% of battery operated smoke detectors are inoperative
at any time because of dead or removed batteries. They are not
permitted here in the UK in new builds or rented property.

If we leave the batteries in all the time and just press the
little "shut up for ten minutes" button on all the detectors
for each false alarm, there's another problem -- we're
teaching our three young children that they should ignore the
alarms. And, of course, pushing the shut-up button doesn't
help much after the kids are in bed and the alarm has already
woken them up.
Is there any decent solution to this problem? Is there a
smoke / fire / heat detector on the market which is good
enough to detect a real fire soon enough to give good warning
without going off every time we cook dinner?

You should replace your battery smoke detectors with permanently wired
in, mains powered, interlinked smoke and heat detectors. (Heat
detector in the kitchen, garage, etc, smoke detectors in the bedrooms
and living spaces.) This will reduce the incidence of false alarms.
The hush button in the kitchen will also silence all the alarms for 10
minutes.

You should also look at your kitchen extraction, to prevent the fumes
going anywhere but up the cooker hood and to the outside.

Owain

MOST POPULAR ALARMS are Ionisation; go find an Optical type, aka PHOTOELECTRIC.

Less prone to nuisance alarming.

In UK we only recommend H/alarms in the kitchen; this room
is source of steam/cooking particles that trigger smoke alarms.

(Jonathan Kamens) wrote in message ...
Every time we cook something in the broiler, every smoke
detector in our house goes off. I'm talking detectors on the
first floor in the foyer next to the kitchen, up the stairs
in the second-floor hallway, and up the second flight of
stairs in the attic.

The smoke detectors also go off frequently when we do frying
on the stove top, and even when we reheat partially
eaten casseroles (because the area of the dish that no longer
has casserole in it has little pieces of food that "burn"
while the remaining casserole is reheating).

As a result of all this, we find ourselves removing the
batteries from some of our detectors on a regular basis.
This is Very, Very Bad, but it makes it somewhat easier to
understand all those stories about people who die in fires
because their smoke detectors were missing batteries.

If we leave the batteries in all the time and just press the
little "shut up for ten minutes" button on all the detectors
for each false alarm, there's another problem -- we're
teaching our three young children that they should ignore the
alarms. And, of course, pushing the shut-up button doesn't
help much after the kids are in bed and the alarm has already
woken them up.

Is there any decent solution to this problem? Is there a
smoke / fire / heat detector on the market which is good
enough to detect a real fire soon enough to give good warning
without going off every time we cook dinner?

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

(Owain) writes:
You should replace your battery smoke detectors with permanently wired
in, mains powered, interlinked smoke and heat detectors.

We don't have the money to do this kind of work on our house right
now. We are looking for a more cost-effective solution; the dual-mode
detectors I mentioned in another posting and/or single-mode
photoelectric detectors may be helpful, but I was hoping to get some
feedback here from someone who had solved a problem similar to mine by
installing such detectors.

We'll probably also move the first-floor detector, whether the same
kind or a different one, from the foyer outside the kitchen into the
living room, which isn't in the same air flow and is thus less likely
to be triggered by kitchen fumes. This isn't an option for the second-
or third-floor detectors, though.