Yesterday while cooking I set off the smoke detector, no I did not burn anything. They go off when I cook over a high heat. And yesterday once they started going off they would not stop. I ended up having to disconnect them all (they are hard wired with an interconnect) and I replaced them this morning. Aaaaaaaand let me tell you, I had a sleepless night last night knowing there were no detectors installed.

https://www.southernliving.com/how-often-should-you-replace-smoke-detectors-8774122

Yeah, that's when I replaced mine, too. When they became too sensitive. They lasted about 16 years.

You should know I passive aggressively want to die.

The ones we have installed respond to IR signals from your TV remote. It doesn't matter what button you use on the remote, just point the remote at the smoke alarm and it will turn off

This is only true for the Americium based smoke detectors. The newer photoelectric cell fire detectors don't decay like Americium detectors, and as long as you replace the battery it'll be good for however long it's internal components (capacitors and whatnot) will last.

Technology Connections has a good video about this subject:

https://youtu.be/DuAeaIcAXtg

I was about to link to the same video. From what I remember though both types have strength and weaknesses in regards to the type of fire.

Edit: watched it again so ionization smoke detectors are better at detecting active fire, although his conclusion is that the benefit is not as big and overall photoelectric ones are better.

I don't even have smoke detectors. lol

That's a reasonable reaction to the current state of things.

That's not something I knew, thanks for that!

I'm genuinely curious: why do you need smoke detectors? I'm asking as an european that has lived without them all their life in more than one country. They are not mandatory here and not even common. What's the reason to install ther? (I know the reason is to detect smoke, I'm asking the underlying reason behind the need to detect smoke)

Possibly a difference in construction materials. Most stuff in the US is made of wood and other flammable materials. From what I understand, brick/stone based materials are the most common in European buildings.

According to the one i just had to replace, combo carbon monoxide detectors need to be replaced. I don't know how the carbon monoxide part works, but i wonder if it's a reagent or something.

If your smoke detectors go off when you are cooking, then the smoke detectors are too close to the kitchen. At least where I live, building code mandates one smoke detector in each bedroom, one in each hallway leading to a bedroom, and at least one smoke detector on each floor of the home. Generally, avoid placing smoke detectors near kitchens or exterior windows which, when open, are right next to a grill or other cooking appliance. Otherwise you're going to be getting a lot of false positives.

This is anecdotical but I moved into an apartment with a 30 year old ionizing smoke detector, and the failure was it was too sensitive, I assume because there were less electrons being emitted from the radioactive element, any faint smoke caused it to go off. Eventually it got into a state where it would always be in an alert state, and was beeping 100% of the time, which was when the landlord finally replaced it.

My assumption with the 10 year replacement recommendation for Americium based smoke detectors is to replace it before it becomes too sensitive and annoying, because they were worried some people would remove the battery and just live without an active smoke detector.

Detect fires, save lives.

If you are asleep and your house catches fire, the idea is that the smoke detector will wake you up with enough time hopefully to escape the fire. That is really their primary purpose.

Some European countries do require them. Germany and Britain require smoke detectors in all residential buildings, for example.

But are you fine with dying from burning or smoking inhalation?

Smoke inhalation yes burning no

The closest detector to the kitchen was in a bed room.

There had been a different detector in the living room but had gotten knocked down a while ago and broke (and never replaced), it was not on the interlink system, and when the other detectors would go off while cooking the one in the living room would not.

As you can see from my image, the detectors I replaced were from 2005, and needed replacing for quite some time.

nice try, big detector

And please check them to see if they are safe to throw in the trash before you do. Some of them contain small amounts of really nasty stuff. Even the hazardous waste dropoff on my county was reluctant to take a batch from me. They said “you’re really supposed to send those back to the manufacturer.” But they did eventually take them.

They make ones now with an internal battery that lasts 10 years. No more chirping and swapping 9V batteries.

It sucks ass. I've gone through about 5 of them well short of 10 years. I do see that this brand released a new version, but this is the one I had. Absolute garbage. They kept giving false positives, and they have no replaceable batteries so they just become E-waste after you disable them. This is the one I had.

https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Kidde-10-Year-Worry-Free-Battery-Smoke-and-Carbon-Monoxide-Detector-Photoelectric-Sensor-3-Pack-21029899-3-21029899-3/203534175?

In Germany they are mandatory for a while now. And at least my landlord sends a company to check if they still work every year, so I assume that's mandatory too.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347808687_Analysis_of_the_effectiveness_of_the_smoke_alarm_obligation_-_Experiences_from_practice has an overview of the regulations and an analysis of the impact in Germany.

that’s my landlord’s problem 😎

Better by fire than by ICE.

I work in EMS. When we respond to house fires in the middle of the night there's kind of two different ways they go. When people have smoke detectors and their house catches on fire in the middle of the night they're the ones who call us and we get on scene to find them outside their home in their pajamas, watching their house burn, very shaken up but ok. They never need anything from us ambulance-wise except maybe some blankets. When people don't have smoke detectors in their homes and they catch on fire in the middle of the night a neighbor or passer-by calls the fire in and we get on scene and the firefighters are dragging bodies out to us.

You know those have a 10 year warranty right? Including the specific model you linked.

https://www.kidde.com/warranty-information

They are mandatory in Ireland, so please stop the "Europe" stuff.

House fires were a huge cause of death and in apartment blocks they also can let one person's mistake kill hundreds of others.

The half life for americium 241 is like 450 years. The 10 year replacement has nothing to do with decay. It's just a non specific safety in case any of the electronics or board etc start to fail. Photoelectric detectors have the same 10 year recommendation as a max.

It's actually recommend by many organizations (like the NFPA) to replace photoelectric detectors more often than ionization detectors, if anything.

Your landlord's responsibility, your problem

A motion to rename every element that's named after a place. All in favor updoot, all opposed downdoot

Here in France rentals must have them, I believe. But I've never known anybody whose home caught fire. Maybe it has to do with building materials and regulations? In my région buildings are stone. My house had 90cm-thick granite walls. Radon is a bigger concern than fire.

They are mandatory in Ireland, so please stop the "Europe" stuff.

I haven't said they are not mandatory in Europe. I have said that I am European and haven't seen them in the countries I lived in.

Tell me, are Spain and Italy countries that for some reason disqualify you from being European or did you just have a rough morning?

don't sweat it. decades ago nobody slept with them and did just fine. you'll be ok for one night.

There's no radiation drop after just 30 years from americium 241. It has a 450 year half life. After decades electric components start to fail and\or things get dirty. After 30 years of getting smoke in it, there was probably a layer of dust\smoke over where the radiation is at that were blocking some of the radiation all the time, that made it more sensitive.

Same issues will happen with photoelectric detectors. It's recommended to replace both types after no longer than 10 years. I have no idea where the person you responded to got the information about them not needing replaced as often as ionization detectors. If anything, it's actually the opposite.

Wood as a construction material is not really the problem, it burn fairly slow. The problem is our furniture and other stuff changed from wood to MDF and petroleum based based products, reducing the time you have to react from 15 minutes to 3 minutes.

If you look at a map of where smoke detectors are mandatory and where not in the EU, it's more about rich vs poor: https://www.q-certified.eu/en/smoke-detector-legislation-in-the-european-union/

Edit your comment and I'll maybe come back and bother with voting.

Mine expired and decided to sing me the song of their people at 4am.

That was an exciting night, I'll tell you that...

It's also important to date the new ones when activated, so that they can be replaced at the appropriate time 10yrs from now, even if it's not you doing it.

It's ok, they can paint over the smoke damage and get a new tenant.

Also in Italy, it's rare for houses to catch fire.

But even if you live in a house made of concrete (Le Corbusier would be proud), things inside of the apartment can still catch fire.

This is plain WRONG and DANGEROUS.

The issue is NOT the Americum but the natural degration of the photoelectric cells and the accumulation of dirt within the test chamber.

Even before that time the risk for false alarms is increased substantially by degration before the chances for sucessful alarming decrease rapidly. Due to that they actually withstand aging actually worse than ionisation based devices.

Sientific sources?

Here

here.

Here

Here

(Besides: Americum has a decay time of over 400 years,btw)

Nah, OP is just a troll. Most European countries by now have legislation to mandate them or are currently introducing these.
All of them heavily advise them.

And if you live for rent, at least over here in Germany your landlords are obliged to replace them regularly, but like you say that just means they'll replace them with previous ones that have been checked and had batteries replaced.

sends a company to check if they still work every year

Wtf, isn't it just pressing a button...? Though I guess you avoid the risk of people forgetting.

It's also required in Sweden, but the building owner is responsible for installation, whereas the people living there are responsible for testing that it still works.

No but it isn't wise to generalise two of Europe's less... regulated countries to just "Europe". Pretty much every European country north of the Alps and west of the Vistula have mandatory smoke alarms/fire detection. It's not a mystery why. 5000 Europeans a year die in residential fires and social housing, ie paid for by the tax payers, is disproportionately damaged by fire every year.

You can say where you're from. Nobody's coming to find you.

And yes, I'm probably more emotive about this issue than average. I'm sure that's not a mystery why either.

Your third source is about the 2020 follow-up study of the 2017 study in your first source. You've "only" got three independent sources even though it looks like four ("only" in scare quotes because three is still plenty).

The main goal is probably to have documentation proving it was checked, but the technician is also responsible to fix any issues. I already had one smoke detector replaced because the noise level was a bit below what it should be.

In fact, smoke alarms with user-replaceable batteries became illegal in Scotland a couple of years ago.

Still waiting to see if the same regulation gets applied across the entire UK, but anecdotally I’ve noticed it’s already much harder to find anything other than 10-year battery or hardwired models in my part of England.