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I`m wondering why do some still do not have smoke detectors in their home or appartment,they`re not expansive at a low price of 4 dollars.

so the question is Do you have a smoke detector?

on a side note. It is Alarming (No pun intended) The amount of calls I get from homeowners where I can hear in the background the warning beep of the smoke detector whose battery is weak. I sometimes will mention it, and the homeowner says something like "Oh, I know, eventually I'll replace it." Hmmph. and these are the same fuckwits who will call back three months later with a check from their insurance company made out to us and them. Morons.

We've got one on each floor plus a carbon monoxide detector. The batteries are all good because that beeping irritates the living shit out of me.

Of course I do. It's against building code not to have any in your house in the US.

Yep. There is one in every room of my house.

Two in the home, both of which go off with surprising regularity at even the slightest whiff of smoke, so no worries there. Back in Lancaster, our kitchen smoke alarms were rather worrying, we had three grill fires and one pan fire, one of the former and the latter both had three to four foot flames. Needless to say, we tackled the problem ourselves, but from the smoke alarm? Not a peep. And this smoke alarm was supposed to be flame sensitive. And it was right above the cooker.

Yes, because it's bloody stupid not to. I also have a CO detector too, uh, despite us having central heating.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Yes, because it's bloody stupid no to. I also have a CO detector too, uh, despite us having central heating.

CO can get into you house in more ways than just from your heater. Unless yoiu never use a gas stove(yours is electric) there are potential sources in many placed in the home, water heater comes to mind. It is also a nice forwarning against a for as a CO detector may often go off before the normal fire alarm goes off. You can be surprised how fast CO can build up.

Isolder74 wrote:

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Yes, because it's bloody stupid no to. I also have a CO detector too, uh, despite us having central heating.

CO can get into you house in more ways than just from your heater. Unless yoiu never use a gas stove(yours is electric) there are potential sources in many placed in the home, water heater comes to mind. It is also a nice forwarning against a for as a CO detector may often go off before the normal fire alarm goes off. You can be surprised how fast CO can build up.

Oh yeah, there are other sources since we have gas boilers, but everything else is electric so that threat is minimised along with the chance of a decent meal from the oven.

And since CO is invisible to practically everything bar that sensor, I feel safer having it. It's one of those card jobs, like the radiation badges employees have at Sellafield or Three Mile Island (doubt they need it at Chernobyl). Dad has battery powered ones at home.

Hamel wrote:Yep. There is one in every room of my house.

Ditto, which in my case seems like a bit of overkill. My upstairs bedroom is a loft so the I can see the smoke detector for that room and the one for my main (living room/kitchen) at the same time. They are probably only 10 or so feet apart.


My smoke detectors have batteries but they are also hard wired into the house's electrical system. Which is good because the last time I tried to change the batteries I couldn't get the cover off of all of the smoke detectors.

Nope.

Yes. Although 9 times out of 10, it's triggered by some cooking-related mishap, it just might come in handy if there actually is a fire.

Old house had detectors wired into the electrical system, but I don't think they had batteries... Haven't lived in this house long enough to have to change.

The_Lumberjack wrote:Two in the home, both of which go off with surprising regularity at even the slightest whiff of smoke, so no worries there. Back in Lancaster, our kitchen smoke alarms were rather worrying, we had three grill fires and one pan fire, one of the former and the latter both had three to four foot flames. Needless to say, we tackled the problem ourselves, but from the smoke alarm? Not a peep. And this smoke alarm was supposed to be flame sensitive. And it was right above the cooker.

There are actually two types of fire alarms - one detects smoldering fires that produce smoke and such, the other detects hot (bright) fires. Most fire alarms do not have both functions built in.

Oops. I voted no when we do. Sorry.

Quite a few, though since we run a bed and breakfast we really need to have them, as well as dozens of fire extinguishers.

A few, actually.

SirNitram found out we had them when the one in our neighbor's apartment went off (burnt french toast, I'm told), and it was loud enough to wake poor Nitram up. It didn't help that they neightbors couldn't figure out how to turn it off

LadyTevar wrote:SirNitram found out we had them when the one in our neighbor's apartment went off (burnt french toast, I'm told), and it was loud enough to wake poor Nitram up. It didn't help that they neightbors couldn't figure out how to turn it off

Let me guess, you slept through it all...

InnerBrat wrote:

LadyTevar wrote:SirNitram found out we had them when the one in our neighbor's apartment went off (burnt french toast, I'm told), and it was loud enough to wake poor Nitram up. It didn't help that they neightbors couldn't figure out how to turn it off

Let me guess, you slept through it all...

It was my day off, she was at work.

Pop quiz: Your smoke detector goes off after you burned toasts,how do you stop it?

Montcalm wrote:Pop quiz: Your smoke detector goes off after you burned toasts,how do you stop it?

Take out the battery. Duh.

Montcalm wrote:Pop quiz: Your smoke detector goes off after you burned toasts,how do you stop it?

I just wave a towel at it for a few minutes. That seems to quiet it.

In the apartment I used to live in, the smoke detector worked great, so great in fact that every time to took a hot shower and left the door open it would go off, and it had no easy off button (one had to smother it with a towel).

However it didn't keep such a high standard of success with real smoke. Once my brother placed a heavy lid over a heavy pot with grease in it. With liberal application of heat over several minutes the grease began to burn. Being the health oriented person my brother is, he removed the cover, instantly filling the apartment with thick smoke. Smoke so thick, that near the pot you could not see more than 3 feet. Though less dense over by the "detector" it was still thick. It reacted rather predictably, nobly warning everyone with its glossy stare, as it sat, perched in silence.


Interestingly, in the apartment I now live in, has no visible detectors, but lots of fire sprinklers.

Even if my dorm didn't have one, I would install one. They are just plain smart.