Smoke alarms & humidity

[Liz]

Greg - LOL! What kind of detectors do you have?

aloha, Liz

"The best things in life aren't things."

[Lokahi]

Liz - all quiet last night which makes my old heart happy...no need for defibrilators...try six alarms at 3am! As said we did the compressed air...flushed out a few gnats. Friend on mainland still seeking names/models etc for detectors more humidity tolerant...and pitching we install a nice sprinkler system of course. If we locate a cure will surely post here.

[Liz]

Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!
They all went off again last night! Twice!! Then each time they'd stop all by themselves - weird. Thank goodness there were no guests here at the time.

Mike unplugged them all (since they weren't blinking their code that's supposed to let you know which one started all the racket) and took out the batteries and then after our hearts stopped racing, we got some more sleep. Not particularly humid this time (we've been closing up at night), no smoke, no aerosols, no vog, newish batteries...

So my question is this: Does anybody know of any brand of smoke detector that will last for at least a year WITHOUT going off for NO reason? In other words, is there a reliable brand that won't scare the bejeezees out of our guests and me?

aloha, Liz

"The best things in life aren't things."

[Seeb]

There is a lot of electronic interference here. higher power stuff ( i.e. navy )can set off some types of detectors.

[roseroo14]

How did we ever survive before we had the rule makers tell us how to live? Smoke detectors with AC hard wire and DC batt back up, my God I’m sure that I sleep better than my grandparents did. When they went to bed I’m sure that their biggest fear was that they would be burned up in their sleep because they didn’t have some high-tech device protecting them.

Take the batteries out and turn the breaker off, now go to bed and have a good night sleep. Chances are that you will wake up tomorrow in good shape.

The Lack

[mgeary]

Speaking from experience, smoke detectors actually do save lives, Lack. Maybe not mine, maybe not tonight, but they actually do save lives. You can throw yours away, and statistically, you're right, you'll probably wake up tomorrow just fine. But the same is true for seat belts, SkilSaw blade protectors, and other safety devices. They're kind of a pain in the arse until you need one, then you're really glad you had it.

The cheepie $10-15 smoke detector units, with a GOOD BATTERY, seem to cause lots fewer problems than the more expensive hard wired models.

Aloha! ;-)

[Bob Orts]

quote:

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Originally posted by mgeary

Speaking from experience, smoke detectors actually do save lives, Lack.

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Yeah, they always seem a nuisance until the day they are needed and work.

I think the ac wired ones are considered a bigger problem because when one goes off they all should go off because they are interconnected. I know at my house a battery one would be useless because I wouldn't hear a single detector in the basement on the second floor.

People can disconnect them if they like, but the day they were needed is the day the next of kin wished they weren’t.

FYI smokes should be replaced every 10 years and some recommend changing it once every 5 years if humidity, dust, dander, or insects are a problem.

[Menehune]

Aloha - Liz!

I am sure you have googled smoke detectors - reviews and such.
As has been mentioned check for insects.
Also, using the "canned air" for computers has a side effect - it is condensed CO2 or similar and not only blows stuff away but literally freezes what you are spraying as well. As you hold the can and spray you will feel it getting cold - which means you are introducing more moisture and humidity to the problem - make sure you allow enough time for the condensation to dissipate and the apparatus to return to ambient temperature before plugging it in.
As you can tell by the responses there is really not much you can do but replace the offending detector or all of them. It is truly a hit or miss proposition.
The upside of AC direct wire is they work as long as you have power -downside - no power - no worky.
The AC direct with battery backup is a coin toss - some will go off if the battery is low - some will go off only if you lose power and the battery is low - you MUST read the instructions BEFORE you buy or install ANY replacement detector.
"False" alarms are the smoke detector industry's #1 complaint and the possible causes vary tremendously - so far there is no "perfect" smoke detector - I have seen $10 and $25 detectors fail right out of the box and caused me hours of frustration (was it my installation or the detector).
I maintained 85 vacation rentals - plugged garbage disposals and smoke detectors where the two most common early evening/late night complaints.





"Each thing I do I rush through so I can do something else" - Cemetery Nights/Stephen Dobyns

[Bullwinkle]

Replace with heat rise detectors, rather than smokes - solved my problem. Went through the drill every humid spell until I changed em out

[Liz]

Thanks everybody, for all your responses and ideas. This is what I love about Punaweb!

Some of these ideas we've done, some we'll look into further I guess.
I wish we could just unplug them all, and if it was just the 2 of us we probably would do that, but with the vacation rental side, we have to have smoke detectors, darn it. We sure aren't going to make that kind of decision for our guests (or their relatives).

I'm intrigued by the heat rise detectors, but Mike thinks they may not be a legal replacement (again, with the liability side of things). Anybody know for sure?

aloha, Liz

"The best things in life aren't things."