Smoke Detectors

[Kevnool]

I was out at a remote camp when at 4.30 in the morn when 1 faulty alarm went off and since there all connected as one they were all chirping, So without delay i gave the approval to have them all replaced.

Everyone was shirty about being woken up but when they were all replaced that day they were all happy.

So do yourself a favour protect yourself and your family as winter is upon us check your alarms and replace your battery if there not hard wired.

Safety First.. :thumbsup: ..Cheers Kev.

[Glenhuon]

Good advice Kev. For the small cost of them now its priceless insurance.

Bill

[kinetic]

One downside to non-hardwired smokeys on remote sites Kev
is that residents of the units tend to take out the 9v battery and
smoke inside or use it in their walkman etc etc.
More recent transportables have hard wired ones but they can still
open em up.
If caught doing it they are on the first plane home never to return.

Steve

[Dennis]

In our house, we change the batteries annually, on 1st April as it is an easy to remember date in the calendar.

Cheers

Dennis

[acropolite]

Good advice Kev, I installed a fire alarm in a ski chalet over 30 years ago, to date it has saved the building and it's occupants twice after fires accidentally started.

[Ric]

In NSW smoke detectors are compulsory in all houses now.

Not sure about the legislation in other states though.

Cheers

[OneOfOne]

Actually, I just took the battery out of ours at the weekend. Although it is in the hallway, the (invisible) smoke from the oven kept triggering it off all afternoon while my wife was cooking a roast. After fanning it for an hour (on and off) I got sick of it and took the battery out.

I think a lot of people also take them out because of false triggering. It would be very handy if they had a toggle switch on the side so you can turn it off in these cases by hitting with a broom handle, and knock it back on when you are finished cooking. Or maybe a one hour disable switch, just hit it with the broom.

[BerrieK]

Trevor you can get smoke detectors specifically for the kitchen areas - I think that these are photoelectric rather than ionisation in their detection mechanism and are hence less prone to false triggers.

But I know what you mean - our toaster, or even boiling the kettle used to set off the alarm in the kitchen until we changed to a kitchen-specific detector.

Kerrie

[jjjnettie]

Thanks for the info Kerrie.
I'll look into to that.
Our smoke detector is hanging open in the hallway right now because we're sick of false alarms.

[acropolite]

I seem to remember that the recommended place for installation of detectors is bedrooms, mine are in all the bedrooms, hard wired, with battery backup, not a single false alarm in 7 years.

[Kevnool]

My home ones are all battery not hard wired, even one in the roof above the suspended ceiling , trying everything to protect my son.
Hopefully they,ll never go off.

Cheers Kev.

[stevoggo]

Hi all,
Being VERY new to astronomy I rarely contribute, however being a Firey i can add something here.
Firstly, I agree, they are cheap and batteries are cheaper so have one and keep changing the batteries.
Secondly oneofone there are alarms which you can hit the button with a broom handle and they will silence for 15 minutes before reactivating, they are available at Bunnings for about $20 You can also get kitchen specific alarms as Kerrie rightly said. (though I think they are considerably more expensive.
Thirdly if it keeps going off move it, it is better working in the hallway than in the kitchen with no batteries. you can also place it on the wall a little way down from the ceiling so that it doesn't go off immediately, the smoke has to build a little first.
I have only been in the job 5 years but I can recount many incidents of smoke alarms saving lifes, including one episode where a young boys electric blanket caught fire on the top bunk, being so close to the roof he was quickly overcome by smoke and was unconcious in the burning bed, his brother smelt the smoke and saved his life. The dad was in tears as he had 3 smoke alarms in boxes in the garage which he hadn't got around to putting up.
Fourthly check your electric blankets....
Best wishes to all
Smoke alarms save lives....
Steve

[Chillie]

Hi Steve,

I've just installed an electric blanket (last night) and I'm thinking about putting a smoke detector in my bedroom. I have one in the hall way.

[OneOfOne]

I have to go to Bunnings at the weekend, I will check out the smoke detectors with a switch. Ours is in the hallway between the kitchen and bedrooms but the smoke still seems to waft up the hall, I guess it is good exercise fanning the detector...but you quickly tire of it :mad2:. If we put detectors in the bedrooms, I am afraid the one in the daughters room would keep going off from all the fumes created in there...and I don't just mean smoking either. You have to hold your breath before entering...teenagers!

[PCH]

I'm a bit confused.

What is it you guys cook that generates so much smoke? Aren't you supposed to cook your food only to the point where it's cooked and take it out of the oven before it gets to the 'so burnt it's generating enough smoke to set the alarms off' stage.

Just a thought ;)

[OneOfOne]

Actually, at the weekend, there was no visible smoke at all but the alarm kept going off...and of course there was no breeze so we couldn't open the front door to push the "smoke" away from the detector :(

[Kevnool]

Toast .......slightly burn it and whoofo of they go.
At least i know they are workin :thumbsup: .

Cheers Kev.

[jjjnettie]

water:doh:

[snowyskiesau]

I have an investment/retirement property in country NSW. The managing agent has the batteries changed when daylight savings starts/stops i.e. twice a year. Only costs me a few dollars and well worth it.

I had more trouble trying to get advise as to where to install them so they were affective but not prone to false alarms. I did call the local fire brigade and ask it they could help but all they could do was to give the same generic advice that the alarm manufacturer supplies.
I'd happily pay to have someone spend 10 minutes telling me the best place to install alarms. Sound like a good opportunity for country brigades to raise some much needed cash.

[Kevnool]

The firey's here in the hill will come around and install for the aged so they dont have to climb up a ladder,Which i reckon is a winner in my books.

Cheers Kev.

[Baddad]

Hey Henry, :)

I was tasked with finding out how to check electric blankets when I was in the Army.
Lay the blanket out on a flat surface, on a bed, plug it in and switch on.
After 10 mins feel the blanket for hot spots with your hands. Warm is okay.
After 20 mins feel again for hot spots. Feel again after 30 mins.
Feel for hot spots after an hour. The blanket should feel warm uniformly along the element. If a spot is found to be considerably hotter than the rest of the elements. The blanket is faulty.

What happens internally is that some of the multi-strand element has fractured. The thinner conducting section heats up more and in severe cases can cause ignition.

Fracturing of this nature of the element is often caused by how the blanket is stored: Folding the blanket, instead of a soft roll, causes the element to crease sharply. Heavy objects placed on the folded blanket is also a no,no.

This advice was long ago on the instructions with the purchase. Now its rarely seen.

Cheers Marty

[Chillie]

Thanks for the info Marty.

The electric blanket will be left on the bed all year round.

It's been a long time since I've had an electric blanket. Boy! How technology has changed! Last electric blanket I owned had a 5 position switch with 3 heat settings and Off at both ends. This one has a 3 position switch (Off, 75 minute timer, and 12 hour timer), and a rotory thumb wheel with 9 heat settings. If I forget to turn the electric blanket off before the timer runs out, the control unit turns off the electric blanket and flashes a LED until I st the switch to Off.

[PCH]

Hey Guys,

I've just been through an exercise regarding ensuring smoke detectors in my investment properties conform to the new up and coming regulations, and guess what ...

The instructions from FESA say to have one in each bedroom, one in entrance/exits, and various other locations. But NOT in the kitchen, laundry or bathrooms. So the kitchen is recognised as a not-so-great location for detectors purely because of the false alarms.

So do yourselves a favour and move those kitchen detectors down the hall a bit. Less trouble and more reliable protection.

Oh, and the new regs, when they come in (which could be a way away yet) need detectors to be the hard wired type too, not battery operated - which is more expensive but also better from several points of view. I think the new regs are nationwide rather than just WA, but they make good sense anyway.

Cheers :thumbsup:

[kinetic]

Another anecdote....what just happened in the kitchen:

Sometimes I get up and stumble into the kitchen in the pitch
black to make a coffee first thing in the morning.

So I don't wake the kids and wife, I leave all lights off and make
the coffee just by the light coming from the electric kettle neon.
(everyone knows us astronomy types and their aversion to bright
lights, right? :)

The kettle was about half full of water from it's weight.
Well, in the darkness I switched on the kettle not realising that
the hinged plastic lid on it's top wasn't fully clicked down.
When left like this the kettle takes ages to auto-click itself off
when boiled and sometimes doesn't.....first mistake.

While it boiled, I left the kitchen (second mistake) to switch on IIS
and check the latest messages and pop my head outside to see if it was
cloudy.

I forgot the kettle and got absorbed in reading a few things on IIS.
Next minute, I heard a low volume 'beep beep beep' coming through
the baby monitor in my daughters room.
I thought it was one of the kid's digital watches or toys going off
and went to investigate it so it wouldn't wake them up.

I found the kitchen full of steam, the kettle still boiling and the
lid of the kettle half up stopping it from turning off.
The kettle was almost boiled dry!

The passageway was full of steam and the fire alarm was going off
BUT AT VERY LOW VOLUME....almost just a clicking sound.

The battery in the alarm was fine, it seems that steam had disabled the
alarm from making lots of noise.

So I shouldn't have left the kettle.
Kettle may have caught fire and the fire alarm not alerted me.

Stupid fool I am!

Steve

[Baddad]

Hey Steve, :)

:scared::eyepop: Perhaps you were lucky.

The condensed vapour in the alarm unit does have that effect.
I wonder if a fire had started it may have dried out. Then again if the heat was that great the fire would have been beyond your control.

You'd be waking the family up in a hurry.

Use your red torch :lol:

Cheers Marty

[Kevnool]

Good read Steve, Ive never thought of or heard that before.
I am lucky tho in that the morings i crawl out of bed i whoop into the Farmers Union iced coffee.
I dont drink hot tea or coffee.
So i am thinking my detectors should be o.k.

Cheers Kev.

[OneOfOne]

Went to Bunnings and got an alarm with a "hush button" and placed it in the hall were the other one was giving false alarms when cooking. Well, my wife opened the oven at one stage and a waft of smoke came out of the oven and within seconds the alarm went off. I went to the broom cupboard and grabbed a suitable weapon! And soon silenced the sucker, it just gave a small chirp every few seconds for the next couple of minutes...beats fanning the hall or getting the ladder out! Thanks for the info about the hush version!

As for the old one...I snuck it onto the toilet ceiling. Often we come home to the smell of cigarette smoke in the loo. This should put an end to that dirty habit! Being such a small room, and solid brick...it is LOUD! Should certainly sort out any constipation issues :rofl:

[Baddad]

Hey Trevor, :)

:lol: As for the old one...I snuck it onto the toilet ceiling. :lol:

You're a cruel man, a smoker would say. I never thought of doing that. The alarm would have worn out, back in my old married days. I was and still am a non indulgent in tobacco burning.

Cheers Marty