Smoke Detectors

[Baddad (Marty)]

Originally Posted by 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.

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 (Henry)]

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 (Paul)]

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

[kinetic (Steve)]

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 (Marty)]

Hey Steve,

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

Cheers Marty

[Kevnool (Kev)]

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 (Trevor)]

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

[Baddad (Marty)]

Hey Trevor,

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

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