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
You’re supposed to test them fairly regularly.
I get that monthly might be a pain, but once or twice a year is probably smart, for safety equipment.
Don’t they all do that now? Tell you when they’ve expired?
Maybe, if it is made past a certain date. Mine in the image, from 2005, did not.
If you’re not living in USA-land you’re probably fine to simply change the battery every few years because you’ve got a photoelectric smoke detector.
Ionization based smoke detectors (that require changing because radioactive…) are more unsafe and usually only allowed in special cases in non third world countries like the EU.
Oh and you also can’t just throw them into the trash because you know radioactivity… except in USA-land…
Ours were just replaced in our rental house. They were last replaced in 2004 and our corpo landlord just doesn’t give a fuck.
I don’t think our dryer vent has been cleaned in a decade. This place is a fire trap.
Found out my dryer vent duct was disconnected on both ends. I wouldn’t be surprised 🤷
I’ve warned them about this and our gutters rotting away the wood on our patio and they told me both were tenant’s responsibility, despite a whole section on their website saying otherwise.
I couldn’t give a fuck less about this house. I close on my first HOME next week!
If you live in a state that observes time changes you should get in the habit of checking them on that day. It means you check them twice a year and you’ll be mindful of the expiration date.
The instructions in the box (who reads those right?) says to test monthly.
Okay do that.
Genuine question, how do you dispose of these properly?
We have limited electronic recycling options that I’ve found. When I brought my old detectors in, they sent me away. I suppose I could break down the plastic vs the circuit components and recycle the plastic.
What do you all do?
You keep it until the next hazardous waste collection day, then put it in your car to bring there. Spend half an hour waiting in a big line of cars, get up to where they take it and get yelled at for wasting their time on such a small amount of hazardous waste
I put thing like this in a box labelled “I don’t know how to recycle this”, then I put that box in the corner of the least-used room in the house, where I won’t see it often.
Along with many empty medication bottles.
Exactly, that is a “next of kin” kinda problem
See if you have a local household hazardous waste recycling program. If not, check with the fire department if they’ll take em
Your city should have a solid / chemical waste collection point.
…i smashed mine into tiny pieces of shrapnel when it wouldn’t stop beeping, then swept the debris into the dustbin: engineer’s hammer…
I’m not betraying a hard worker like that, they’ve shown up for work everyday for 7-10 years and you think I would replace them with some young’n?
And if you live in a place with a lot of industry or traffic it should be replaced sooner than that.
Mine expired and decided to sing me the song of their people at 4am.
That was an exciting night, I’ll tell you that…
They always wait until night.
They always wait until nighttime.
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:
Alec in his own video mentions that the issue isn’t that the Americium decays, but that the electronics themselves age and fail, which applies to both the ionization detectors and photoelectric detectors.
This is one of the things you just don’t wanna mess with, as such a failure is completely unpredictable, and from what I know some manufacturers are even beginning to make detector units with non-replaceable batteries, intended to be replaced whole when the battery dies after years of runtime, to make it impossible to keep using a detector after its rated lifetime.
I know some manufacturers are even beginning to make detector units with non-replaceable batteries, intended to be replaced whole when the battery dies after years of runtime, to make it impossible to keep using a detector after its rated lifetime.
I’m sure that’s the reason say they do it, but that smells like standard corporate planned obsolescence and profit seeking with a great PR team.
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.
It’s tuned to a specific output and isn’t exactly field adjustable. Certainly it will continue to be radioactive long after you’re dead, but that doesn’t mean it will still be working properly.
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.
(Besides: Americum has a decay time of over 400 years,btw)
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).
A follow up is a absolutely regular thing and does not diminish neither study.
I didn’t say they were diminished. I said they weren’t independent.
Hehe.
You want to bet your life on that? You want to bet the life of your kids on that?
A motion to rename every element that’s named after a place. All in favor updoot, all opposed downdoot
Okay, let’s start with Helium (named after the sun)
That’s a celestial object, not a place. The sun is traveling at 230 km/s around the galaxy. It’s not a “place.”
The sun is a place. The moon is a place. Earth is a place. A specific location on the earth is also a place.
Anything you insert into a sentence describing the origin point of something traveling is a place.
Edit your comment and I’ll maybe come back and bother with voting.
No vote. Doot!
*dooting
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Most carbon monoxide detectors do too
They make ones now with an internal battery that lasts 10 years. No more chirping and swapping 9V batteries.
I was looking at one of those when I was buying new detectors.
Those are the only battery ones legal to sell where I live.
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.
That’s all they sell at Costco now and I’m worried they won’t last 10 years. They’re kinda pricey too $70 for two.
My hardwired detector was $73 for 1.
I’ve had the same problem with them. I don’t recommend them either.
Even if they do have a warranty, they aren’t reliable enough to be worth doing the warranty claim on, imho.
I’ve gone back to the old battery style and gotten some rechargeable 9 volt.
You know those have a 10 year warranty right? Including the specific model you linked.
How many ~$25 items do you fill out a warranty claim for? Mine went into the bin and I got another.
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.
What’s the reason behind that legislation?
Safety. What else?
You can see a news report from when it came into force here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60203081
The guidance is here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/fire-and-smoke-alarms-in-scottish-homes/pages/where-and-what-to-buy/
Which includes this part on batteries:
Replaceable batteries cannot be used because the sensors in the alarm degrade over time and so will not be able to detect heat or smoke. This is why the alarm has a limited lifespan. Sealed, tamper-proof battery units must be used because they are safer than those which allow the user to change the batteries.
There have been several tragedies over the years where alarms failed because their batteries expired, or people have removed them. Any alarm you buy will have information on how long it lasts, which can be up to 10 years.
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.
that’s my landlord’s problem 😎
Your landlord’s responsibility, your problem
It’s ok, they can paint over the smoke damage and get a new tenant.
You should know I passive aggressively want to die.
That’s a reasonable reaction to the current state of things.
Better by fire than by ICE.
But are you fine with dying from burning or smoking inhalation?
Smoke inhalation yes burning no
