Smoke Alarms
 

Check yours to make sure they are working.

I created a HUGE cloud of smoke while cooking tonight - and it did not make a sound.

Yes, they do go 'bad'. Being married to a firefighter - non-working smoke alarms is not an option in our house. In fact, ended up purchasing 3 different ones before getting one that works in our bedroom recently.

Can I tell you what it's like going to a hotel with this man???

Smoke detectors weren't working when 2 young children lost their lives in Corpus Christi in the last week. We bought extra batteries and Carbon monoxide detectors also.

Our house has the smoke alarms hard wired into the house. I set the one off in my sewing room once while using my steam press iron.

Ours are hard-wired as well but still need checking and replacing periodically. Basic rule of thumb...check monthly and replace batteries when you change your clocks.

I replaced my carbon monoxide and smoke detectors last year with new ones that have 10 year batteries. Then I sold my condo and moved. :D

I have numerous ones in my apt. One is run on battery and the other have a flashing green light and are tested twice a year by management.

We live in WA state, and the county (or state) requirement is that fire alarms have to be hard-wired with battery backup if your house is newer than a certain age. The ceiling in our great room is almost 20 ft. tall. When we had ceiling fans installed, I begged my husband to have that particular fire alarm lowered so that it would be in a more reachable area, but he didn't want to have it moved. Therefore, when the battery goes out, we have to use a Genie lift to get to it because of the location. We can't lean a ladder against a wall to get to it. Hence, last time the battery went out, we replaced it with a 10-year battery. Hopefully it will last that long! My husband is Mr. Preventive Maintenance, so he makes sure all of our batteries are in and working. With the alarms being hard-wired, we have to keep working batteries in them or they will continue alarming until the battery is replaced.

I have one on each floor with the one in the basement hot wired with a battery backup. Mine will scream at me when the battery is going out. What's funny is when one goes out I know for a fact the other one upstairs will be screaming at me within a day to a week from the other one.

When I bought this house it didn't have any which I thought was manditory these days to even sell your house. 1st thing I had installed though were smoke and carbon dioxide monitors as I have gas in this house and this house is older than the hils so a fire ready to happen. All my neighbors know to get the cat out if ever there's a fire when I'm not home. The rest can be replaced but not my little buddy Pepper.

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*** I hade 2 in my house, each end.
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*** The kitchen one saved my live in 1993 when my chimney caught fire from a crack in the fireplace fire wall.
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*** FD said I would never have awoke (from the smoke) if it had not gone off.
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*** FD said it was 5 minutes from the rafters.
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*** Came out fine, insurance only had to replace a part of the den wall & scrub and dry clean stuff.
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*** Now have 3 detectors and check regularly.
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It is time to "fall back" this Sunday and it is recommended that you change batteries in all smoke detectors whenever we change time (spring ahead or fall back) and I also test after I install the batteries.

I have battery ones in every room, every hall way, even the closets. They are cheap so why not? The sound alone with all those will wake the whole neighborhood. I change out the upper floor batteries when I get my yearly mammogram. The lower floors when DH gets his yearly prostate. We have hard wired ones in the kitchen and garage. We are all electric so no need for carbon dioxide monitors.

We had a lightning strike near our previous home, and the only thing that was damaged was a hard-wired smoke alarm. The thing went off and smoke was coming from it right in the area where the switch was for turning off the noise! My DH knocked it off the wall with a hammer! We had to replace it, of course.

It's good that this topic came up now because a good time to change batteries is when we change the clocks. It's not fun, but might be a matter of life or death.

This weekend is Daylight savings time and the perfect time to replace smoke detector batteries and verify hard wired detectors are working. Batteries are inexpensive and replacing them every 6 months is a cheap insurance policy to takeout for those we love the most. I am off to the store now. Thanks for the reminder

All so practice an evacuation with your family in case of fire. Have a safe place to meet outside of the home. Great to practice with grandkids also when they spend the night or just come over for a visit. Also have a plan to wake children as studies have shown they can sleep through the alarm.
Unfortunate
y my family knows dinner is served when the kitchen smoke detector goes off. Hmmm

My alarms drive me crazy. My iron sets the bedroom one off. My stove sets the living room one off.
Too sensitive for me.
They chirp when they need batteries. So have to go outside and bring in the latter to reach them to replace the battery.

NJ Quilter, you're not telling me anything! My DH is a retired firefighter of over 40 years. When we travel, he even picks the floor we are on and checks out the exits!!! No smoke alarm in the room? We find another place!!

I have travel alarm. I have never been in a hotel where there was not a smoke/heat detector in each room but does it work? My travel one I know works.

A smoke detector that is not working is worthless.

In face, it is worth than worthless because it may give one a false sense of security.

Check them out to be sure they are working.

(I'm just glad it was smoke from my cooking - and not a fire that tipped us off that the thing was not working.

Now that smoke alarms are so common, many fires take place in homes that have them because the batteries are dead.

I recently went to a seminar on smoke alarms. One of the nice investments is to have alarms that have 10 year batteries.

You don't have to climb to replace the batteries so they are safer that way for elderly and when the battery runs out 10 years from now, you throw them and get a new one. While they cost more initially, most of them save you substantial money over paying for the batteries over 10 years.

Besides replacing batteries yearly, think about actually replacing smoke detectors every 5-10 years. We've lived here almost 19 yr and last Christmas (of course middle of the night and with infant g-boys here!) the hardwired/battery back-up detectors all over the house (7 total)were going off. We replaced batteries on all and of course the next night the same thing happened (never in the daylight--go figure). I finally called our electrician and he asked if we had the same ones he installed 19 yrs ago and then laughed when I said yes. He says he replaces the ones in his house every 5 yrs. That they are not made to last forever and dust can make them nonfunctioning. So $85 later and lots of ladder time for DH we had all new detectors. Feel much safer--we live in country & rely on volunteer FD.