Smoke Detectors

Factual Questions
1

Everytime I try to get our household set up with fire alarms, I end up with multiple expensive units that start beeping for no reason. I’ve been perusing the customer reviews on Amazon, and it appears that even highly-rated expensive units have an alarming rate of defects causing false alarms, consistent with my own experience. And, apparently, getting replacements involves time and shipping at the customer’s expense.

Is this entire industry just broken?

Is there anything I can do besides just keep paying out and praying?

2

What kind are you getting? I’ve had no problems with the Kidde wired units here.

3

The one’s I previously got were First Alert. But based on Amazon reviews, Kiddie seems to run into the same problems.

4

Have you replaced the batteries? Even the hard-wired units should have a battery backup in case out power outtages.

Some units may be overly sensitive to dust and humidity(steam). You can either vacuum them out or blow them out with compressed air.

5

I have the same problem. I fucking hate smoke alarms, they’re forever going off for no reason at all, and they’re all tied together so if one goes off, they all do (we have about 10 in our house) and you can’t even tell which one is the problem, and I have to drag a ladder around the house to mess with the fuckers because they’re all mounted on the ceiling.

Right now, all of ours have the batteries out, and the circuit breaker they’re running off of is off, because I can’t handle being woken up randomly in the night by faulty smoke detectors. Gah.

6

Please reconsider. Thisjust happened in Minnesota. A house had all of the smoke detectors disconnected because of house renovations. Luckily, the fire caused a short in the doorbell, and the doorbell woke someone.

7

What I don’t understand is how some people can smoke cigarettes in their homes without the stupid things going off, but if I take a shower on a humid day, I get screeched at from all directions at a million decibels until I can drag a ladder out of the basement. We were getting false alarms every couple of weeks when we had them on. I’m extremely sensitive to the smell of smoke and am confident that I’d wake up if something in my house was on fire. I know this isn’t the safest option, but I don’t really care. If they made ones that actually worked and/or were quieter, I’d reconsider.