# smoking and smoke detectors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386 "2010-08-25T12:23:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/1 "2010-08-25T12:23:07Z")
I recently spent a week in a hotel in Beijing, and despite having a non-smoking room, I had to change rooms three times before getting one that didn’t smell of cigarette smoke. Seeing that these rooms all had smoke detectors, it got me wondering how much cigarette smoke it would take to set off a smoke detector. These rooms all had them, but obviously the cigarettes didn’t set them off. And the corollary to this, do rooms that allow smoking NOT have smoke detectors? ---
**Author:** ![qpw3141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/6bbea6/32.png) [@qpw3141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qpw3141)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/2 "2010-08-25T12:40:41Z")
It’s extremely easily to temporarily disable a smoke detector. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/3 "2010-08-25T14:27:56Z")
> [@qpw3141](#): > > It’s extremely easily to temporarily disable a smoke detector. Even in a hotel room? How do they do it? ---
**Author:** ![Notchimine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bcef8e/32.png) [@Notchimine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Notchimine)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/4 "2010-08-25T14:31:18Z")
I think this was covered and there is a great answer [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=88807) ---
**Author:** ![dmatsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@dmatsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dmatsch)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/5 "2010-08-25T14:32:55Z")
I live in an apartment with a hard-wired smoke detector. Last night I made blackened fish and smoked out the entire apartment. I don’t know how the poor cats stood it. In any case the smoke detector DID NOT go off, so I think that your hotel’s detectors were just set for a higher density than plain cig smoke. Also, being a foreign country, perhaps their maintenance standards weren’t up to par… ---
**Author:** ![qpw3141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/6bbea6/32.png) [@qpw3141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qpw3141)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/6 "2010-08-25T14:52:02Z")
> [@Endemic](#): > > > [@qpw3141](#): > > > > It’s extremely easily to temporarily disable a smoke detector. > > Even in a hotel room? How do they do it? They cover the sensor. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/7 "2010-08-25T15:19:20Z")
I do not use tobacco, but have smoked in hotel room bathrooms without having alarm bells sound. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/8 "2010-08-25T22:34:00Z")
Are you sure the smoke detectors were even connected? I have heard of hotels where the smoke ‘detectors’ were really just fake fittings, to reassure the customers, without the expense of installing & maintaining real smoke detectors. Same with security cameras, or even fire alarms! ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/9 "2010-08-26T04:23:59Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Are you sure the smoke detectors were even connected? > > I have heard of hotels where the smoke ‘detectors’ were really just fake fittings, to reassure the customers, without the expense of installing & maintaining real smoke detectors. Same with security cameras, or even fire alarms! In Calif they are real. The system is tested yearly and goes through a complete test of every device every 5 years. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/10 "2010-08-26T05:03:10Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I do not use tobacco, but have smoked in hotel room bathrooms without having alarm bells sound. What were you smoking, then? ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/11 "2010-08-26T07:00:23Z")
Hotels frequently use less-sensitive smoke detectors. There’s a lot of reasons for this - people _do[/_ smoke in their rooms, it’s a pain in the ass evacuating a hotel, some models can go off from steam if people shower with the bath door open, etc. Some hotels even install hidden, set-temperature backup alarms because people disabling the fire alarm and smoking is such a massive pain in the ass. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/12 "2010-08-26T13:12:40Z")
> [@Notchimine](#): > > I think this was covered and there is a great answer [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=88807) thanks. I didn’t see this one. Very helpful ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/13 "2010-08-26T13:25:40Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > > [@kayaker](#): > > > > I do not use tobacco, but have smoked in hotel room bathrooms without having alarm bells sound. > > What were you smoking, then? Hmmm. I do not see how that would be relevant to the OP.🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smoking-and-smoke-detectors/551386/14 "2010-08-26T18:19:05Z")
A friend just installed one over my kitchen, it went off just now as I was making toast in a pan … not burning, just lightly toasting. I climbed on a chair and untwisted the wee demon, that’ll show it.