smoke detector safety

Photo by Piotr Chrobot on Unsplash

This post is about something that you should not be a minimalist on.

Smoke Detectors

We awoke at 3 am to the smoke alarm beeping in my youngest son’s bedroom. My wife heard it first and woke me up as she ran to his room but I thought it was his alarm clock so I stayed in bed. She ran downstairs. I thought she needed some light to see how to turn off his alarm. The noise stopped, but when she ran back into our room yelling “What’s going on?!” I realized it wasn’t his alarm clock.

I’m a little slow sometimes, especially at 3 am.

As I jumped out of bed, it went off again. It beeped several times and stopped. I removed it and took it to our room and then went back to check his room over. There was no smoke and no smell. We felt the walls and ceiling but didn’t feel any heat. We have detectors in each of the four bedrooms upstairs and one in the hallway. None of the others went off, but his alarm sounded again a few minutes later in our room. It’s a combination smoke and carbon monoxide detector so I paid attention to the lights. It was definitely lit up for smoke, not for CO.

I finally felt pretty confident that there was no fire and there was something wrong with the smoke detector. I removed the batteries and took it downstairs. I then checked all over the house and didn’t find any evidence of smoke, heat, or any problems. Eventually, I left it in the kitchen without the battery and tried to get a little more sleep. I really struggled with what to do, because I was sure the detector was malfunctioning but what if it wasn’t?

The next day I started educating myself about smoke detectors. Here’s what I’ve learned:

• Experts recommend you replace your smoke detectors every 10 years. I know that but always assumed it was a ploy to get you to buy more smoke detectors. I knew mine were a little older but didn’t realize just how old some of them were. After more research, I learned that after 10 years, their components break down. The result can be malfunctions by sounding false positives, or worse they may not detect a fire. CO detectors lose their effectiveness even faster so you should replace them about every 5 years . I had some smoke detectors that were 18 years old.

• Some smoke detectors have a built-in battery with a 10 year life but some use regular batteries. These batteries should be changed at least once a year. Again, CO detectors usually require more frequent battery replacement at about every 6 months. I had three smoke detectors that were on year 13 with their 10-year battery.

• You should test smoke detectors and CO detectors FREQUENTLY, like weekly. Not only that, dust and debris can build up causing them to malfunction so you should vacuum them. Our malfunctioning smoke/CO detector actually said to vacuum it monthly. I had no idea.

• There are two main types of smoke detectors, ionization and photoelectric. Ionization detectors are better at detecting fast, flaming fires. Photoelectric detectors are better at detecting smoky, smoldering fires. There are detectors with both sensors, but I haven’t seen detectors that are ionization, photoelectric, and detect CO. After further research, I found that many experts do not recommend dual sensor detectors. Strangely, they are not regulated quite the same as detectors that are just one or the other. There are standards that ionization detectors and photoelectric detectors must meet, but when a detector has both types, only one absolutely has to meet those requirements.

• I’m concerned that my daughter didn’t wake up at all and it turns out that this is fairly common for kids. According to Consumer Reports, the research isn’t confirmed but at least one study claimed that kids are more likely to wake up to a voice than a beeping sound. There are smoke detectors that have built in voices and some even allow you to record your own voice. My kids never listen to me anyway, so I’ll stick with a prerecorded one.

What should you do now?

Examine all of your smoke detectors and CO detectors. Take them down and look at the back to see the manufacture date and read any instructions on them. Just because you installed it 8 years ago doesn’t mean it isn’t past the 10 year mark. Don’t wait 13 years like me. Replace the old ones. Also, consider where your detectors are located and what types of detectors you have. Here are links to a couple sites that may help you decide where to place them and what detectors to buy.

• Consumer Reports Smoke and CO Alarm Buying Guide
• Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA)
• National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA)
• A Secure Life

I now have replaced all of my smoke detectors with these smoke and CO detectors from First Alert you see below. I have a CO alarm on each floor and a total of 6 smoke detectors throughout the house. They all interconnect so that if one goes off, they all go off. These also have a built-in voice alert to announce where the fire/CO is. They are unbelievably loud. We feel much more confident that if something happens, everyone will wake up and get out of the house.

Go check yours out. Now.

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