Smoke alarm in the garage set off all of the interconnected units in the house last night around 2am-- why's it always that time of day.
Know that this isn't an unit that's aging out-- just replaced all (9!) units a couple of months ago. These are Kidde ionizing units.
The reason is the unit alarmed is that it's packed full of bugs-- they just love that little green LED in an otherwise dark garage. I can blow/vacuum the unit out and it will be fine until the next time it alarms in the middle of the night.
Polling for collective wisdom on alternatives. Here's what I've considered so far.
- leave the unit disconnected with the battery pulled, like it is now
- clean the unit, put it back, either with or without the interconnect active, and remember to clean it regularly
- replace with a heat sensing unit instead of this cheap ionizing detector-- unit mounts on ceiling below hot attic, so this might be problematic
- put bug zapper back up in garage on timer to run at night-- did this last year and it may help, but SWMBO hates the zapper
Any other ideas?
Cover with screed door screen.
I work for an engineering firm that specs fire alarm systems for commercial, institutional and industrial facilities. I spoke to several of the manufacturers about putting a smoke detection system in my shop and stables. Basically the ionizing sensor style is useless because they plug up with dust/bugs and the heat detectors won't go off until you have an active fire. There are flame detector types as well but again you'll have an active fire before they go off.
The bottom line was to install ionizing detectors, protect them with window screen (already suggested) and clean them at least once a month. There's no easy button for this one.
Wayslow wrote:
I work for an engineering firm that specs fire alarm systems for commercial, institutional and industrial facilities. I spoke to several of the manufacturers about putting a smoke detection system in my shop and stables. Basically the ionizing sensor style is useless because they plug up with dust/bugs and the heat detectors won't go off until you have an active fire. There are flame detector types as well but again you'll have an active fire before they go off.
The bottom line was to install ionizing detectors, protect them with window screen (already suggested) and clean them at least once a month. There's no easy button for this one.
Screening sounds like the way to go-- getting rid of the LED would be a nice touch as well, but it's buried too deep in the unit to get to.
For the extra easy button go grab a cheap metal screen colander, put weather stripping on the mating surface then screw that sucker on there!
