Smoke alarms, do you have them?

greatcrested

Ally_E. said:

Sotts said:

We have hard wired in our new build.  One goes off, causes every other one to go off.
Strangely one is directly above the oven and it goes off whenever we open the oven door.  Even when there's no smoke.   Is that normal 

Smoke alarms are not supposed to be in the kitchen, heat alarm is to be placed there instead to avoid exactly what is happening with your smoke alarm now. There will be smoke in the kitchen due to cooking.

whereas heat is confined to the bathroom....?

GaleSF63

wolfehouse said:

Scotland has a new fire alarm law but Implementation was delayed because of covid.
all homes will need to have hard wired or linked alarms on each floor and room most used and heat alarm in kitchen. 

https://www.gov.scot/publications/fire-and-smoke-alarms-in-scottish-homes/

Thank you for that link - it's very useful. Although I've been aware the new legislation exists I haven't thought much about it. When I'm prepared to let an electrician loose in my flat for one or 2 electrical jobs that need doing, I'll sort out the new alarms. 

Sotts

Ally_E. said:

Sotts said:

We have hard wired in our new build.  One goes off, causes every other one to go off.
Strangely one is directly above the oven and it goes off whenever we open the oven door.  Even when there's no smoke.   Is that normal 

Smoke alarms are not supposed to be in the kitchen, heat alarm is to be placed there instead to avoid exactly what is happening with your smoke alarm now. There will be smoke in the kitchen due to cooking.

Sorry not with you. Its a heat alarm in the kitchen that goes off every time i open the oven.  Are you saying this is normal?   My cooking doesn't generate smoke - it generates heat

Mutton_Geoff

If the oven is triggering false alarms, you should be able to change the heat rise detector to one that reacts to a higher temperature rather than move it. The manufacturer should have one more suited. If it's made by Apollo (a common make), your options are:

https://www.safelincs.co.uk/conventional-smoke-and-heat-detectors/

Sotts

Mutton_Geoff said:

If the oven is triggering false alarms, you should be able to change the heat rise detector to one that reacts to a higher temperature rather than move it. The manufacturer should have one more suited. If it's made by Apollo (a common make), your options are:

https://www.safelincs.co.uk/conventional-smoke-and-heat-detectors/

Great thank you so much 

AlexMac

Sotts said:

Ally_E. said:

Sotts said:

We have hard wired in our new build.  One goes off, causes every other one to go off.
Strangely one is directly above the oven and it goes off whenever we open the oven door.  Even when there's no smoke.   Is that normal 

Smoke alarms are not supposed to be in the kitchen, heat alarm is to be placed there instead to avoid exactly what is happening with your smoke alarm now. There will be smoke in the kitchen due to cooking.

Sorry not with you. Its a heat alarm in the kitchen that goes off every time i open the oven.  Are you saying this is normal?   My cooking doesn't generate smoke - it generates heat

Our excellent electrician installed hard-wired heat & smoke alarms as per regs (he said)  in a flat which we subsequently let to tenants...

lovely bulgarian couple... (really tidy... left us a few bottles of - obviously Bulgarian - wine when they left, as a present). 

But whenever their mum visited from back home, they said she made pancakes or similar at warp speed on the cooker hob, so the kitchen heat detector went crazy.  What they didn't say was that their simple fix was to slot the detectors out of their ceiling housing; removing them.

We only realised this 'cos they replaced them in the wrong order; heat where smoke should be, and vice versa.  

Luckily, they place didn't ever actually burn down!

AdrianC

Sotts said:
My cooking doesn't generate smoke - it generates heat

Mine certainly can and does...

You don't even need to be going full-Masterchef.
Meat under the grill, juices spitting onto the element...
Unevenly-cut bread that catches on an edge in the toaster (hot cross buns are almost impossible to get any decent colour on without a fluffy bit catching)...

But all you need to do is give the test button on the alarm a quick poke, and it cancels. It always amuses me when I see people wafting at the alarm in vain... Just press the damn button!

Sotts

AdrianC said:

Sotts said:
My cooking doesn't generate smoke - it generates heat

Mine certainly can and does...

You don't even need to be going full-Masterchef.
Meat under the grill, juices spitting onto the element...
Unevenly-cut bread that catches on an edge in the toaster (hot cross buns are almost impossible to get any decent colour on without a fluffy bit catching)...

But all you need to do is give the test button on the alarm a quick poke, and it cancels. It always amuses me when I see people wafting at the alarm in vain... Just press the damn button!

Ha ha ha i wish i knew this.  From someone waving newspaper furiously.  Strangely although its the one in the kitchen that goes off, i wave the newspaper under one of the others and that stops it.
Our grill or hob never causes a problem, its only when i open the oven.    

MovingForwards

Made no odds pressing the buttons as they would keep triggering around the flat, had to clear the steam then could reset it. 

AdrianC

AdrianC said:

Unevenly-cut bread that catches on an edge in the toaster (hot cross buns are almost impossible to get any decent colour on without a fluffy bit catching)...

I should probably confess at this point.

I once evacuated a financial institution's large central London office building for an hour using only a fluffy seedy roll.

Breakfast in the in-house canteen.
Next to the conveyor toaster, there's only white sliced packaging-foam... or delicious looking fluffy seedy rolls.
Well, there's only one answer here as to what to wrap the sausages and bacon in, isn't there?

Slice the roll in half, onto the chain-link, and wait...
Except it got snagged inside...

As the thick smoke turned into flames, I grabbed the two slices of toasted white just landing into the out-tray, and joined the orderly queue heading for the door. Eventually, the fire brigade let us back in.