Smoke detectors are the biggest abortion of an invention ever made. Who else agrees?

[Kingofkings1992]

What good do smoke detectors do aside from make an unbearably annoying noise when there’s nothing going on?

Agree

Disagree

Other

[WindAtMyBack]

They save lives, but it's probably not a huge number. In truth, nobody knows how many lives they save. That's because there have been so many other changes that it's almost impossible to determine how many of the saved lives were due to smoke detectors, and how many were due to something else.

The newer kind of smoke detectors are much better than the old ones. They have fewer false alarms, and trigger earlier when there is a real file. One problem with the old style was that they were too slow to trigger, and it was almost too late by then. But even those did save some lives, just not all that many. I just bought one of the newer style (photoelectric type) a few months ago. But I got it for the CO detector, not the smoke detector. It was a clearance sale for dirt cheap so I grabbed it.

I worked in residential construction for years. Fire codes go too far in my opinion. You get very serious diminishing returns. Some of them are downright impractical. Some are downright absurd.

For example in some places the codes for "egress" ( exiting through a window ), require the windows to be so low to the floor, that you can't place any furniture under windows, except maybe a bed. After considering closets and doors, it's darn near impossible to furnish the room.

A couple of years ago I was on "fire watch" at a commercial office building. What this really means is that they wanted someone in the building 24/7 to manually call in a fire. So basically I got paid for sitting around playing games on my phone all day. So why did I need to do this? Because the fire alarm systems was working, but not exactly to the detail of the code. When the alarm went off with the ear-piercing beep beep beep, with all the lights flashing, it had to be perfectly in sync on every floor of the building.

In other words, it had to be:

beep beep beep (1st floor)
beep beep beep (2nd floor)beep beep beep (3rd floor)

not
beep beep beep (1st floor)
_beep beep beep (2nd floor)
_beep beep beep (3rd floor)

When they were testing it, there was no way in hell anyone anywhere in the building could not hear it. It was so loud that I covered my ears when they tested it. If the beep beep beep on one floor was not exactly in time with the other floors, it failed the test. They must have spent a quarter million dollars getting the beep beep beep to be in sync. I have no idea why they had to be in sync, but they did.

[razelove]

You could use it as a trigger on a relay to release water, halogens, spray an ABC extinguisher, what have you. They are useful for that noise if an electrical fire starts at night though. Whether it's copper or aluminum wire, they burn hot enough to ignite a wall very quickly, and the hotter they get, the more they resist electricity, then the hotter they get.

Like if your bathroom spontaneously combusted because of an overloaded circuit running through the GFI, I'd think you'd want to wake up before toxic smoke fills your house from insulation and wiring. Depending on how your house is built and what part of the world you live in.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

They do their job, detect and alert you of smoke. Can smoke come from anywhere aside from an out of control fire? Yeah.


Maybe you should just be more mindful of how you cook, get some air flowing in your kitchen so the smoke detector doesn’t go off

[Apple1996]

Well I'm sure smoke detectors have saved some lives so they can't all be bad

[Telekinetic-Potato]

The issue is there was never a good standard set for them in the first place and they look ghetto.

There should be a chip that is required, whatever packaging you want to use, fine but it shouldn't have to be those round things that look like they belong in a middle shool classroom. Who wants that in their house?

And I think most towns in America do this already but there needs to be a requirement for the detectors to be wired into the houses electrical, to have a separate breaker which is left on even when service is cut. And for the detectors be be able to be turned off for a certain amount of time. Maybe no more than 5 hours.

[Fireguy17]

once you have been saved by one, or a CO detector you will change your mind in a big hurry.
Otherwise, you just will never wake up ever again.
Sure, there is an inconvenience to them, but that pales in comparison to the good that they can do.
We respond to quite a few false alarms ever year, but we also respond to many that have gone off for a valid reason.

[FunkyMonkee]

They could help detect ghosts.
My sister's got some in her house and, one night, long after everyone went to bed, they came on. Hubby got up to see what was burning and to shut them off. When he did, he discovered there were no batteries in any of them.

[Twalli]

They've detected smoke every time in my expierence.
Once when my dad forgot to open the thing in our fireplace to let the smoke exit the chimney.
Once when I burned cheese on the bottom of the oven.
Once when some idiot decided to smoke a cigarette below a smoke detector at 1 am

[Iron_Man]

Those are the real cheap kinds and the battery could go down at any minute in the middle of the night And there’s nothing you can do about stopping the noise unless you get up and go to a gas station and buy batteries. It’s important to have them in case something happens, but if you’re gonna get it get the ones that are installed electronically

[Red_Arrow]

Batteries are used in so many devices. The smoke detectors as well as flashlights, remotes for video and sound equipment, night lights, etc. Good to have a supply of them on hand. We always have them and never had to go out to get some when something happened.

[Iron_Man]

I’m not interested in buying a lot of batteries for a back up waiting around two years the batteries laying around on the shelf. And they always seem to go out The smoke detectors when you’re sleeping then you hear that chirp every 30 second going off and you can’t possibly sleep in any longer. Get it done electronically that’s the only way. I’ve had mine for eight years not one problem

[RebelinSteel]

If you buy decent ones, clean then a regular intervals, test them, make sure cited correctly, they work and they do save lives. I fully do not agree at all. Also in some places best used with a heat detector as well.

[onedarkcloud]

When you are being burned by a fire it will be a little late to wish you had one of those annoying detectors that make noise if you forget to replace the dead battery. If you have ever heard a person being burned to death it is something that I can tell you that you will never forget as long as you live! Just think how bad it feels when you burn a finger now imagine flames around your body!!!

[Anonymous]

The noise they make is to wake you up when there is a fire. Unlike you, I do not think that is a bad thing. And if you change the batteries regularly as recommended, they don't even make that chirping sound.

[exitseven]

Smoke detectors save my lives every year. Yes, sometimes they go off if you burn the bacon but it's better Thad dying from smoke inhalation or CO poisoning

[Phoenix98]

It could alert and wake you up in the middle of the night if there is a fire somewhere in your house.

[LiamJHayden]

They can be good when they work as intended, but the new ones tend to be so sensitive that I have had them go off from steam from a boiling water.

[GoodGuyBreakingBad]

I believe Smoke Detectors should be made to detect all smoke, not just what runs over in the oven.

[Likes2drive]

They do there job well unless you don’t change the batteries when it alerts you, usually when you’re sleeping of course 😊

[DrPepper12]

They can be a nuisance but they save thousands of lives every year

[Kingofkings1992]

I thought we were in agreement the human species needs to be culled

[DrPepper12]

Yeah but not by attrition... Massive event with billions gone in a blink

[Kingofkings1992]

A natural event doesn’t discriminate. What’s needed is a reduction in useless people

[Dargil]

Abortion the biggest abortion of an invention ever made.

[msc545]

Smoke detectors can save your life in a fire. Get the kind that have wifi if they annoy you when batteries need changing.

[LazerMan]

why would someone abort smoke detector how did it even get into her stomac

[Ladsin2]

Ask the chirp demons.

[AGAM1]

Nope do not agree