How is it that there are no good smoke detectors?

Question

Last night my smoke detectors went off at 3:30 in the morning. This isn't the first time this has happened, in fact, I've had alarms go off in each home I've lived in over the last decade. It's always at night and terrifies my children.I know this isn't just happening to me. I have several friends with small children who are terrified of the smoke alarms going off.Each time this happens I go through the process of replacing all the batteries (mind you the detectors are hard wired into my electrical system) and when that doesn't work I ended up spending hundreds of dollars and hours replacing each detector in my house.This drives the engineer in me crazy. It's a product that is deployed in millions of homes, all with critical ux problems. Is there a solution here?

mattdeboard · Accepted Answer

This is wild, I was just complaining about smoke detectors to "the group chat", to the point that someone sent me the link to this topic asking if it was my throwaway that created it.My thing is, why the hell don't they ever seem to have a visual indicator of low battery? You have to sit there and wait for it to chirp to triangulate which one is going off. It's absurd.

reify · Answer

I have the same problem.3am alarms going off. rushing around to find my small three stap ladder so I can reach the damn reset button, or shaking a towel in front of the alarm hoping that will turn it off. Most of the time none of this works. you cannot turn the bloody things off.Smoke alarms wired to the mains electricity.My solution though not advised is to cover the smoke alarms with those plastic hairnet type shoe coverings that people with muddy shoes wear to protect your carpets, think CSI shoe coverings. A plastic bag works just as well.I then fasten them in place with a large elastic band.My kitchen smoke alarm is actaully a heat alarm. It will go off if the heat rises above a certain temperature. My thinking here is that if there is a fire in my kitchen, the rising heat will melt the plastic bag and set of the fire alarm.My friend sets off my smoke alarms because she vapes. I had to ban her from vaping indoors.I still have annual smoke alarm checks.

sharpshadow · Answer

Never had a smoke detector go off randomly. They are required by law and one can't change the batteries on them, they always have to be replaced, because of insurance reasons. Here in Germany.

pavel_lishin · Answer

Is there any chance it's also a carbon monoxide detector, and is actually detecting elevated levels?

ahazred8ta · Answer

That's usually due to a spider in the smoke detector. Try bug spray.

jollyllama · Answer

It's because they're universally required by law.