new here. been buying the mag for a few years.
full disclosure: i;m a dyier (is that a word); anyway, got a older 40s home that am remodeling and now finishing the basement.
our smoke alarms are interconnected with the ‘firex’ brand. these are hard to come by in our area. the last, local hardware store is quiting now that lowes dropped out of the sky. lowes and home d don’t carry them, so
can anyone give recommendations on some other brands that might work and what type is best ionization or photoelectric?
also, we have a wood stove and the pipe goes into the attic then out the roof. is there any value of having a smoke alarm up there
anyway, thanks in advance for any replies
Replies
>>what type is best ionization or photoelectric?
Yes. <G>
They each have situations they are best suited for - I forget off the top of my head which is which but the info should be easy to find.
"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman
we burn wood 98 percent of the time. i wonder what would be better for detecting that type of smoke?
One thing to keep in mind is that a wood fire can be smoky (especially when starting) and produce false alarms. PE detectors are more likely to trigger with visible smoke.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
I'm now looking at the Kidde products. I've got an existing 120V network of detectors, but wish I had put one more in in a location where wiring will be difficult/impossible. Kidde is now making a wireless product that can be added to a wired network, which allows for pretty much limitless expansion. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Scott.
FWIW I have never seen FireX in a retail store locally.
But they are commonly stocked in the electrical supply houses.
And if you go to a different brand you need to update all of them as the interconnects are different.
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
Brand doesn't make a whole lot of difference so long as you change them all out at once (remove all old ones then install all new ones) so that you don't muck up the interconnection.
There are partisans on both the ionization and photoelectric sides. One is better with smoldering fires, the other with fast-burning fires. The ideal is obviously to have a unit with both types of detectors in it, but those tend to be pricy.
Good idea to have a smoke detector in the attic, but you need a special unit designed for the hotter, dustier environment there.
The photoelectric is better at seeing larger smoke particles and gives fewer false alarms from steam and cooking so locate those near kitchens and bath rooms. In other areas use a combo unit since each detects different kinds of fires better than the other.
Here in Boston they're requiring all apartments to update their smoke detectors to meet these requirements.