Is Your Smoke Detector Protecting You?

According to Jeff Rossen (Today.com), the smoke detector you are relying on to keep you safe, may not be adequate.

He points out that just because the burning toast in your toaster causes your smoke detector to go off, does not mean that your smoke detector is super sensitive or giving you the protection that you need. The smoke from burning food is different from burning furniture. And in fact, in a real fire, your current smoke detector may not be activated in time to save you.

The most common type of smoke detector, used in 90% of homes, are inexpensive and easy to find and rely on ionization technology. These types of smoke detectors are designed to detect fires with fast flames. However, sometimes the most deadly fires are the smoldering, smoky types of fires, and ionization alarms do not work as well at detecting these fires. They either do not go off at all, or they go off too late.

Don Russell, scientist at Texas A&M has run hundreds of tests, and set up a special test at the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service. After placing 3 of the ionization smoke detectors in a room with a couch, the fire fighters ignited the couch in a smoldering fire.

Even after the room fills with smoke, the detectors do not go off until 36 minutes after the fire begins, and right before the couch is about to burst into flames.

Don Russell says this is way too late. He insists that you wouldn’t be able to get out of the room reliably if this were a real emergency.

The good news is that there is a better smoke detector available, that gives you better warning in these types of fires. It is called the photoelectric smoke detector. In another test, the photoelectric detector activated 17 minutes in with barely any smoke in the room.

Watch the full report by clicking the video below:

The take away message is that to be fully protected in your business or home, it is necessary to have both kinds of smoke detectors: ionization and photo electric.

At Best Security Products, we can help you with all commercial and home fire security and safety needs. Give us a call at 1-800–988–2378 sales@bestsecurityproducts.com