I disconnected mine last July when I was frying (not burning) something and could not find it until yesterday. When I found it, the kitchen was full of smoke again (broiling a steak this time) and we certainly did not want to put it back up then! They do make the things a tad too sensitive, don't they?

I haven't diconnected mine. It's near the stove and if it goes off, I can reach it and I open it, give it a jiggle, it stops, and we are back in business. If I remember to keep the basement door closed, it doesn't go off from the stove.

I can't imagine disconnecting it, really.

I don't even HAVE one near the kitchen.

When we bought the lake house there was one near the
kitchen. It was in a hard to reach place where we had to
get an eight or ten foot ladder in the house to get to it.
You bet your bippy it was disconnected. I climbed up the
ladder myself and did it. We have both smoke and
carbon monoxide detectors.

None in kitchen but one in laundry/mudroom which opens in to kitchen and also leads to back yard. I've discovered it goes off if there's a decent amount of smoke but not for just a small bit. Maybe not quite as safe as in kitchen itself. Kitchen has another door into dining room, plus laundryroom also has door into central hall, so lots of exits.

Thanks for bringing this up, Sheila. I may place one alarm on tall metal shelving in kitchen which goes almost to ceiling, but I could still reach it to turn off easily. josh

In our house, one of the smoke alarms is located in the family room, which is open to the kitchen. However, our house has 12' ceilings and the smoke alarm is placed so high on the wall, we need our 8' ladder to reach it. Even then, it's quite a stretch. But since I don't cook much of the sort of food to set it off, it rarely happens. In a community where there are many senior citizens, the builder didn't use good judgment in its placement, IMO.

If we want a steak, we'll go to Outback. :>)

Seems to me the answer is to locate the alarm where it's easily accessible if it goes off, rather than disconnecting it. What is so smart about that? The one in my kitchen is placed right inside the basement door, which is next to the stove, and where I can reach it without even stretching. You can even get ones that don't need to be screwed in, just stuck to the wall with some kind of adhesive.

Funny you should mention smoke alarms.

Last night, I was sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, drinking a glass of wine and talking on the phone with a friend from high school. The fireplace was roaring and I thought I should close the top damper a little. We have a fireplace insert made of cast iron and sitting on top was a glass jar (fire resistant) full of wax tarts. As I pushed the damper closed, I tipped the jar of wax and four foot flames shot up into the air. WOW. DS was quite impressed, his eyes were as big as saucers. The fireplace is stone and the floor is tile, so I didn't panic, I retrieved the fire extinguisher and put the flames out. Then the whole house filled with smoke and off went the smoke alarms. I had to lift up DS to grab one and the other I knocked off the wall with a broom handle. I was thankful that they worked. DS and I opened all the windows and doors and turned on the fans. Luckily, there was a nice strong breeze to blow through the house. I sent DS outside until the smoke cleared and he promptly call his Dad and told him we were having a fire drill. My friend on the phone could only imagine what a spectacle this was and was amazed that I never put the phone down. I knew I should have gone out instead of staying home.

I won't be disconnecting the smoke alarms. I did replace the overly sensitive ones that went off when I burned toast though. :)

I admit that the one nearest the kitchen has the battery taken out. It is doubly a problem. It is at the top of the basement stair landing. There is a door to the back porch and an opening to the kitchen (no door). Smoke from the kitchen sets it off, but so does wet/super humid weather if the back door is open.

Pidge, you have a point about location, but I always thought that fire companies suggested the highest point as that's where the smoke starts to accumulate...although obviously all of our smoke detectors are so sensitive that that's not really an issue. LOL.

My offending alarm is about eight feet up too - I just fan madly from below with a dish towel.

Ours are on the ceilings 10' up. And yes, the fire codes stipulate that they should be place in the highest point in a room. Therefore, the one in the kitchen had its battery removed almost immediately for the reasons expressed above. All four of the other ones in the house are in fine working order.

The one that is reachable inside the basement door is as high as it can go in that space and is placed there because of the possibility of smoke from the basement in case of a fire from the furnace or dryer. It was placed there at the suggestion of the electrician who installed it and is familiar with the codes.

That's great that your highest point is reachable.

I have to stand on a chair or stool on the top landing of a long flight of steps, reaching up to the 9 foot ceiling, with a 7 foot drop down the stairs (9 foot if you add in the height of the chair I'm standing on)...not very comfortable. The alarm does have a button to press to delay the alarm in cases like this so I usually use a broomstick handle to depress it. It lasts about 5 minutes then it goes off again. After 4-5 resets I finally end up on the chair as the kids and cat all go into a panic every time it goes off.

I usually remember to put the battery back in, but this post reminded me that I hadn't so It's fixed again...for now.

We also have one in the laundry room and one on the ceiling outside our bedroom doors. Those never go off -except once when a spider crawled inside.

Thanks for the reminders about smoke alarms, period. Mine are all in need of batteries. I do not want hard wired alarms. My step daughter had them and hers were always going off. When push comes to shove anyway, if the house is ablaze and the electric goes off, they have a battery back-up anyway, so I am fine with just using batteries and being done with it.

I don't always put mine as high as they can go, because I have twelve foot ceilings in most of the house. I figure it's better to have one seven foot up then one so high I would disable it. Ditto putting them where they go off all the time in false alarms (literally).

I have one in the foyer next to the basement door to catch the smoke coming up from the heating and water heating and entrance boxes. The next one is over the door in the upstairs foyer so that the bedrooms can be alerted. In this old house, since previous owners have removed the second stairway in the kitchen, there is only one way out from the upstairs aside from exiting from the windows.

I used to have units near the laundry room and the humidity set them off. Kitchen smoke sets off any near the kitchen.

Suzy, I was in that position in an old house I had some years ago - if you were upstairs only way out apart from the stairs was the windows and a long way down. I had a ladder installed on the side of the house.

The other night when we were watching the news (11 P.M.) I smelled smoke ... I live in a 3rd floor walk-up in a circa 1920's building with wood floors.

I knew it wasn't my apartment, so off I went in my jammies and robe to investigate ... the lady downstairs from me fell asleep while cooking, I could tell immediately the burning/smoke was coming from her unit and was pounding on the door ... when I finally roused her she opened her door and the entire unit was filled with smoke ... unfortunately the smoke alarm didn't go off because she had removed the battery !!!

If we had been sleep, I might not be here to type this. A few years ago the same thing happened across the street from us in another old building, the person died.

Ohiomom, that's scary! Maybe you could suggest that she use a timer...I have a small one I set and bring into living room with me when I have something in oven like bacon or hamburgers which take some time but must be checked often. The timer makes a ticking noise to remind me but also will alarm of course if I somehow let time slip by. DH even remembers now to use it after he burned up a pound of bacon and I told him the cost..LOL josh

No, that is not scary, it is stupid !! I was so angry that this woman put all of us in danger because she either needed the battery for something else, or removed it for the annoyance of it going off.

I managed property in my other life, when the battery goes bad the smoke alarm will beep repeatedly .... duh ... change it !!

I also have a wind up timer that I use when cooking ... but if you are that tired that late at nite, eat a peanut butter sandwich and call it a meal.

My whole apartment smelled like smoke, and now that we finally have Fall weather, with low temps I had to open my windows ... I had to tell her to open hers.

I am appalled that anyone would stay in *any* place that did not have functioning smoke alarms. The alarms are not expensive --less than the cost of a movie -- and they are not nearly as inconvenient as being hospitalized for burns. If an alarm is "too" sensitive to use by the kitchen, for g's sake, get a slightly less sensitive one, but don't risk your life by not having any near that room. And folks who smoke should have one in every single room. And put in a fresh battery on New Year's day, so that you can keep celebrating more New Years.

Nowadays, we CAN be warned before fire or smoke inhalation kill. Don't ever take the chance that a fireman might have to tell your loved ones, "I'm sorry, we might have saved them, but the smoke alarm didn't have a battery."

I had a long and scathingly brilliant all typed, spell checked, and checked for syntax. It was good. But this is what I am posting.

Please, let's not anyone become a Darwin Award winner over something as silly as this.

When I even think pizza mine goes off. I can take it down while I cook then put it back. Lilo puts a baggie over hers when she cooks. We heat with wood so they are put back to work faithfully.

My husband who never reacts (according to him. To me, he doesn't react to the right things and over reacts to the wrong things), pulls out the batteries. And me, according to him, who over-reacts to everything, puts them back in. I always warn him, when they come through our burned down home, and see the batteries missing, we're gonna be at fault! Even that doesn't stop him.

I will, however, note: At the ripe old age of 2, LF's doctor asked if we made him healthy meals, he replied, yep, and dad sets off the smoke alarm when he does... the doctor got to the next set of questions and confidently checked "has smoke detectors". We still laugh about that one!

We have battery and hard-wired detectors, each backing up the other.

If I set off the one nearest the kitchen, I jump on a chair and pull out the battery. After I've finished cooking, I put it straight back. We also have a CO2 detector, and a fire extinguisher. We have smoke detectors and extinguishers on the boat too.

I have given smoke detectors and CO2 detectors as housewarming gifts before now.

We know people whose house burned to the ground - luckily no-one hurt - but they lost everything. The lot. In 30 minutes.

(Now we have a fireproof box too, for essential papers and passports)

When I moved to Indiana to be with hubby #1, we had a mobile home. I was convinced about the fire thing when a home across from us went belly up in a matter of minutes. MINUTES! The husband was at work, and the mother home with twin babies. They got out in time, but lost absolutely everything. Our unit had the furnace, washer and dryer in the bath. There was a back door just opposite the bathroom, but had a fire started there, and if one were to have started, that would have been a likely place, it would have made exit by that door impossible, and the master bedrooms lay in the hallway past that door, and the children's on the other side. I would have been separated from my kids if a fire broke out and I don't know if they would have been old enough to know to go to the front door to get out. I don't know how they manufacture windows in trailers now, but back then I don't think anyone could have exited from one. I lived in fear.

In every house since then, even if it felt foolish, we had fire drills and went through "what if" questions and answers. I was amazed that when I told them if all else failed they should throw a chair through a window and break the glass to get out and they both thought it was something they'd get in trouble for. Walk your kids through it over and over and over so that they know how to get out, even if you can't help them. Teach them how to use a phone as soon as they can learn those three important numbers.

I really do know that you all are right. Especially as I have children in the house.

The battery has been put back in. I will look into alternatives. Truthfully it was an oddity that it was out when this thread was started as I usually remember to put it back.

I do know this lesson and should have been more attentive. I lost a good friend, her boyfriend and their dog, eight years ago last month to a fire while they were sleeping. Jamie should have been at my baby shower but died the day before.

Thank you all for reminding me not to be stupid and for being such good and caring friends.

Thank you, beanmomma, for your thoughtful words. I do think it's absurd to disconnect a smoke alarm because one doesn't like the way it does its job.

We used to do fire drills with our kids, too, when they were little, and I always thought it was a good idea to reinforce those lessons once in a while. Of course it also helped them figure out to sneak out when they were teenagers, but at least they didn't die in a house fire, lol!

It's usually not recommended you put one actually in the kitchen josh, but you can get heat sensitive alarms for the kitchen.

This turned into an interesting thread and a nice reminder for people. Meanwhile, mine went off when I opened my George Foreman Grill last night.

Maybe I need to get a portable fan 'cos fanning that high alarm is wreaking havoc with my torn rotator cuff.

Sheila, probably one of those little battery "personal" fans would be enough if aimed right at the alarm. I saw one at a curbmarket on display and was surprised at the amount of air it was moving.

This is one of those threads which made us all stop and think...a good thing! josh

Good Morning All;
I spent many years designing fire systems for commercial applications and I can tell you that today's NFPA standards require a smoke detector on every floor and in every bedroom. They should be hardwired with battery backup. The reason for every bedroom is that most people today close their bedroom doors and that would contain a fire until it had consumed everything in that room. Which means if it should start in your child's room and there was no smoke detector, the chance of your child surviving is minimal. More people die from smoke inhalation than the actual fire.
I have over the years installed smoke detectors in all of my siblings and parents homes. I have done this while visiting them and they may have thought it presumptuous when I did it but all have thanked me now.
The federal law back in 1993 required an integrated fire dectection system in all apartment buildings that have more than three floors or more than 12 units. Local ordinances may be more strict. If you live in such a building and do not have an integrated system (ie when the lady downstairs burns her dinner, your smoke detectors go off), I would question the authorities and/or the landlord.
All of these laws have many fatalities behind them and that is why they exist. They are not meant to put hardship on building owners but to prevent the loss of life.
As you can tell this is one thing I am passionate about. Please make sure that your smokes are working and put where they will give you the earliest detection. Also if a smoke detector seems to sensitive, it may be at the end of its life expectancy and just need to be replaced. You can also try vacuuming dust out of overly sensitive alarms.
We are changing our clocks this weekend (I think) and that is usually when it is recommended to change your smoke detector batteries. Do it every year. It is a small price to pay for safety.
diene

Thanks, Diene. Your advice about vacuuming the alarm wil be heeded here particularly for the one in my laundry room. I clean the filters regularly in the washer and dryer but, especially with the dryer filter, minute particles always escape.

Hope you'll join in more often here. josh

Our fire alarm by the kitchen works very well!! I can poke it with the broom handle to turn it off. But in a little while it starts again. Usually I just open the front door (It gets a little chilly in Jan!). Our new house will have carbon monoxide alarms too because for the first time in years we will have gas heat. I take these things seriously because bad things do happen.