"You know you're a bad cook when you use the smoke detector as a kitchen timer." Har har. Real funny, guys. The reality is the false smoke alarm thing happens to everyone at least once—whether you're a skilled home chef, a frozen pizza in the oven type of cook, or someone who likes a hot, steamy shower. Here are a few ways to shut the thing up safely.
Whenever you're tampering with a safety device, you want to tread lightly. If you want to keep your smoke alarm from going off when you're cooking or showering, there's a right and a wrong way to do it.
Lifehacker and StackExchange have each taken on the topic of false smoke alarms recently, but there's a bevy of advice all over the web—some good, some bad and some very dangerous.
What NOT to do:
• Pull it off the ceiling or take out the batteries. You'll forget to set it back up again (admit it!).
How you should handle it:
• Hit the mute button. Google your smoke detector's make and model to find out if your alarm is equipped with a mute button. Many models have features that will disable the alarm for a short set period of time, usually around 15 minutes.
The long-term solution:
Switch to a photoelectric smoke detector. These devices detect smoke in a different way, which reduces instances of cooking or shower steam "false alarms."
(Images: Shutterstock, OSHA.gov)
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I was hoping that this article was going to be a little more comprehensive, so I'll put in my two cents. To stop a smoke alarm that's already going off, I wave a towel in front of it until it shuts up (plus a few seconds longer). To keep the smoke alarm from going off when I know it's inevitable (like when making pizza), I put a gallon Ziplock bag over it with the zipper going right around the dectector and the bag sticking straight out from the wall (zipped up to fit). I leave the step stool underneath it so that I remember to take it down when I'm done (it's right in the way, so there's no way I could miss it).
When my cooking gets smoky I take the detectors off the wall and put them on my bed. I find that is the best way to remember to put them back up.
I call mine the cooking detector. It's connected to the fire department through ADT... it gives the firemen just enough time to get to my house for dinner...
We have a newer house with new, top rated smoke detectors (granted, not photoelectric)and they are the most sensitive horrible pieces of crap. but even cooking pancakes, chicken, whatever on a low heat, its going off. And its wired so when one goes, all of them in the house do.
Funny thing is since I live in a subdivision with homes all built same time by the same builder, every week or so I can stick my head out the front door and hear the familiar sound of someone else going through the same thing down the street! At least we're not alone!
We have insanely sensitive detectors. Despite being 20 feet from it, the downstairs one frequently goes off over just the radiant heat from me opening the oven door. No smoke. Oddly enough, the last time there was smoke...nada. To make matters worse, ours are hard-wired through our 3-story townhouse, so if one goes off, they all do.
Need to try that Ziploc bag trick! We usually take ours down if extensive baking is being done. Luckily, I'm anal about it getting back up.
I too was disappointed by this article, what help is that. We also have a newer home and the very first time we heated the oven and opened the door, the smoke alarm went off. We need a real solution, it goes off for everything. I also don't want to wake my napping child while cooking or run over and fan it each time. Since it is hard wired to all the others, any idea how to get the kitchen one to not be so sensitive?
Shower cap over the alarm, stick a long and stupid ribbon on it to make removal obvious and easier
I like the ziploc bag and shower cap ideas. My husband installed a smoke detector in my kitchen, but there's no air circulation between the kitchen and the rest of the apt, so every time I so much as turn on the oven the alarm would go off. I took it down.
I'm going to buy a photoelectric version. The write up on those versions on Amazon say they have less nuisance triggers. I'll just ninja replace my old one. The next tenants will be grateful.
Ha! I had this happen to me earlier today! I was cooking some tortillas up and the pan got too hot while it was warming up. Oops! Luckily, opening wide all the windows in my apartment and closing the door between the bedroom (where the alarm was) and the rest of the apartment, did the trick.
Ours go off randomly with no provocation. And they're all wired together, so every single one in the house joins in. I can't think of a single time that cooking (smoke or heat) or shower steam has triggered them. Sometimes a big clap of thunder will set them off, but usually they just start sometime in the middle of the night and (once we get them stopped) restart every 30 to 60 minutes. If we aren't home to turn them off, they just keep going. Once we came home and our 3 cats were all hiding in a closet, terrified, because the alarms had most likely been going off for an hour or more.
They're wired into the house, so taking the batteries out just makes them beep ALL the time. It's a fairly new house, is this just what they do now? The last place we lived had alarms that went off during thunderstorms, but not all by themselves repeatedly.
Got any recommendations for THIS?
When I was a kid, this happened all the time in my house--my mom (who was, mind you, a truly excellent cook) would keep a stack of magazines under where the alarm was and would wave one underneath it, while yelling "DINNER'S READY!" She called it "the dinner bell." Haha :)
Installing a photoelectric smoke alarm made all the difference in my house. My old smoke alarm would go off if I was charring peppers under the broiler, and it got annoying really fast. Once I put the new smoke alarm in, it hasn't gone off since (except once when I had sticky buns or something totally go crazy in the oven!)
Another idea I've read is to rig one of those hand-held battery operated fans to point at the detector. Make it so you can take it down when you are done cooking.
The shower cap idea seems the easiest one.
Hit it with a hammer. Problem solved.
Just kidding. But, in the twelve years that I've been living in apartments vs. single-family homes (and also renting so I can't replace/move/remove the detector), I haven't had a smoke alarm that I *didn't* want to hit with a hammer. I fail to see the utility of a detector where you have to remove the battery or take the whole thing down anytime you turn your oven on.
In my current apartment, the mute button of my detector is functionally useless, the detector is wired so it still will go off after the battery is out, AND it seems to have a battery of its own so, when you take it down, it still emits pathetic little beeps. When it goes off for no reason, I take the battery out, take the detector down, and put it in the dryer.
I lived in a tiny house with the woooorst alarm! I had a little shower cap over it, but it would go off every other day and my landlords lived next door and always came over to check if things were okay when it went off. I couldn't sear meat without it going off, and I couldn't even preheat the oven!! They took the batteries out but it was wired in to the electricity, so I had to open the door and all the windows before I wanted to cook anything. Oi.
bacon detector.
Alright as i live in apt complex the other night. I got back around 7:21pm the smoke dector and a person apt was going off. not one person was home. so its still going off about 7:40pm... i had people check and they told me not to call the 911... well i called the non-emgerecy number... well once the firefireighters got the key... they open there door there was smoke.
so two other fire trucks came.... with lights etc... just for back up in case. they guy who is the head firefireighter told me if i am not sure just call 911. But he also said thanks for calling.
So even if you believe its a false alarm and not one person is there CALL.