What You Must Know About Smoke Detectors

Susan Koeppen With Detailed Look At The Life-Savers, Including Plenty You May Not Realize

(CBS)  This is one of two weekends a year when it's recommended that you change the batteries in your smoke detectors, and make sure they're working right. Those weekends are when daylight-saving time begins, and when it ends in the fall.

Some 3,000 people die in house fires in the United States each year, and smoke detectors cut your chances of being trapped in a house fire by more than half, experts say.

On The Early Show Friday, consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen took a detailed look at different types of smoke detectors, and had plenty of tips about the devices.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking that you not only replace the batteries in them this year, but evaluate the smoke alarm you have.

According to Koeppen:

There are two commons kinds of smoke alarms: ionization alarms and photoelectric alarms.

Ionization sensors detect high flame fires quickly, while photoelectric sensors detect smoldering fires. Since both types of fires occur in household, both types of sensors are needed. Some detectors are combo types, with both kinds of sensors.

There are other features that are extremely important, one of which is having all of your smoke alarms interconnected. Almost all homes are now built with all of the smoke alarms hard-wired together so that, when one alarm goes off, every smoke alarm in the home does. This is extremely important, especially in larger homes, so that if a fire starts in one area of the house, you're alerted before it spreads and it's too late. If your house isn't equipped with these smoke detectors, you can purchase wirelessly-connected alarms and outfit your house for less than $50.

Another type of smoke alarm will cost you more, but can greatly increase the chances of saving lives. It's one that has smoke AND carbon monoxide detectors. Both are extremely important, and having them combined in one alarm is not only convenient, but can be the difference between life and death. One alarm actually speaks, or rather, yells, what's going on. It will yell "Fire Fire!" or "Carbon Monoxide!" so there's no confusion.

If you've owned homes for years, you need to not only check the batteries in your alarms, and the types of alarms they have, but how old they are. Smoke detectors don't usually last longer than ten years, so it's important to check how long they've been in the home.

For information from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on protecting yourself from house fires, click here.

For word from a leading smoke detector maker, click here.

For a complete rundown of smoke alarm info from the CPSC, go to Page 2.

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Add a Comment

by bwessels March 7, 2008 6:42 PM EST

So often we hear about the smoke alarms with missing or disconnected batteries. They never ask WHY? The answer is simple: people disconnect them on purpose, because of false alarms. Simply put, innovation in these devices stopped 30 years ago, and they are terrible. Like the boy who cried wolf, we do not believe them and are sick of hearing them. I have a whole-house system that would regularly go off, usually at 3 a.m., and scare the heck out of my kids. We had an electrician in, and he said there was nothing "wrong" with the system. (Except the sensor technology is worthless, he left out.) Eventually we figured out that two bedrooms with reduced air circulation seemed to be the problem. And yes, we disabled those smoke detectors. I will have to trust the rest of them in the house and our own fire safety practices to avoid dying of a heart attack instead.

Reply to this comment

by tburzio March 7, 2008 6:18 PM EST

What you really need to know is that smoke detectors are a band-aid needed after over-reaction and hysteria caused asbestos to be pulled from construction. Now many more people die from fire than complications resulting from the misuse of asbestos.

Reply to this comment

by rf35 March 7, 2008 5:39 PM EST

Oh CBS web guru, how can I trust an article with an advertising link?

Reply to this comment

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[bwessels]

So often we hear about the smoke alarms with missing or disconnected batteries. They never ask WHY? The answer is simple: people disconnect them on purpose, because of false alarms. Simply put, innovation in these devices stopped 30 years ago, and they are terrible. Like the boy who cried wolf, we do not believe them and are sick of hearing them. I have a whole-house system that would regularly go off, usually at 3 a.m., and scare the heck out of my kids. We had an electrician in, and he said there was nothing "wrong" with the system. (Except the sensor technology is worthless, he left out.) Eventually we figured out that two bedrooms with reduced air circulation seemed to be the problem. And yes, we disabled those smoke detectors. I will have to trust the rest of them in the house and our own fire safety practices to avoid dying of a heart attack instead.

[tburzio]

What you really need to know is that smoke detectors are a band-aid needed after over-reaction and hysteria caused asbestos to be pulled from construction. Now many more people die from fire than complications resulting from the misuse of asbestos.

[rf35]

Oh CBS web guru, how can I trust an article with an advertising link?