@macklyn
Not only have you radically improved my dishwasher's performance; you have also upgraded my home's fire safety. I very much look forward to the next assistance I didn't know I needed. Thank you most sincerely!
@mrtboy
Funny story, I replaced all my ionization alarms with newer photoelectric ones, within a week I had one that went off on a regular basis, I took it down and opened it up to see what the issue was. Turns out that a small spider had taken up residence in the light chamber. My best guess is that he would pass through the beam occasionally creating a false positive. The other photoelectric ones have never had any such issues
@fredtaylor9792
Those "nuisance" alarms almost killed us. I kept taking them down when we cooked. A nightmare I had about a fire caused me to buy one, single photoelectric alarm for the baby's room. Less than a week later, that was the ONLY fire alarm installed when we had an electrical fire at 4 a.m. we lost almost everything we owned but we lived and that's all that matters. I keep that melted smoke detector hung up in my garage. We owe our lives to that one smoke detector.... and that nightmare I had.
@TheWitchesList
The clear 'No alarms go off' at the beginning was very very appreciated. Wish all professional folks could set expectations that way
@NinaWellford
Whoa!!!! My DAD was the Donald F. Steele whom you mention up front - he an Bob Enemark had the patent on the photoelectric smoke detector, with their company Electro Signal lab. He could have written your script - I grew up hearing the exact same explanation about how it worked, how it differed from the ionizations, and how the research backed up the fact that many many more people die of smoke inhalation than of actual flames. Great job!!!
@kadachiman7234
As a Fire Electrical technician I often watch these types of videos to see if the presenter is actually giving out correct information, and also a person has to be open to maybe learning something new regardless of their background. I would therefore like to commend you on a very accurate, informative and knowledgeable video, and would recommend anyone who is interested in Fire Safety in their house (which should be everyone) to spend 25 minutes to watch this video as it will be time very well invested.
@bv226
As a 35 year veteran firefighter I want to thank you. And congratulate you on a very well presented report. As you stated, having alarms, maintaining alarms and heeding alarms is vital.
@playedtoomuch5259
2:10 big message to the kinda people who hear the smoke alarm beep and just think "oh the hallway just does that whatever" its more common than you would think
@scaredyfish
I have to say, I used to call my smoke detector the ‘cooking detector’ because it basically went off whenever I did any kind of cooking. I eventually got frustrated and tore it off the wall. It’s great to know there is a better alternative - you might have just saved my life.
@patrickhill5630
I actually work as a fire alarm tech! While we do test the smoke detectors with cans of fake smoke, there are several brands that actually recommend testing it via magnet or pressing a test button. It's because the fake smoke can leave an oily residue on the device if too much is sprayed or if it isnt blown out well enough with compressed air. This residue can then gather dust, making the detector less sensitive or, in severe cases, block it up completely. Personally I prefer using the fake smoke as it tests the sensors as well as the circuit and FACP. But in the event of a desensitized detector, we test the sensitivity of the detectors every other year, so if we find one that has become desensitized, we either clean it out or replace it. As far as home use goes, I think testing your smoke alarm with just the button is more than sufficient. Because you can gunk up the sensor with the fake smoke, I feel it would end up doing more harm than good as many people may over do it and end up clogging up the detector. And unlike commercial fire alarm systems, most/all 120V or battery powered detectors don't have the ability to test the sensitivity of the detector. So if a detector were to become desensitized, you would have no way of knowing.
@moritzpritz9320
You pronounced "Jaeger" (or Jäger, the "ae" is simply an alternative way to spell the "ä" character) pefectly by the way. As a native german speaker, I am simultaneously very impressed and not at all surprised that you got it spot on.
@illusion-xiii
"The half life of americium-241 is over 400 years, so the sensor could easily outlive you." I like that you said 'could easily' instead of 'will definitely.' I admire your optimism.
@ForTheBirbs
I'm retired from an Australian Govt research organisation. I was in the fire research area. We did full scale house burns and compared the detectors some decades ago. That and other lab testing showed how ineffective the ionization detectors are in most home fires which start with smoldering. They took tens of minutes to respond to typical fires, or not at all as you mentioned. The ionization types are gradually disappearing here but still specified in the UK for use in bedrooms! It is now recommended to use a combination photoelectric and carbon monoxide detector. It is also worth mentioning that commercial smoke detectors are photoelectric. The VESDA (very early smoke detection apparatus) systems were originally a flash tube (xenon) and later a laser type), and developed for use in computer / data centres or labs and so on. They have a pump that draws air into the detection chamber. The beam types you mentioned are also sed for tunnels etc to monitor car exhaust etc and operate jet or extraction fans.
@matsuringo24
The one weakness I’ve seen from photoelectric is false alarms from shower steam. Happened to me in an apartment that had its placement just outside the bathroom in the hall. The bathroom’s vent fan wasn’t able to overcome the steam output and it’d end up going off every single time if I didn’t aim a stand fan directly at the detector to prevent steam from reaching it.
@EnigmacTheFirst
There are two types of smoke alarms: those with charged batteries and those with dying batteries.
@lucashewitt8964
After watching this I reached out to Kidde since I have a bunch of the dual sensor alarms in my home (Kidde Dual Sensor Battery Operated Smoke Alarm Pi9010). I asked "Does this product trigger the alarm when ONLY ONE sensor detects smoke, or when BOTH sensors detect smoke?" They replied "Only one of the sensors has to detect smoke to make the unit go into alarm." Might want to add a note about that since your preference away from this detector was based on the possibility that both sensors would need to detect smoke for it to go off.
@dynagoat7374
Do your future self a favor: when he says to pause the video and check your alarms, DO IT! My dad was a firefighter, and he always talked about the importance of smoke alarms. I was pretty sure we had them all over the house. It's been a while since I checked on them, but I was sure we had at least 4 or 5. When I went to check them out, however, I was surprised to find that through years of re-decorating rooms, frantic battery hunts, and false alarms from the kitchen, most of them had disappeared. There are now only 2 working alarms in the whole house. I am now getting this problem resolved, but would never have even known about it had he not reminded me. Thank you for helping to bring my fire safety up to scratch!
@pheffr
That photoelectric alarm that went off every time the dryer was on likely failed due to lint! The microcontroller typically adjusts to the background level of radiant light detected. When dust builds in these detectors, they can sometimes trigger due to the reflectivity of the dust on the far side of the chamber bouncing light around. Sometimes it's because turbulent air will knock dust loose to float through the chamber. I can only imagine that, over time, tiny lint particles built up in the detector, so the air turbulence created by the dryer would knock that lint off the walls to float through the beam. For future reference, you can pop the cover off and clean out the sensor with canned air. Less plastic in the landfill!
@VERYEXCITED
I just want to say thanks for the very first sentence. So many youtube creators seem to rely on yelling and sudden loud noises to keep attention, or inject drama, or for comedy. That's fine. I don't expect the world to change to my preferences. It's just not my cup of tea to get a sudden adrenaline dump and a day of arrhythmia. Right after I clicked this video, in the second while it loaded, I thought, "Oh no, it's gonna have loud alarms." And I hovered my mouse pointer over the back button. It's like you read my mind, man. That's very considerate of you.
@TechnologyConnections