Why the Most Common Smoke Alarm is Dangerous

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Most American smoke alarms have two serious flaws: They go off while you're cooking and they're too slow at detecting a new and deadly type of fire.  Good news, the new generation of smoke alarms has finally fixed these problems. 

Updates:
Oct 20: Kidde 9th gen now available in Canada in Home Depot
June 6. Kidde just launched 9th gen alarms, I've added my notes on why they aren't my top recommendations below.

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🔥 MY GUIDE TO PICKING THE BEST SMOKE ALARM 🔥
This in-depth guide will help you choose the best smoke alarms for your specific needs.

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MY TOP SMOKE ALARM RECOMMENDATIONS: USA
Photoelectric alarms are still best. I talk about why in my guide above. Before buying, be aware of your legal requirements: search "your city" + "smoke alarm laws". I've purchased or at least through friends got hands on and extensively researched each model. There are affiliate links below which means I earn a small commission off any purchases, costs you nothing. I purchased all of these products fully myself and it helps me do the same in the future.

1️⃣ First Alert SMCO100V-AC  ||  Top Pick for Hardwired Homes
Covers all the bases for modern homes and building codes requiring hardwired and interconnected smoke alarms. Check by removing your alarm, see three wire attached? It's hardwired.

This model has a photoelectric sensor + CO detector which also covers all building codes in the US. Has voice alerts telling you where the fire is.

2️⃣ First Alert SMCO500V || Wireless Protection
If your home doesn't have hardwired smoke alarms, this alarm uses wireless signals to interconnect your alarms together. All done on the smoke alarm, no phone or app is used.

If your smoke alarms are solo flyers, interconnecting them is a HUGE improvement in safety as it allows distant fires to sound the closest alarm to you. The version with carbon monoxide is cheaper (as of June 8th) than the same version without one 🤷

Note some states require 10-YEAR Sealed Battery in new alarms and this alarm DOES NOT QUALIFY: AZ, KY, LA, MD, NC, OH, OR, PA, TX (Houston), VT, WI. Some states exempt wireless alarms from this rule: CA, FL, IL, IN.

3️⃣FIRST ALERT || Top 10-YR Battery Pick
CO + Voice alerts + Photoelectric + 10YR Battery which keeps your alarm running, no more annoying battery changes which also saves you money long term. Note, Amazon states it's frequently returned, that's for the older models this unit is sold with.

4️⃣ Nest Protect 2nd Edition  ||  Smart Home Connectivity
If you're interested in smart home functionality like remote notifications for fires this is the model for you. Plus it self tests so you no longer have to push a button. Keep in mind 10-YR rules for the battery version.

Uses an advanced dual spectrum infrared photoelectric sensor and humidity detection for better false vs real alarm differentiation. 

⭐ KIDDE ALARMS ⭐
Kidde launched their latest 9th gen alarms. These are the superior alarm for smoke detection as it has a more stringent PU foam and cooking nuisance test. My concern is Kidde's reliability as they've had several recalls over the last 10 years, including their 8th gen Trusense smoke alarm lineup.

1️⃣ KIDDE ‎30CUA10-V || For Hardwired Homes
Hardwired, CO Detector, 10-year battery, and voice alerts. You can save some money with the AA battery model but the peace of mind is worth it.

2️⃣ KIDDE 20SD10 ||  Just the Basics
A photoelectric smoke alarm + 10 year battery

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BEHIND THE SCENES & NEWSLETTER

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 The Shocking Problem with American Smoke Alarms
2:18 Ionization Alarms: How The Tech Fails You
3:38 Why Ionization Alarms Go Off While Cooking
4:23 The Dangerous Smoke Many Alarms Aren't Detecting
5:38 The Slow Burning Danger in Your Home
6:35 AD: Novium Pens | Paying My Research Bills
8:23 The Solution: Photoelectric Alarms
9:25 How Photoelectric Alarms Work & How They're Saving Lives
10:43 Ionization vs Photoelectric - Which One is Better?
12:25 How the 8th Generation of Smoke Alarms Fixes These Problems
14:12 How Ionization Alarms were Fixed
15:23 Time to Upgrade Your Smoke Alarms?

[Lam]

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GUIDE TO 8TH GENERATION SMOKE ALARMS
I've put together a guide to help you get the best alarms, improve your installation for better safety, and I've included my sources / research behind this video.

[henryprice]

My smoke detector goes off when i get out of the shower. But grandpa leaves an empty pan on high, fills the house with smoke. Yet the damn alarm didn't go off until we could barely breathe in the living room.

[Mr.Engineer.]

Optical (photo electric) alarms have been the praise in Norway for decades now. You have to try really hard to find an ionizing smoke detector at any place that sells smoke alarms

[davidconner-shover]

I am a fire alarm technician, the ionization detectors aren't even legal over 3, 000ft above sea level, yet all the home improvement stores sell them at 7, 000ft

[PetesGuide]

My childhood hero and mentor was a nuclear physicist who was involved in the development of ionization alarms. I keep kicking myself for not becoming aware of the seriousness of the issue while he was still alive. That would have been an awesomely insightful discussion.

[MmmHuggles]

A few years back I had hardwired smoke alarms from the mid 1980s. I kept them because they still worked. That is, until one day I was using a staple gun on a wall that had one and the vibration must have caused something inside the smoke alarm to fail. The smoke alarm caught fire, then alerted me that it was on fire lol. I took the rest of the hardwired alarms out that day. I'm still amazed to this day that a smoke alarm can still work after 30 years, catch fire, and still alert you that it's on fire.

[gameeverything]

It still kinda blows my mind that you went from dashcam videos (which were good, they are why I bought my dashcam, and how I found you) to these absolutely awesome videos! I hope the algorithm pushes your videos like it should. Your channel could easily blow up. I hope it does. Keep up the good work!

[P_RO_]

Of the fatal house fires I learn of locally, almost all of them have no working smoke detectors with about half of those having none at all. In over half of the 'non-working' cases, it was battery powered and the resident apparently removed the battery. In many other cases the battery was dead. To alleviate the intentional disarming and problems with dead batteries, newer building codes require interconnected grid-powered units with battery back-up, yet you get the same problem as people now simply remove or unplug the units. It is paramount that safety devices of all kinds preclude false alarms or people will find a way to disable them.

There is a flaw in the photoelectric or optical detectors: they will alert over airborne dust as quickly as they do smoke. Based on where their sensitivity level is set, that can be an almost imperceptible amount of dust. I hope these new detectors can discriminate against that.

And here's a closing thought: Christmas may be a long way off, but for those you know who have defeated their detectors now you know the perfect present for them, and one which shows how deeply you care.

[cmawhz]

my dad's life was saved by a smoke alarm that woke him up in the middle of the night. firefighters said that if he was a minute slower to escape he would have been trapped by the flames. having a good smoke detector is important to me so thanks for the video.

[itsthegrumpyparrot]

Oh, yes! Technology Connections made a similar video regarding types of smoke alarms

[Flash]

Have both optical (photo electric) and ionizing smoke detectors, CO and natural gas detectors, co2 and ABC extinguishers installed on every floor in my house, we have an escape plan, was in a building fire when I was a teenager, was a volunteer firefighter in my 20s. Thanks for the testing

[tomweickmann]

New viewer here.
Great video. Thank you.
Back in 2018 my refrigerator power cord was pinched, causing a smoldering fire in the kitchen while I was at work.
I had left an exhaust fan in one of the bathrooms going, and a passerby saw it and called the FD.
No one heard any smoke alarms going.
Glad I wasn't there, asleep.

[KuroFoxe]

God, my time at job corps was sooo annoying with the optical alarms.. People getting up early morning and taking hot showers, the vapor was enough to set it off. I would angrily state these aren't smoke detectors, they're particle detectors. I'm glad to see this issue is being dealt with.

[LenKusov]

I mean, the older-gen ionization alarms ARE extremely annoying, but they've also saved my ass quite a few times because I live with roommates and have an electric coil stove and very little counter space. Roommate throws on a pot of water for Mac-n-Cheese, turns on the back burner instead of the front, tupperware catches on fire while I'm in my room with the door (right next to the stove) shut and they're in the living room watching TV or something. This happens about every 6 months or so but the detectors ALWAYS catch it within seconds of it flashing off, we just have to remember to open the kitchen door before anyone opens the oven otherwise everyone runs around to find some kinda pokey-stick-object to turn the alarm off. Hell, it ALMOST happened with a skillet full of bacon grease on the back burner LITERALLY LAST NIGHT, I just smelled it before it caught fire cause my door was open.

[TrainfanJanathan]

We once moved into a house where the previous owner smoked. One day, a smoke alarm fell on the floor and the smell of the carpet set it off.😂

It took us over a month of running all the ceiling fans nonstop at full power with all the windows open to get the smell out.

[RescueGirl]

Former Fire Lieutenant here. DO NOT BUY KIDDE. I have seen far too many failures of Kidde products.

[vas]

From dash cam testing to fire alarm, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge on these items. ❤

[MQShawGravity]

The photoelectric ones suck in deserts that experience dust storms. As an Electrician while serving in Kuwait and Iraq -every time we had dust storms they would set the alarms off and this would shut down the central A/C on systems that were connected. It made many people upset that not only was sand and dust everywhere you’d also be sweating even more in the desert heat. They would get dusty over time also which sets them off (the LED reflects off the dust particles coating the inside). You couldn’t just blow them clean with a can of compressed air/CO2 either.

Opening them up and washing the little black plastic removable cover and cleaning the detector lens with a Q- tip works but opening them at all often voids any warranty on individual devices and complete alarm systems (don’t do this, It’s better to be safe than sorry). So, we would just replace the entire detector and throw away the dirty/malfunctioning old one.

I prefer a combination Universal Security Instruments 10 Year Sealed, Battery Operated, Dual Sensing 2-In-1 Kitchen Smoke and Fire Detector, Microprocessor Intelligence detector in my home with the 10 year lithium ion battery. Steamy showers still set it off though. 😂 This is not an advertisement it’s what I actually use, I ordered them from a home improvement store they are pricey but life is priceless.

[CZTachyonsVN]

Here in our Australian home. We have both alarms. One of them goes off about half the time whenever I use the oven. It's so annoying! But I also understood why it behaves like that. We might have a look at the availability of the 8th gen alarms here soon!

[jaybee]

I bought both types of detectors for each location in my home when I moved into my house 4 years ago. All from Kidde and I have had multiple failures. Going off continuously at night for literally no reason, waking my young daughter up and traumatizing her as well as 10 year batteries that failed way early, and many false alarms. So I would not recommend going with Kidde products despite the enticing 9th gen marketing you mentioned in the description (I also think they declared bankruptcy). I will probably look at swapping out for the first alert. Really cool video!