Why Millions of Smoke Alarms Can’t Catch NEW Fires🔥

Enjoy 10% OFF on all Hoverpens and free shipping to most countries with code ANDREWLAM ►► North America & Other Countries: bit.ly/andrew_novium ►► UK & Europe: bit.ly/andrew_noviumeu - - - - 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. ►► andrewlam.net/the-best-smoke-alarms-most-people-do…

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

5:16 I'm calling it, the solution is a air quality monitor that can detect particle counts in the PM2.5, PM10, VOC and CO

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

Former private Fire Inspector here. I would alarm smoke detectors via smoke at schools, hospitals, courthouses, etc. There are some dangerous systems you shouldn't trust your life on. In my experience; Johnson Controls (JCI) has pull-stations that, at one medical center, failed to operate an alarming amount of the time. Fike alarms are among the worst; it takes an insane amount of smoke to set off.

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.

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.

In England, the recommendation a few years ago was to get one of each type of smoke alarm, and a CO one if you use gas. My CO alarm stopped working exactly 11 years after the manufacturing date.

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.

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!

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

I swear smoke alarms from 15 years ago were far more likely to detect cooking than now. I was going to get to the bottom of this on my own but this video exceeds what I wanted.