Heat alarm problems

davesangel

Hi all, I've recently moved to quite a small flat where there is a heat alarm and a smoke alarm downstairs near to where the cooker is. There's a strong extractor fan so when I'm cooking pasta etc the steam doesn't set off the alarms, however anytime I either use the toaster, grill or oven, the heat detector thing goes off and it's horrible. I had to get a friend round last night to wave the heat away from the oven with a towel whilst I kept pressing the reset button because I had just opened the oven door after baking a cake.

Can anyone advise is it legal to request that this alarm be disabled? I'm happy to have the smoke alarm there, but to have an alarm that goes off if I try to cook things is ridiculous, and it is clearly going to start going off when the weather gets colder and I need to put on the radiators - and I am not happy sacrificing heat/comfort or not cooking food just so the alarm doesn't go off.

lau1247

Not sure about your place OP but last place I lived in had a switch by the entrance to the apartment to switch it off temporarily. Maybe you could see if you have that option in your place.

If it goes off again, don't bother with the waving, just cover over the sensor with a piece of cloth until it goes off.. it is much quicker than waving it around (And less head pounding ringing).. Of course that is only a temporary solution.

altor

davesangel wrote: »

Hi all, I've recently moved to quite a small flat where there is a heat alarm and a smoke alarm downstairs near to where the cooker is. There's a strong extractor fan so when I'm cooking pasta etc the steam doesn't set off the alarms, however anytime I either use the toaster, grill or oven, the heat detector thing goes off and it's horrible. I had to get a friend round last night to wave the heat away from the oven with a towel whilst I kept pressing the reset button because I had just opened the oven door after baking a cake.

Can anyone advise is it legal to request that this alarm be disabled? I'm happy to have the smoke alarm there, but to have an alarm that goes off if I try to cook things is ridiculous, and it is clearly going to start going off when the weather gets colder and I need to put on the radiators - and I am not happy sacrificing heat/comfort or not cooking food just so the alarm doesn't go off.

Smoke detectors should not be used in a kitchen for the reasons you mentioned above. If the detector is too close to were you are cooking then can it not be moved?

Michael D Not Higgins

altor wrote: »

Smoke detectors should not be used in a kitchen for the reasons you mentioned above. If the detector is too close to were you are cooking then can it not be moved?

Yeah I'd be looking to have it moved rather than disabled. You can imagine a case of forgetting to reset the alarm and then you're not protected.

altor

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Yeah I'd be looking to have it moved rather than disabled. You can imagine a case of forgetting to reset the alarm and then you're not protected.

Agreed. If there is a landlord involved then get them to sort it for you.
If its your own home and your not sure what to do then get someone that does to do it for you.

Victor

It is mandatory to have a heat detector in the kitchen of modern properties. One should be fitted to other properties as soon as practical. They have the advantage over smoke detectors of not being triggered by small amounts of smoke from a toaster or when you open the oven.

A radiator (50-70 degrees) wouldn't trigger it, as it wouldn't be hot enough. Your oven would be 180-200 degrees for most things.

It sounds like the one you have is over-sensitive or possibly is positioned too close to the cooker / toaster. I would raise it with your landlord.

There is an obligation on landlords to have the fire alarm system in multi-unit buildings assessed every 6 months.

hoodwinked

i think this is becoming a problem with the small kitchens that are being built, we too are in a two bedroom apartment and had the exact same problem,

our heat alarm is directly above the area the heat goes when you open the oven or microwave doors, so every time we used the oven/grill/microwave it would go off,


we have another one by the entrance to the kitchen so i didn't see why they put one where they did, all it did was cause problems,

so when the last time we had someone out to check them i told them of the problem, they told me it couldn't be happening as the temperature to set them off was higher than an oven/room temp could possibly be, so i grilled some rashers and soon enough it was going off, i don't know what he did but since then it hasn't gone off half as much (it still does when i grill rashers though)