New build smoke alarms , can they be turned down ?

Tiddles_1

we have a newly built house and also a newborn , the smoke / heat alarms in the kitchen are extremely sensitive to the point of we cook anything in the oven or air fryer they go off and all over the house I’m extremely worried about the babies hearing if they go off they are that loud and go off in every room. Does anyone know is it possible to turn them down ?

Lenar3556

No, they won’t have any facility to alter the volume.

But they shouldn’t be going off. They are probably the incorrect type. Kitchen should have a heat alarm, and all others should be optical smoke. Ionisation may be ok in bedrooms.

Sounds like you may have ionisation smoke in the kitchen or close by.

If you upload clear photos of the alarms in the vicinity of the kitchen, we can advise better.

drury..

Its all optical smoke alarms now, heat in kitchen

They shouldn't be going off but you can install below if you have an EI system

https://www.eielectronics.ie/products/accessories/control/ei1529rc-remote-control-switch/

Lenar3556

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122418325#Comment_122418325

Ionisation smoke alarms are still on the market and are acceptable in bedrooms in accordance with the current edition of IS3218.

Sensitivity to cooking in the order described points towards an ion chamber detector near the kitchen as even a photoelectric in the kitchen wouldn’t tend to be that sensitive.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122418398#Comment_122418398

Might be available somewhere i dunno .Even the cheap battery alarms are optical now.

EI no longer manufacture ionization and EI is all i ever fitted

See below EI spec for house

Optical /multi-sensor or heat only

https://www.eielectronics.ie/fire-alarm-select/

Lenar3556

Ei still make the Ei141, and still a lot of them around.
https://www.eielectronics.ie/products/fire/mains/ei141rc-ionisation-smoke-alarm/

Ei are heavily marketing the optical, together with more expensive multisensors as superior in limiting false alarms, and there is no doubt that is true but ionisation isn’t gone just yet!

drury..

I can only assume it's being phased out

I didn't see it before when I looked . If u click on mains or battery below it's not listed

https://www.eielectronics.ie/product-category/fire/

And u can see the EI spec for house previously , bedrooms are optical or multi-sensor

Not denying they may still be legal

I also noticed all the cheap 9v alarms in shops are now optical

Tiddles_1

we have that but it only stops them for a few seconds and then they keep going off . Literally can’t cook in my own house

dunworth1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122419180#Comment_122419180

have you got an extractor fan?

is the smoke alarm located directly above the cooker?

dissq1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122419180#Comment_122419180

If you press the button on our one for ten seconds before cooking it stops it going off while cooking. Not very scientific but it works. I ended up swapping out our kitchen one with one of the other ones in the house because I couldn't cope with it going off all the time. I thought it was faulty. Now looking at the above diagram seems maybe I shouldn't have done that but the alternative was disconnecting the kitchen one and having no alarm in there at all.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122419180#Comment_122419180

You shouldn't be prone to that type of nuisance . It sounds like the spec is wrong

It's usually a heat alarm in kitchen and presumably you've decent mechanical extraction and you're closing door to hallway when cooking ?

Could be there's a heat and an optical if it's a large kitchen dining or worse case they've put in an ionization in the area

drury..

Take a picture of the one that goes off and proximity to cooker

Not sure if EI are labelled or not on outside