Both kinds exist. Both have different benefits and drawbacks.
You shouldn’t only be using one type in your house.
Optical is great for detecting large smoke particles quickly. If the smoke is small particles, though, it’ll need to be rather dense before it’ll go off. Ionizing detectors have the opposite issue; they react quickly to small particles but can’t detect large particles that well.
No the sensitivity of radiation based smoke alarms tends to cause false positives which in turn causes people to ignore them making them less effective. Optical smoke detectors are overall the newer and better technology.
That being said radiation based smoke detection is still a cool concept. There might be a few areas where they perform better still, though probably not.
For best protection, it is recommended both (ionization and photoelectric) technologies be used in homes. In addition to individual ionization and photoelectric alarms, combination alarms that include both technologies in a single device are available.
The smoke detectors in my house are hooked up to the main power, but they still take a battery and beep when the battery is dead. I thought the battery was backup, but they die after about 2 years, so it can’t be backup, it must be used for something.
I found that out one very exciting morning, when it decided to sing me the song of its people. If you’ve never stumbled down the stairs at 4am looking for a fire with your bollocks flapping about, I heartily recommend it.
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But how would they sell more smoke detectors that way?
They can sell more smoke detectors in HELLLLL
Doesn’t the isotope in the detection chamber degrade and needs to be replaced in 10 years anyway?
https://www.epa.gov/radtown/americium-ionization-smoke-detectors
most smoke detectors nowadays are optical.
Both kinds exist. Both have different benefits and drawbacks.
You shouldn’t only be using one type in your house.
Optical is great for detecting large smoke particles quickly. If the smoke is small particles, though, it’ll need to be rather dense before it’ll go off. Ionizing detectors have the opposite issue; they react quickly to small particles but can’t detect large particles that well.
No the sensitivity of radiation based smoke alarms tends to cause false positives which in turn causes people to ignore them making them less effective. Optical smoke detectors are overall the newer and better technology.
That being said radiation based smoke detection is still a cool concept. There might be a few areas where they perform better still, though probably not.
https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Staying-safe/Safety-equipment/Smoke-alarms/Ionization-vs-photoelectric
The half life of americium 241 is 432.2 years, so no
Those detectors are inferior to optic detectors and should not be used any more.
The smoke detectors in my house are hooked up to the main power, but they still take a battery and beep when the battery is dead. I thought the battery was backup, but they die after about 2 years, so it can’t be backup, it must be used for something.
Even the 9V ones didn’t last forever.
I found that out one very exciting morning, when it decided to sing me the song of its people. If you’ve never stumbled down the stairs at 4am looking for a fire with your bollocks flapping about, I heartily recommend it.
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The battery was fine. It was the alarm that had degraded to the point that it always “detected” smoke.
Turns out smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years or so.