Hate one thing in my new house

[smilingcat]

I've been here for just over a week. Cooking for myself. Worked in back of the house "commercial kitchen" so I know what I'm doing I think ?

I HATE Carbon monoxide/smoke detector.

EAR SPLITTING SCREECH-SCREECH-SCREECH each time I used a wok. I even used to useless vent over the stove. Have one of those over the stove microwave with those useless venting system.

And this morning, I pulled a nicely toasted flax seed bread EAR SPLITTING SCREECH-SCREECH-SCREECH again. The toast is just lightly browned. I hate that little thing in the kitchen. Can't a girl cook without EAR SPLITTING SCREECH-SCREECH-SCREECH?

Two things come to mind. glue a plastic bowl over the smoke detector and "hermetically seal it"

rip out the microwave and install a real over the stove hood with vent going outside. Along with it some remodeling of the kitchen. Found out that the wall oven top and bottom will not accomodate a standard commercial half sheet baking pan 13"x24" grrr!!! Soo remodel, rip out the Magic Chef top-bottom wall oven and install a real oven and a microwave. I have no need for top and bottom oven.

As it stands now, I can't cook anything to give it a nice golden brown color. Eggs over easy fine. steaming okay. Saute nope nada!!

The question is do you have one of those new carbon monoxide-smoke detector in your kitchen. And is it so sensitive like mine?

What did you do to work around this problem?

Suggestion is much appreciated before I fly off the handle and rip that thing off the kitchen ceiling.

[Crankin]

We have one that if you press a button, it disables it for a few minutes, i.e. until the smoke clears. It goes back to working automatically. However, I do have a venting system/fan that works. It's just that I hate the noise of it, so I don't put it on until it's almost too late and the detector goes off anyway.
I would love to have a double oven and a microwave, too. We have the microwave/oven combo, which has to suffice. But on those few occasions when I am having a big dinner, the double oven would help.

[shootingstar]

Maybe the Internet will offer info.

Or phone the fire department and ask for the fire prevention office...it is this dept. that gets involved to educating the public about fire safety, what to do about smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

Whatever you do, do have one somewhere in the kitchen, nearby (your location sounds annoying). Some people permanently disable their smoke detectors.

Never do that. People have died because the the alert didn't sound...

Most people when they die from fires, die from smoke inhalation, not from being physically burnt alive. Smoke inhalation, here there's less oxygen and all sorts of toxic materials when they burn. ie. Plastic when it burns is highly toxic. And it is in an enclosed area, ie. indoors. Our homes are made up of many man-made materials...

How do I know this? I had a library which had research materials on fire deaths (smoke inhalation, people trampled to death, people too drunk/drugged, too weak, too frail, and couldn't get out fast enough, etc.), causes, toxicity of burning materials. The fire departments are serious in their campaign about keeping smoke detectors in working order.

From an ex-employee for a provincial fire marshal's office for 9 yrs.

[Mr. Bloom]

Can the detector be moved to a different location?

Please check out External downdraft options that may not require loss of the microwave

[Trek420]

Have one of those over the stove microwave with those useless venting system.

So do I. Most of them have a pretty useless venting system.

Keep the smoke/co2 alarm, heck get more all over the house but can you move that one?

How well is the room ventilated? Ceiling fan? Can you get the air moving otherwise?

Installing commercial grade hood would be expensive. I don't know your budget. Even then you could use more air.

[OakLeaf]

When the security company sited our smoke detector, they specifically sited it AWAY from the kitchen. It's in the hall near the bedrooms.

It's still too close to the bathroom though, which they also took into account, but just apparently ran out of space. In certain conditions, if we open the bathroom door after a shower, the water vapor will set off the alarm. Nothing like a wet naked scramble down to the keypad to shut it off, and to the phone to tell them to cancel the fire department call.

[tulip]

I say move it out of the kitchen. It should be near the bedrooms to wake you up if there is an emergency.

I have a GE Profile microwave-convection oven-exterior vent hood above my stove. It's really nice to have a vent to the exterior, and on occasion I have used both my regular oven (gas, also GE Profile) and convection oven, which is electric.

[Tokie]

The building code in our community requires a smoke detector in each bedroom and a smoke detector in the hall outside of the bedrooms. No kitchen smoke detector required.(probably in part because people disarm the kitchen ones because they go off all the time with ordinary cooking) however I live a few blocks from the beach, and in the summer when we have our "June gloom" foggy weather(or in the early fall) the foggy night air sometime sets off our bedroom smoke detector in the middle of the night - yikes~ tokie

[Biciclista]

my mother has a plastic haircover over hers.
We removed the one near our kitchen because we had the same problem. Without a well vented kitchen your alarm is going to go off. And that's unbearable.

[withm]

This happened in our new house. You may have a defective unit. Try replacing it with a new one. If your house is brand new, get the electrician back to replace it.

[badger]

In certain conditions, if we open the bathroom door after a shower, the water vapor will set off the alarm.

we recently had a guy who was showering for over 2 HOURS (according to his neighbour) and when he opened the bathroom door it tripped the heat detector.

We have an ancient alarm system so even after the fire department shut it off, it needed to be re-set; the alarm technician had to be called out on a double-overtime as it was a holiday Monday. We charged it all back to the water hog who set it off.

[malkin]

At one point we upgraded to a smoke detector that had a remote control to shut it off. Unfortunately, the TV remote also turned it ON.

This was not exactly an improvement.

[ASammy1]

It's still too close to the bathroom though, which they also took into account, but just apparently ran out of space. In certain conditions, if we open the bathroom door after a shower, the water vapor will set off the alarm.

This happened everyday at our last apartment in VA... I had no idea that this could happen...

[smilingcat]

Thank you Mr. Bloom,

I'll check into external downdraft. The wall behind the stove top separates the laundry room and the kitchen. Easy access. And my house has a crawl space under and not on a slab. I could easily run the vent to the outside, not just into the crawl space but to the outside outside.

For the time being, I removed the offending alarm. I think it's defective. Shake it and it goes off. spin it and it goes off. It just wants to SCHREECH!!

And yes each bedroom does have a smoke/CO detector and another one at the top of the staircase.

Sad that I'm not the only one who have or has had the same problem. Didn't even think about steam from the shower setting it off

[jobob]

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic to your plight, sc, but your posts are really funny! Thanks for the laugh.