THE PROBLEM
The death rate in home fires hasn’t changed in two decades. Unfortunately for us, home smoke alarms can be tough to figure out. With all the options on the store shelf, we can be led to believe the minimum standard is the only choice. But remember, the store shelf and our building contractors are providing our family with the minimum standard. If you visit any DIY store or shop online you will find a confusing selection. Basically it boils down to three choices. You’ll find; Ionization, Photoelectric or Dual Sensor. Dual Sensor means combining two sensors in one alarm. Ionization & Photoelectric, Ionization & CO or Photoelectric & CO. That’s why it can be confusing. When confused, we ask people like the fire department because we believe they know. Yet, their personnel knows very little if anything about fire alarm technology for homeowners and they often recommend the minimum standard. We must educate ourselves. Once we do, the solution is clear.
Unfortunately, each of these average alarms presents their own set of problems. Ionization alarms are the ones with the high probability of failure. They’re also the ones with the well-known false alarm problems. These are the alarms that go off while cooking or showering. These are the ones we rip the battery out of or unplug from the wall because it won’t stop going off. With no reliability, and no battery or wires, they can have a zero percent chance of working when we have a fire. Photoelectric alarms get dirty. When they do, they are no longer reliable. This is why most manufacturers of this technology writes a requirement in their owner’s manual to vacuum the alarm. They say to do it once a month. Of course, nobody does this and soon the buildup creates nuisance alarms and we’re right back to square one. So combining these two technologies doesn’t answer the reliability problem. Adding a CO sensor to a smoke alarm seems like a great idea, but now you’ve given your CO alarm the same challenges of a smoke alarm. Now the CO sensor can only be placed where the smoke alarm is recommended and you only have one weak technology for sensing smoke. In other words, your CO alarm is burdened with false alarms or needs to be vacuumed monthly. So combining the old technology with the new in one alarm, simply brings us back to square one.
MYTH #1
“It won’t happen to me.”
Each day, there are approximately eight lives lost, 50 injuries and over 30 million dollars in property damage from home fires in the US alone. If the National news gave each local fire adequate coverage, the fire problem would take up the majority of the evening news, but since its localized only, we don’t think it can happen to us.
MYTH #2
“There’s plenty of time to escape.”
The general public sees a home fire like the movie Back Draft, where the actors can act out long dramatic scenes while inside the burning rooms. In reality, the average home burns 8x faster than it did 50 years ago.
MYTH #3
“We are prepared.”
Home owners believe that the solution is the minimum protection required during construction. They believe they know what to do when they have a fire. The only thing they know do is “stop, drop and roll.” The majority of the public have never practiced a true fire drill, designated a meeting place, or even tested their windows.
MYTH #4
“Why Pay More?”
Quality fire detection is pricey, but in this world, you get what you pay for. Purchasing sprinklers or monitored systems can be extremely costly, but our approach is a dependable one-time investment. Fire protection is important to us so we try to make it easy with monthly payment plans.