Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:10 on 2019-06-14 Permalink Reply  

• steph 10:05 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  “propriétaires et locataires devront les remplacer”. Who’s footing the bill for this? The landlord or the tenant?

• Marc 10:31 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  I replaced one recently and only saw the 9-volt variety for sale at the hardware store – maybe I didn’t see the new kind because they were way more expensive or in unfamiliar packaging?

• dwgs 10:34 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  You can find the new ones on Amazon for under $30.

• jeather 10:46 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  Not clear to me, I just replaced mine with a detector that is on the electrical system but ALSO has 9v battery backup, and I wonder if it is legal.

• jeather 10:51 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  Owner must provide and replace every 10 years, occupant must maintain (=test and replace batteries). Sounds like the landlord pays.

• Blork 11:22 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  Most domestic smoke detectors have a usable life of only about 10 years. As in, you’re supposed to change the batteries every year and change the device every decade. I recently had one start beeping, and it kept beeping even after replacing the batteries, and sure enough it was 10 years old and the beep pattern was “replace device.”

  So I got one with lithium batteries that you can’t even access because the deal is that in 10 years time you replace the whole unit. Presumably it beeps when it expires; otherwise how TF are you supposed to remember how old it is?

• Kate 11:32 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  Blork, how’s the lithium one about false positives? My apartment is not teeny tiny, but the smoke detector was going off like a mad thing if I so much as made pasta or a stir-fry, involving me dragging over a chair, climbing up and poking at it with a stick almost daily. It was getting stupid, so I’d welcome something a little more discerning.

• Blork 11:48 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  I don’t get false positives very often, so I haven’t seen any difference. I don’t think the power source would affect that anyway; it’s more about how the detector is build and whatnot. When I was shopping for it, I saw that buying a smoke detector is becoming a bit like buying yogurt — so much to choose from you just want to run out of the store without buying anything. The options include ones that are specifically designed for kitchens (but I don’t remember if those were lithium or not — I think so).

  Side note: I did learn a couple of days ago that standing under your smoke detector while holding a lit sparkler will most definitely set it off!

• jeather 11:58 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  There are two kinds of detecting a smoke detector can do, ionization and photoelectric, and they do one or the other or both.I have a both and it really really hates when I make bacon. But honestly I am sort of fire paranoid and am fine with it being oversensitive.

• Raymond Lutz 12:10 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  False positives are a real security problem because many people disconnect their detectors not to be annoyed, so Google (and some say Apple too) is working on MEMs mass spectrometers for their Nest line of product: it will constantly sniff out your home air and stream the data in realtime to deep learning algos to determine if there’s a fire risk. The AI will be more and more precise as more people use it. Some privacy advocates are worried as some leaked information about the prototypes say the chip can even recognize and identify people by the trace molecules they emit through sweating.

• Ephraim 13:07 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  Finally. Those 9V battery units were every way a bad idea… from the changing batteries on a ceiling using a ladder twice a year, to the fact that they are supposed to be replaced every 10 years, but no one realizes this. I have 10 year sealed Lithium units in every bedroom or a 110v. And I have one attached to an alarm that calls the fire department.

  Frankly, the city should buy them en masse and hand them out. It’s cheap and effective and saves lives. I haven’t had a single false positive on the units that I have.

• jeather 13:09 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  No but seriously if you have a 110v w 9v backup, is that okay? I can’t figure it out.

• Marc 14:41 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  @jeather My understanding is that if it’s wired into the electrical system that’s better than any kind of battery regardless of what type of battery it has for backup. “Les bâtiments construits depuis 1985 doivent être munis d’avertisseurs de fumée reliés à un réseau électrique.”

• dwgs 14:42 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  jeather, I would think that if you are hard wired with a battery backup in case of power outage you should be good in perpetuity provided you remember to change the backup battery occasionally. As far as I see it the real advantage to lithium is the 10 year battery life and you have that covered being hard wired.

• mare 15:51 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  Crap, I just bought 8 new ones. On batteries, because my tenants tend to remove the batteries or the whole units because even though they’re in the hallway they go off with smokey cooking. At least almost all apartments have a range hood now, so it’s less bad.

  And I’m renovating one apartment right now, and will run a wire and install a 120 V one. Incidentally it went off yesterday, it doesn’t like soldering and I keep forgetting that.

• Chris 20:04 on 2019-06-14 Permalink

  Raymond, wow, Google really does want to know everything. 🙁

• Michael Black 10:37 on 2019-06-15 Permalink

  This is abrupt. Nobody’s going to get ticketed this week if they aren’t in ine, but they really need a rollout period. Educate the public, work out some deals. The article I read debrief no sidebar about buying one.

  Thirty dollars every ten years isn’t too bad, but we have four and buying together is a lump. I’m sure a hardship for some. If the municipalities don’t work out probrams, let’s hope some non-profits organize some group buys.

  Michael

• Marc 13:20 on 2019-06-15 Permalink

  I was at a Rona yesterday and they had big displays of 9-volt models and only 2 little lithium ones hiding at the bottom of the shelf. I wonder what will happen to all of that now useless stock.

• Ephraim 13:29 on 2019-06-15 Permalink

  Marc, as usual, sold to the idiots who don’t listen.

• Marc 13:37 on 2019-06-15 Permalink

  If they’re not legal to install they how can they be legal to sell?

• Marc 13:39 on 2019-06-15 Permalink

  *then how

  (I hope this site’s comments aren’t used by future humans to understand the language of our times.)

• jeather 13:42 on 2019-06-15 Permalink

  There’s a one year grace period.

• Marc 18:00 on 2019-06-15 Permalink

  That makes sense for devices that are already installed but if you’re buying a new smoke alarm today why would anyone purchase something they’ll have to replace next year instead of in 10?