Fire alarm reliability. Is it working at all???

[Guest shapa]

Today my wife burnt some food.

A LOT of smoke. Fibaro sensor installed in kitchen (as well as others) was completely silent.

Nest sensors installed in other rooms started to work (they are interlinked) and notified us about possible fire.

I'd say - extremely dangerous and useless toy.

Fibaro, any comments?

[Lauri 6]

How is your smoke detector set up? The sensitivity level 2?

I made test before and I saw that smoke detector seems to see smoke but the alarm is turned on after certain smoke level has been reached.

I will make some more testing and look the history to see how it behaves exactly.

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[rantta 2]

Where can I find that graph? Have not seen that before...

HC2, v3.590

[fergalmccarthy 5]

Wondering the same about the graph, but without going off topic, I've experienced the exact same issue with the smoke sensor, burnt food in kitchen, sensor detects noting at all.

[topolino 0]

I returned three smoke sensors for the same reason. A test of these smoke sensors in a fire place revealed that they could be within heavy smoke without any alerts whatsoever. A cheap battery driven sensor from a local hardware store sounded immediately with the same test.

Like you say: Very dangerous toy.

The vendor says his other customers are happy with the product. They'll probably remain happy until they have a fire. I dread to think what will happen then.

[Razvan 2]

I'm a cigar smoker.

Sometimes Fibaro sensors begin to alert me and they are 10 m away.

Do the same with a cigarette and test your sensors...

[Guest shapa]

Razvan - in case of real fire, no one is going to smoke cigarettes for you.

Detector should be able to react on all types of burning materials (including food), otherwise it can be too late.

As I could see, no any fibaro employee is interested to talk about.

Probably, it's a right time to ask local authorities to make some legal investigation in the UK (the same way as in Sweden) about safety of the product.

I'm really angry, to be honest.

[rajp 14]

This is one reason i have kept my normal smoke detectors in place.. I am yet to have tested the 2 sensors I have installed..

I do wish Fibaro were a little more forth coming with the supported documentation about the products they manufacture and claims what they do are working in real world..

[elmips 4]

i guess the graph screen is from the v4 alpha ?

[K.Bergmann 2]

shapa, please set up parameter 82 (Fibaro Smoke Sensor sensitivity) on value 1 for highest sensitivity and also if you want to have this devices checked you can send it to our professional diagnostics directly to me. I will send you details through PM.

[Guest Fidziu]

shapa,

Smoke detector is equipped with the option to adjust the sensitivity.

Your problem is important for us. Please check the sensitivity level of your sensors. If they are at maximum level please return it to us we will conduct an investigation whats going on with this devices.

At the factory is set up by default, to the second level, too sensitive sensor can cause false alarms from smoking, etc.

And one more thing, every one smoke sensor is factory calibrated and 3 times tested at independent factory socket.

furthermore each device has build internal self test so its is very strange. but ofcourse everthink can hapened, so we would like to carefully analyze this situation.

[rantta 2]

As I could see, no any fibaro employee is interested to talk about.

Topic was created on sunday. Topic was responded by Fibaro on first working day, so I would not blame them for lack of interest.

[fergalmccarthy 5]

My Sensors are all on default values, i think this should be more than sufficient to pick up burning food in a kitchen which is the most likely time they will ever trigger i would imagine, obviously barring an actual fire

[Guest shapa]

Hi all

I tested all alarms (nest and figaro) with "smoke in a can" tester and sensors are reacting properly, Nest sensors reacts much faster but I don't have any false alarms with them at all.

I will try to reconfigure sensors with "1" sensitivity level and wait until my wife will burn some food again (the only real test I can try).

Is there any numbers how big the difference is in terms of sensitivity levels?

It would be really nice finally to see some graphics (as shown on the screenshot) but it seems it's not going to be available till v4.

[smartronix 0]

We've checked all the Smokesensors installed in our customers houses with smoke testers (smoke in a can). Till now we never had any issues with them. We have many years of experience with the conventional smokesensors and we test in the same way now with the Fibaro sensors. Never had any problems with them....

[rajp 14]

We've checked all the Smokesensors installed in our customers houses with smoke testers (smoke in a can). Till now we never had any issues with them. We have many years of experience with the conventional smokesensors and we test in the same way now with the Fibaro sensors. Never had any problems with them....

That is good to hear that.. Thanks for the feedback!!

[Dalle1985 15]

I have had mine on a few times because of some smoke from opening the oven with a very faint smoke... I would say that they are almost too sensitive, so I've actually turned the one in the kitchen down a little!

[Guest Lode]

How do you have to test this ?

I blew some cigarettesmoke against the sensor three times, no reaction !!!

Sensitylevel set to one !

Only when i hold the sensor above some smoke i have reaction bu it takes at least 15 seconds.

Don't tell me i paid 70€ for a useless device !! Please !!!

[Dalle1985 15]

I think people should have a look on this page for reference as you obviously don't know the requirements for a smoke detector:

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It gives a little insight into how they work. Having worked in high risk industries, I am trained as a fire marshall and I am used to conducting tests of fire detection equipment. Blowing cigarette smoke directly at a smoke detector won't make it activate, especially as this is not an ionization unit but an optical obscurence unit, meaning that a certain amount of smoke has to make it into the chamber before it obscures enough light to set off the sensor. Blowing smoke at the sensor will create flow through it and the smoke won't collect in the chamber. So if you want to check it using a cigarette or cigar, you need to enclose the device in something (i.e. An overturned bucket) and then let the cigarette smoulder inside the container. If this doesn't set it off, the detector is probably faulty (or set at a low sensitivity).

I always do this test using a bit of paper towel with water on one end for kindling to test ALL my smoke detectors. Honestly, seeing how these are life saving appliances, I don't understand why someone wouldn't do this to all their sensors. You never know if there is a defect in your device, and though they have self tests and test buttons, these don't actually test the optical cavity or the ionization chamber. This can only be done by actually setting off the alarm using smoke.

On the ships and offshore installations I've worked on, we use a tester like this:

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To test them, as this is the only type of test that the insurance and authorities will accept as it will set off the detector at the correct obscurance level.

[topolino 0]

Thanks for the information. I tested mine by holding three units in heavy smoke from burning paper in my fire place. It was completely covered in slowly moving smoke, so I would think that the test would be sufficient. A cheap smoke alarm from a supermarket sounded almost immediately.

[Dalle1985 15]

Thanks for the information. I tested mine by holding three units in heavy smoke from burning paper in my fire place. It was completely covered in slowly moving smoke, so I would think that the test would be sufficient. A cheap smoke alarm from a supermarket sounded almost immediately.

then I'd be worried! I tested mine with a bucket and a piece of smouldering paper and they all reacted, but don't know to how much smoke of course. Would be really nice to see the graphs which we've been promised since these things hit the market for diagnostics. It would be really interesting to see if the device actually senses the smoke or if it's the optical sensor that doesn't work!

I might be migrating to nest though anyway due to the added functionality... Only downside is the SIZE! Haven't seen one in real life but from the pictures, it looks huge - and i'm not digging the design either!