Smoke detectors in garage

[bsilva]

I'm in the process of slowly setting up my new shopbot (any plans to have the garage ready before the bot arrived got thrown away by life).

Anyway, as part of this I'm planning on replacing the smoke detectors in my house with interconnected units, such that if one unit triggers, they all alarm. The Kidde PI2000 seems to fit the bill perfectly. (http://www.kidde.com/utcfs/Templates/Pages/Template-53/0,8062,pageId%3D4363%26siteId%3D384,00.html (http://www.kidde.com/utcfs/Templates/Pages/Template-53/0%2C8062%2CpageId%3D4363%26siteId%3D384%2C00.html) )

However, the instructions say not to install in the garage as dust and car exaust may cause false alarms. Well, I havn't been able to fit a car in my garage since about a week after I moved in, so that's not a problem. But what about dust?

Do you guys use smoke detectors? How many false alarms go you get?

Thanks,
Brad

[dubliner]

I'd put money on the dust disabling it more than false triggering.

[tbredin]

Smoke is actually small particulate matter, as is dust. A typical photoelectric smoke detector can't distinguish between the two, hence false alarms. And Brad is right, the constant dust will eventually render it useless. Some companies try to solve that with a "rate of rise" detector. If the temperature in the room goes up very quickly, the alarm triggers. That's the philosophy anyway, I don't know how reliable they are.

[gene]

I had smoke and heat sensors in the shop with an alarm system . They went off 3 times before the alarm co told me if the temp in the building rises too fast they will go off. i had them to change them out with heat only sensors. it has to get to 135 before triggering the alarm. No more false alarms.

[harryball]

I use heat sensors. Don't place a gas heater within it's scope of view if you use one, it will trip the sensor.

Robert

[brian_h]

As far as my shop, I've thought about putting a heat sensor on my cyclone dust collector bin lid. My studio is 65' in back of my house with a buried PVC conduit linking the house network with the shop network. I thought about running the alarm wire through the conduit and tying it into the house smoke detectors. I figure if there is an ember in the dust bin, it probably won't really get going until late in the night, when I'm asleep.