Question:
Fire/smoke detectors for kitchen My dishwasher and washing machine are located in my kitchen. I run them overnight and have a simple battery powered smoke detector. I want to replace said smoke detector with one that I can link to a couple of others around the house (especially in my attic). So, do I buy any old linkable smoke detector or is there a type, perhaps optical, that is more suited to kitchen use? I gather from the archives that whitegoods, if properly maintained, might be more likely to cause their surroundings to ignite after smouldering for some time. But kitchens, especially mine, are prone to filling with acrid smoke in normal use! BTW I have, or will soon, a gas hob in the kitchen.

Answer: There is no easy answer. The primary risk in kitchens is usually considered to be the hob (chip pan fires) and a heat detector on the ceiling above it is the usual detector to employ. This of course will be as much use as a chocolate spanner when your washing machine at the other end of the kitchen decides to smoulder. Putting an optical or ionisation detector on the kitchen ceiling simple means you have to cook wearing ear defenders (or get an Aga and have everything soft boiled). If both appliances are below work surfaces you could consider mounting an ionisation detector on the underside of the worksurface or on the wall below the worksurfaces but behind the appliances. How immune this would be to false alarms depends upon your kitchen, the appliances and airflows - you would need to try it with a simple detector for some time before deciding to cross connect everything. Another solution - which I've used in workshops - is to put in an ionisation or optical detector but run the power to it via a timeswitch so it only comes on at night. This introduces another point of failure so isn't ideal but is better than the alternative of nothing or a thermal detector alone.