I saw that the topic on this was from 2013 and I didn’t want to create a HUGE bump, so I’m starting another one. Do any of you have these heat detectors in your work/school/home? I have these in my house and they’re really loud since I accidentally set one off and it wouldn’t stop for a good 20 minutes.
This is the exact one I have everywhere in my house (I’m in school so I can’t get a pic of my actual ones, so credit to drgstring on ebay for this picture…
If I’m going too fast with posts, I’m sorry and you can just say whether or not I am…
-Leo
Siren and alarm enthusiast who collects fans (currently owning 59 fans)
I have one very similar to that, though it’s in my collection rather than installed in the home I live in (which was built long after they stopped being produced let alone installed): it’s somewhat rusted & missing the fuse (& also has a pull-chain to sound it with for some reason). Mine is a Vanguard Thermosonic V-50 by Interstate Engineering Corporation (who was a big maker of wind-up mechanical heat detectors back in the day), & yours may very well be one too. Weirdly enough going by Google it seems that most have a rough finish on their cover, yet the one in that particular picture has a smooth finish instead.
Windup heat alarms aren’t really relevant any more, as they may not go off until it’s too late. It doesn’t stop them from being pretty cool. Many manufacturers made alarms with similar designs to go with the heat bells. Some were sold in packs of 5 heat bells and one smoke alarm, as manufacturers usually intend them to be used in conjunction with a smoke alarm. Most likely because (I’m making an educated guess here and from what I’ve seen) they work well when the smoke alarm is near the bedroom for early notification and the heat bells are around the house so any fire can’t get close to the bedroom without being detected.
Wind-up ones aren’t very common anymore, but electronic ones are still being made. You’re meant to use them in garages where fire detection is necessary, but a smoke alarm would go off too much due to the exhaust. You’re not meant to use them as your main source of fire detection throughout your home as they’d likely go off to late for anyone to escape.
Here’s the one I have in our living room:
We have one of these in our laundry room, one in the front room, one in my room, one in my older brother’s room, and one in the parents room so they are all over the house waiting to be used…
Well I’d suggest taking them all down for preservation since as the others said they’re not really that good for safety given how slow they are to react compared to smoke detectors.
I might but my mom prefers these because they don’t have the low battery beep and it doesn’t go off because of a pot of boiling water, but that’s her opinion. I could put the one in my room in an insulated box for preservation too since nobody sees it (it’s hiding behind one of many fans I have)
That may be the case but they are still very slow when it comes to alerting one of a fire compared to smoke detectors: in fact they’re so slow that the CPSC actually put out an announcement urging consumers to stop using them.
Not sure protecting them that much is necessary especially given how robust they’re built & being made out of metal, but alright.
The insulation would mainly be so the cap doesn’t come off and make it ring but I don’t have to
