[rossnordby]

One day, fully alert and sober at something like 5 PM with no excuses, during a thunderstorm, I heard tornado sirens go off. I thought to myself, "sheesh they are only supposed to run tests at noon once a month, and not during sto- oh"

[mjevans]

That is also my response to fire alarms so sensitive that they'll start to chirp when I can't even recognize the smell of a neighbor 50+ ft away smoking outside. It'd be really nice if no one smoked and if these alarms reserved the shrill noises for real emergencies and user initiated tests only.

[bob778]

FYI, fire alarms are designed to become more sensitive as they age/die so if yours is picking up false positives, it’s a good indicator you need to replace it. That, or it really is poor ventilation.

[dogsgobork]

I hadn't really thought about it, but that makes a ton of sense. Smoke detectors typically use an alpha-emitter, smoke absorbs alpha particles, so a failure to detect is what triggers the alarm. The cost for a false-negative is much higher than a false-positive, so that's what the detector should default to.

[dghughes]

I have a Nest smoke alarm and it was bad for going off due to the vapours from showers, boiling water when cooking.

But to the credit of Nest/Google/Alphabet they replaced it free of charge. It was just an off-the-cuff comment I made on Twitter and Nest said send it back. They sent a new one, a new model, and when it arrived I sent back the older model. The new model is much better essentially zero false positives due to water vapour.

[zerocount]

Mine only chirps when the battery dies. Of course, it's always at 3am and I don't have any 9v batteries. Worse now is none of the stores are open 24 hours so you have to suffer 'til 6am or pay $5 at a gas station for a battery.

[Dylan16807]

This would be a good opportunity to get rechargeable batteries and/or an alarm that takes AAs.