You may wish to choose a smoke alarm for the home you are renting out whilst travelling. Or a portable smoke alarm for camping.
Choosing A Smoke Alarm For A Residence
If you don't know anything about smoke alarms, you can compare costs. Why pay more for an identical product. I found smoke alarms for twenty pounds. Then others, supposedly later models, with ten year batteries.
However, not suitable for kitchens or bathrooms. Why? Because they are so sensitive that every time you cook toast in a toaster or steam up the mirror, the alarm goes off.
The danger is that the occupant will get annoyed, the neighbours will get annoyed, and the occupant will remove the battery, so the smoke alarm does not do its job.
I thought about this. Maybe if your toaster is causing the smoke alarm to go off, you should eat bread and not toast, because you are sending damaging smoke into your lungs.
What about the mist in the bathroom? Maybe if you are creating mist in the bathroom, you are creating moisture which is creating mould. So you should be opening the windows before and during your shower. And running the extractor fan, which should be checked and cleaned regularly.
Smoky air and a bathroom with no fresh air are not good for your health. Having thought about that, I went back to the question of whether to buy a smoke alarm which does not goes in the kitchen and bathroom. You will want to close the bathroom windows shortly after the mist has cleared, to prevent burglaries. We had a burglary at a neighbour's, through the bathroom window, when the residents were downstairs watching the noisy TV. The burglars took jewellery from a bedroom.
Following the instructions, we fitted a smoke alarm in the corridor between the kitchen and the bedrooms.
The idea is to alert you to a fire at night. You should not be leaving food cooking unattended in a kitchen. You set an alarm to remind you to check on it and turn it off. You check all switches are off before leaving a room.
What is the ease of setting the alarm? Some alarms have a button you push. If the ceiling is low, you can reach up. You might think of standing on a safe stool, rather than on a chair, with somebody else to steady you, steady the chair, and check you don't fall, or catch you. Another way is to push up with a broom handle. This means keeping the broom nearby.
Some alarms have a cover which can be removed to check batteries, after the base is screwed to the ceiling.
Portable Alarms
An alarm which changes colour for carbon monoxide, and sticks on, can be taken with you and affixed in a rental property. Stick it on the flat surface of a cupboard. Write yourself a note or set an alarm to remind yourself to remove it after your last meal, before leaving the property if you are temporarily overseas.
Got a gap year? Want to increase your skills? Retired? Take a course in plumbing or electricity and qualify. This could be a source of employment and income. Save you time and money.
If you are not qualified to do the work, you can still save time and money by briefing the workers. Enable you to check that workers are doing the right thing. Help you to choose suitable equipment. Youtube has loads of videos on how to fix simple things like smoke alarms.
Below are what I have found. Not items I have tried and recommended. But useful links so you can start your investigation quickly.
PS
Rather than only being alerted to a fire after the event, consider fire prevention.
What to avoid? As we have learned from the tragic fire in Switzerland at New Year 2026, keep flames away from anything flammable and if possible, avoid using candles, incense, indoor and outdoor fireworks, pyrotecnics, furniture without a fire label (and don't remove the labels).
The oven should be cleaned regularly. When my son was a student, a group of boys share a flat. None of them cleaned the oven. Eventually the grease built up and the oven caught fire.
If you have a dishwasher, some of the removable fittings can be washed in the dishwasher. If it does nto clean them completely, after one or two long wash cycles, you may find that the warmth of the dishwasher has loosened the grease well enough to make it faster and easier to clean by hand afterwards.
Useful Websites
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-Monoxide-Detector-Rechargeble-Working/dp/B0DP2DDTPK/ref=s
'Which' UK consumer guides
Wikipedia
Wikihow
Youtube
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