Fire alarms/ smoke detectors and vaping

[wetclay]

Does vapor activate fire alarms or smoke detectors under any circumsttances?

Please post your experience with this specific issue. At home, public places, airplane bathrooms, hospital ...etc

Or chime in with what you think.

 

[Bozzlite]

I asked this very same question here a couple of months ago. Some people thought it was impossible to set off a smoke detector with an e-cig because "it's not smoke".

There are different types of detectors. Some sense the particulates in the air and not necessarily just smoke.

Most didn't want to try it by blowing vapor directly into a smoke detector because it would scare their pets or neighbors if it did set it off.

But one poster did say that his home smoke detector did sound off when he vaped heavily in an enclosed room long enough that you could see the vapor in the air.

So, yes it is possible to activate one with an E-cig. But I think it would have to be a very heavy concentration of vapor. I used to smoke cigs in a small bedroom (actually a computer room) with a smoke detector on the ceiling. Never set it off tho.

But the smoke alarms did go off the other morning when the electric central heat came on for the first time this season. You know the smell it makes, kinda like burnt dust. No visible smoke in the house but still set it off. Does that every year.

I guess the next time I have the ladder in the house to change a light bulb or the smoke alarm batteries, I will try it. If the wife is not home and the cat is outside, LOL.

I am curious too if anyone has ever vaped in an airplane rest room.

 

[warbdan]

Nope. Smoke Detectors detect particles of combustion in the air. Vaping doesn't combust anything. There is nothing to set the smoke alarm off. I think the poster Bozzlite is referring to was pulling their chain.

 

[MrsJaaxx]

I swear I think I remember a post from Cashmere a long time ago saying he set one off in an airplane.

Edited to add-- YES! Here it is! http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...rport-security-facts-atleast-what-worked.html

 

[d0nj03]

Yeah, it should be expected because there are "smoke" detectors that use a narrow beam of light to detect if there's anything in the air that deflects enough of the light onto a lateral sensor (this is all inside the casing of what we call "the detector"). Whatever dense stuff you put into the air will trigger this kind of detector.

The question is: does vapor stay up in the air more, just as long or less than smoke? My first suspicion would be that it's up there longer because it doesn't have any solid particles in it like smoke does (solid particles would probably drop to the floor sooner than the gaseous parts would condense onto the surfaces of the objects in the room, the walls etc.). Then again, you'd probably have to vape much more than a smoker would have to smoke in order to reach the point where the detector is triggered, simply because your e-cig doesn't generate any vapor between draws, whereas the analog cigarette generates smoke continuously from the moment you light it (which totals a much much faster production of particulate matter in the air).

So I would conclude that:
- yes, e-cig vapor WILL trigger "smoke" detectors
- but it will take more vaping to do it than it would take smoking (or more vapers than smokers, in the same room).