This is old but has always been an interesting topic to me. I’ve never set them off. We vape plenty in the house all the time and they’ve never gone off. Vaped in lots of hotels and never set one off. In fact, the reason I stopped carelessly vaping in the hotels was because I read about vaping triggering them online and got paranoid.
Why have I never set one off? What is wrong with me? I know the ones in the house work because the wife cooks once in a while.
Yeah that’s why it’s so weird to hear so much chatter on the web about it. Never experiencing it definitely adds to the oddity for me.
It will depend on which type you have - Ionisation or photoelectric. Photoelectric will react to vapour much more readily than Ionisation alarms as the light will scatter onto the sensor with even a small amount of vapour. (i think that is the right way around)
I was just thinking about this the other day while blowing vapour on to my downstairs smoke detector to set it off, you have to cover that sucker to get it to start.
Thanks for the clarification
An ionization smoke alarm contains a small amount of radioactive material. The radiation passes through an ionization chamber which is an air-filled space between two electrodes and permits a small, constant current between the electrodes. Any smoke that enters the chamber absorbs the alpha particles, which reduces the ionization and interrupts this current, setting off the alarm. This type of alarm responds best to fast raging fires.
Photoelectric smoke alarms operate using a light source, a light beam collimating system and a photoelectric sensor. When smoke enters the optical chamber and crosses the path of the light beam, some light is scattered by the smoke particles, directing it at the sensor and thus activating the alarm. This type of alarm responds best to slow smoldering fires.
Combination smoke alarms feature both ionization and photoelectric technologies. Ionization smoke alarms respond faster to high energy fires, whereas photoelectric detectors respond better to low energy smoldering fires. The NFPA recommends using both smoke alarms in the home for the best protection.