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> More than half of the smoke alarms bought on amazon didn’t work

I've bought multiple name-brand ones off Amazon, sold by Amazon. The one by my bathroom absolutely works. I can't count how often a steamy shower set it off. Were they buying knockoffs from third-party sellers?

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A steamy shower should not set off a smoke alarm. Perhaps it has a higher false positive rate.

https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/WPI2015SmokeAlarmReport.pdf

> photoelectric smoke alarms should not be placed near bathrooms or similar locations that create steam. Even though location recommendations are already common on alarm packaging, nuisance alarms persist in homes due to inappropriate alarm placement

Which I suppose is on me, but it is a known issue with some smoke detectors.

The reason a steamy shower shouldn't set off an alarm is because fire code requires you to put the detector far enough away from the bathroom that it will not encounter steam. Smoke detectors of all types will detect steam; they just detect particles. The person you replied to is likely experiencing false positives because of improper installation.

Bought a smoke detector; received a steam detector. Not a good review.

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