Garage smoke alarm

[Nelson]

My brother just had a fire in his garage and it started me thinking. His fire started in the wee hours of the night. He found out about it after the smoke came into his house and went through two rooms before hitting his smoke detector. My garage is attached to my house but currently does not have a detector. I plan to rectify this soon. I don't have a Corvette like he has/had but my Sprite means a lot to me. Until now I hadn't given a thought to having an alarm. There is a fire extinguisher but if I don't know that there is a fire I can't use it. My plan now is to get the loudest alarm I can find but does anyone know of any other qualities that I should consider?

 

[Gerard]

Nelson,

You might consider one that has a carbon monoxide sensor included. I have had one in my garage for over a decade (just bought a new one) but It has now become the law in California that as of July 1st, single family homes <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">must</span></span> have them, but I would have both, either separately or as one unit anyway.

I have both a battery operated and and AC one in my garage. Time to replace those too though.

Here's a sample of a combo one.

https://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-Carbon-Monoxide-SC01CN3/dp/B00005OU73

 

[ChrisS]

I had two heat detectors in my last garage, one in each bay. I wired them into the house smoke alarms so everything went off at the same time. The problem with smoke detectors in the garage is dust. You'll end up with false trips and someone may disable it on a false trip and forget to turn it back on.

 

[Nelson]

Thanks, Gerard. The one you posted isn't available at this time but I'll look around for a similar unit. My detectors in the house are all independant battery powered units. I've done a little searching online but haven't found one that will sound a remote alarm without being wired to the sensor. California seems to have no shortage of regulations but I don't know of any rules like that in Ohio.