Reliable smoke alarm?

These were the ones fitted on the fire service’s recommendation, but they’ve evolved over the years, and the nice man who’s just been to replace the central unit says they’ve had a lot of trouble with them - too sensitive and interdependent. He wished me a good night’s sleep as he left! Thanks for everyone's ideas - I'll see how they behave now.

Not sure if this will help but our local fire brigade fit fire alarms - for free if you are over a certain age.
May be worth while getting in touch with your local brigade to see if they do the same.

Perhaps you have a dud alarm. As with cars you could have the Friday afternoon one. Go back to the fire service tell them of all the problems you have had with the alarm they recommended and ask them what you should do.

We had wired to the mains smoke alarms fitted with our security system over 20 years ago and have never had a problem.

ours is wired in too, and like Aggie’s, it goes ballistic if you go near the toaster!

ours is wired in and the racket when I make toast in the toaster is unbearable ! GS takes my walking stick to press the button to turn it off ................ he was doing this last week and sighed loudly saying .. Gran you only need to test your smoke alarm monthly , not every day ...

Fire service trotted around and bunged them up - no idea what they are. Presumably they know what they are doing.

The fire service put one right outside my kitchen. It went off every time I fried or roasted anything then kept going off when I wasn’t cooking anything. I threw it away yesterday. The one at the top of my stairs was forcibly ejected after several false alarms at night.
I’d rather take the minuscule chance of the house burning down than put up with that unbearable noise.

Mine aren't near steam, thanks, Tanith. I'm beginning to think perhaps pollen is the culprit for the recent false alarms - lots of trees round here. I'll vacuum them more often when the pollen count's high.

Maybe a reaction to steam? Although we have one right outside the bathroom and it’s fine.

I envy you Tanith. There’s never been the slightest hint of a smell of smoke (or anything else) to set them off. Maybe they react to pollen??

We’ve had Fireangels for many years they do chirp when I forget to put the landing light on to recharge the battery but that’s my fault. Never had a problem with a false alarm in all the years we’ve had them.

Thanks BlueBelle, I was recommended these by the fire officer - but I see the reviews on Amazon are dreadful, though mostly about constant battery chirping, not false alarms. The false alarms are quite hard on the nerves, especially when I'm in a deep sleep and have to get up and go round the house de-activating them.

Mine was put in free of charge by the local fire station and is supposed to last for ten years I don’t know if there are any schemes still going like that but might even be worth ringing them they have educationists and advice givers as well as firefighters to ask for a decent recommendation