Heat detectors a source of False fire alarms when not maintained

Heat Detectors
They sit there on the cieling in Kitchens , Furnace/ boiler rooms
and in Attics and other places you need fire protection but a smoke would not work due to the environmental conditions.
they come in several different models including fixed temp such as 135 or 194 F models which activate when a room gets to that temp and also in Rate of rise models where when a room changes 15 degrees in temp increase in 5 minutes time as well as the fixed temp. Normally they can operate for many years with no problems ,but when placed in bathrooms and kitchens steam can cause the units to start rusting over time and if not replaced the rust can become so bad as to cause the units to false alarm as you can see in these pictures. and when this happens it can be a real challenge to figure out what is going on. When I get a system that starts to malfunction and not giving a visual indication what caused it I always open up all the detectors and start looking for possible water damage due to a water pipe or roof leak or from steam building up and rusting them. While weather proof heats are made for out door use they are several times the cost of normal heats and look really industrial and so you guessed it the wrong heat gets installed as you can see here where these where installed in a small shower room in a personnel care home. Another big NO and code violation with these heats some one put paint on them despite labels saying do not paint which can stop the element from operating properly as well These where put in 10 years ago and you can see how rusted up they are. For a guide on proper heat detector placement and use plus models available go to www.systemsensor.com