What AQI will set off a smoke alarm?

October 19, 2022 2:45 PM

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is at 216 right now, which is pretty bad—it's visibly smoky outside. I don't think I have to worry about my smoke alarms going off. But I am curious, what is the AQI in my apartment when I set it off by burning something on the stove?
posted by bigbigdog to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

Response by poster: The smoke alarm that just started going off in the apartment next door answers my question, I guess.
posted by bigbigdog at 2:52 PM on October 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Maybe... My mom has had AQI of 450-850 part of almost every day for past month or so, and her smoke detectors have not gone off.
posted by happy_cat at 2:54 PM on October 19, 2022

You know, we had about a week of horrible air quality in Portland two years ago, levels hitting and over 500. It was oppressive and terrible. I do not recall smoke alarms going off as being a thing.
posted by bluedaisy at 2:55 PM on October 19, 2022

Response by poster: Right, I just remembered, these smoke alarms literally yell “Fire! Fire! Fire!” when they go off. That must have been the CO detector which has a different alarm. So I apologize for the derail.
posted by bigbigdog at 2:57 PM on October 19, 2022

My smoke alarm went off last week (or the week before?) when it was around 160 but I had a fan blowing the air in (dumb, I know) and the alarm also needed to be replaced, which can make them more sensitive. The new one has not gone off with this week's 200+ AQIs.
posted by the sockening at 7:45 PM on October 19, 2022

According to this article, in 2019 Sydney saw AQI values as high as 2552 and smoke alarms did go off, although it is not clear from the article whether the alarms went off only in the area with those high values.
posted by piyushnz at 8:36 PM on October 19, 2022

When we had an AQI around 300 our smoke alarms went off. They do seem to be too sensitive though. They have previously been set off by a house in the neighborhood being on fire as well, so they do pick up smoke from outside and run with it. We've got air filters so it should've been considerably better indoors, but, y'know, there's only so much you can do with that starter air.
posted by blueberry monster at 10:43 AM on October 30, 2022