What exactly are optical smoke detectors?

Answer by  okcmouseketeer (779)

Optical smoke detectors mean that they have a optical sensor that "sees" the smoke. They are different from other smoke detectors that are ionizing, which often give off false alarms for things such as cooking. Optical smoke detectors work great for a slow smokey fire, but will often detect a hot-flaming fire about 20-30 seconds after an ionizing smoke detector.

Answer by  Amber40 (24961)

They are alarms that sense a fire using a photoelectric cell opposed to ionization. ionization alarms are better at detecting flaming fires but optical are better at detecting smoldering fires.

Answer by  mooman2679 (1018)

An optical smoke detector would work by actually "seeing" the smoke instead of picking up the presence of it. They would probably work well in the sense that they wouldn't go off on accident.

Answer by  Latin4 (11170)

These are great. They are quick to detect smoke, smoldering fires and cool smoke. One great thing is they are less sensitive to false alarms, such as when you are cooking or taking a bath. They won't go off from smell of food or steam from a bath.

Answer by  shubham (21)

These are basically light detectors. They are about 1 minute late than normal dtectors, a bit less efficient and they don't react to normal cooker steam or geyser steam.