In fact, most homes require more than one smoke alarm, alongside detectors for carbon monoxide (CO) and heat.

They won’t go off when you’re grilling sausages or burning toast, but they still provide ample warning if something catches fire in your kitchen. First, we’re back to alkaline 9V batteries rather than a modern 10-year lithium battery, so you’ll have to replace them every year.

The next thing that happens is they replace the battery for the toy but not the one they have removed from the smoke alarm.

Use of ionisation alarms is generally being discouraged by many fire services, and some manufacturers have now discontinued their ionisation products. These protect you against the notorious silent killer, or cover areas such as the kitchen, where fires can originate but a smoke alarm would be impractical.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As well as allowing easy testing with a sweeping brush from the floor below, this large button also activates our Sleep Easy function which silences low battery chirps for 8 hours - giving you a peaceful night's sleep.