Hi everyone and everybody!
My home's smoke detector contains an Li-SOCl2 battery. That's the most dangerous choice: not only does it burst and catch fire if flames reach it. This combination is also more prone to light if crushed. Worse: it releases badly toxic gases if burning.
A company installs and replaces the detectors. They, and the inhabitants, complain about the battery's duration. This explains the Li-SOCl2 with more capacity in the same size. Probably a late drop-in change, when the detector was already designed. But I hate this unreasonable risk.
Designing a smoke detector isn't that difficult! Send collimated light pulses in one direction, detect in an other the light diffused by smoke particles, if too strong sound the alarm. Any decent duo of optics+electronics engineers should achieve it, within correct power consumption.
Most competitors achieve longer operation from an alkaline battery. An even better choice would be a Zn-air battery: safe, powerful enough, longer operation life than most Li batteries.
I opened hence destroyed the detector because it started to yell repeatedly with no reason. Its battery isn't even replaceable anyway. On the same day, my computer's Cpu drew too much power as indicated by the fan's speed, and my cell phone's battery went empty far too early. This is consistent with an electromagnetic weapon on that particular day. It's no general explanation for the abnormal consumption of this design.
Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy
ChemBuddy | 
Chem Reddit | 
Topic: Smoke Detector (Read 9139 times)