For years, we have heard from people in the fire safety business, “Find a way to stop microwave fires and false alarms and you will solve one of my most significant fire related problems.”
Fires and fire alarms in multi-residential housing (especially university dorm rooms) are more often than not caused by microwave ovens. Microwave fires and, almost as importantly, the false alarms caused by burning food, popcorn, etc. in microwave ovens has been, until now, an unpreventable fact of life.
University Logistics is proud to announce the introduction of a new product designed to prevent microwave cooking fires and the nuisance calls & tenant apathy associated with false alarms.
“If you can stop 90% or more of the false alarms caused by microwaves count me in. I will recommend that the University mandate them; and if you’re serious put me on the list now because you will never be able to make them fast enough.” – University Director of Fire Safety)
Leading causes of household fires
Fact: Cooking fires are the number one cause of household fires.
Fact: Fires are the number one safety concern in multi-unit, multi-family dwellings.
Fact: Cooking fires are caused by two primary sources…
- Unattended Cooktops
- Microwave Ovens
Fact: Technology has products that will help prevent BOTH these types of fires.
Cooking fire prevention solutions
Pioneering Technology created the Safe-T-element® cooking system, a product engineered to help prevent stovetop cooking fires before they start addressing the number one cause of household fire.
And now Pioneering has a solution for microwave fires and false alarms…
Fires and almost importantly fire alarms in multi-residential housing (especially university dorm rooms) are more often than not caused by microwave ovens. Microwave fires and the false alarms caused by burning food, popcorn, etc. in microwave ovens have been, until now, an unavoidable, unpreventable fact of life. Pioneering is proud to announce the introduction of a new product designed to prevent microwave cooking fires and the nuisance calls and tenant apathy associated with false alarms.
Microwave cooking fire solution
The answer to the microwave smoke, fire and false alarm problems encountered at many housing facilities is not to ban the microwaves. Nor will it come merely from education and trying to modify human behavior. The answer is to turn off the microwave before it can start a fire or produce enough smoke to trigger an alarm. The answer is to have the microwave shut itself off at the first sign of overheating. Unfortunately, microwaves have not had this capability, until now.
By combining current smoke sensor technology with current electronics technology, Pioneering has made this a reality.
The “Safety Shutdown” consists of a smoke sensor (similar to those used in smoke detectors today). However, instead of wiring the sensor to an alarm, siren, or relay to trigger an alarm, it is wired to a relay to cut off the electric current to the microwave, stopping the cooking, stopping the heat source, and preventing the fire.
Microwave fires begin slowly. They “heat” the item inside the microwave. As the item gets hotter it can begin to burn. The basic path of a microwave fire is heat, smolder, burn, combust. Pioneering’s system will shut down the microwave, at the smolder stage, before combustion can occur and before sufficient smoke can be generated to trip a fire alarm system.Microwave vaporize For years, we have heard from people in the fire safety business, “Find a way to stop microwave fires and false alarms and you will solve one of my most significant fire
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), U.S. fire departments respond to more than 2 million false and nuisance alarms. Many of these are triggered by microwave ovens in apartment buildings, hotels, and college/university residences. The result? Unnecessary building evacuations, costly fire department responses, and tenant/resident apathy.
SmartMicro can deliver dramatic cost savings by helping to eliminate nuisance alarms caused by smoke from microwave ovens. By automatically interrupting power to the microwave at the first sign of smoke, SmartMicro helps prevent unnecessary alarm activations. It also helps guard against microwave fires from starting.
- Care & Maintenance
- Advanced Sensor Technology
- Fully Automatic Reset
- Easy to Install
- Compact Design
Note: This product is NOT recommended for use on older microwave ovens with a manual dial timer, or on built-in microwaves (unless the exhaust vents are exposed).
- Helps prevent nuisance alarms and microwave oven fires.
- Reduces smoke detector activations, nuisance alarms, unnecessary building evacuations, and costly fire department service runs.
- Can deliver an immediate Return on Investment (ROI).
Care & Maintenance
SmartMicro is virtually maintenance free.
- To clean the SmartMicro Sensor, first unplug the microwave and the SmartMicro from the power outlet.
- Without removing the SmartMicro sensor from the microwave, gently clean any dust or debris by using a cloth or tissue.
- Once done, plug the SmartMicro control box back into the power outlet.
- Plug the microwave oven power cord into the SmartMicro control box.
- Wait until the SmartMicro sensor LED turns blue.
- Once the LED sensor turns blue, the microwave oven is ready to be used again.