Fire Alarm Sounds When I Shower

Our 20-year old smoke alarms do exactly this same thing, and they always have. Our solution is to keep the bathroom doors closed with the fan running until the steam is gone. If we do set it off, waving a towel vigorously under the smoke detector will get rid of the steam and stop the noise. It's a pain, however we're used to this quirk.

Make sure you turn the fan on when you're in the shower and close the door. The steam makes the smoke detector think the room has smoke in it. But it's just the moisture/steam from the shower.

find a way to vent the steam from your shower out. call your landlord for suggestions on bathroom venting that they will either pay for or approve of. and if there is already one in place talk to the landlord about getting a more efficient one.

Oh wow!! From another "city dweller" - I am so sorry you are dealing with that!

Definitely tell your landlord/superintendent, whoever selected that alarm model and installed it (I'm guessing it was not you). Ultimately it is an issue that will impact the building, especially if tickets accrue from the fire department for false calls to the building, so they should have a vested interest in fixing it.

ETA: Totally agree with Diane's point about the dangers of "the fire alarm who cried wolf", lol...good to fix this rather than have your children grow accustomed to the concept that the fire alarm "might just be nothing".

It's the humidity from the shower that does it and it's a common problem.
Try to keep the humidity from getting to the alarm.
Run the bathroom fan to vent the humidity out as much as possible.
Turn the fan on before running the shower and leave it running for awhile after you finish.

That happens to us on occasion - the steam from the shower is perceived as smoke by the detector, and ours is an older model that came with the house. My guess is, with warming temperatures and more moisture in the air than there was during the driest part of the winter, the humidity isn't being offset by super dry air as you had in December and January.

Ours went off if we kept the bathroom door open during showers. If we kept it closed, sometimes that blast of humid air would do the same thing. What we do, depending on outside temps, is one of the following:
1) Open the bathroom window at the top (heat rises, as does steam) to let some of it escape during the shower.
2) Open the door just slightly after the shower is done while drying off and getting dressed.
3) Wave a towel to "fan" the steam and disperse it more as soon as you open the door all the way. That also works if you aren't quick enough or forget the first 2 suggestions above and the thing goes off anyway

You could also run a small fan if that works, but I know you have small kids. Who I'm sure you are peeling off the ceiling each time it goes off.

And yes, I'd complain to the management about either the model selected or the placement. Smoke detectors aren't supposed to be too close to a kitchen or a fireplace anyway, so it may not be a great location for several reasons. What you don't want to do is get the kids in the habit of ignoring a fire alarm and assuming it's always the shower.

the steam from the shower is setting off the sensitive alarm.

I would call the manufacturer and ask them what can be done about settings and placement.

If you have a window or a fan in your bathroom? Use it.

Ours goes off when my son showers and doesn't use the fan - the steam sets it off. If you don't have a bathroom fan or if it's not helping, set up a portable fan to keep steam away from the fire alarm.
And we have two fire alarms outside the bathroom - one that was originally there and a second that is connected to our house alarm and monitored by a professional company. It's the professional one that goes off - I have to call the company each time to keep them from sending fire trucks!

Hmm... steam shouldn't be setting it off. Only smoke (I thought).

Funnily enough this happened last week in my son's bedroom, because he had this crazy long shower and his bedroom door was closed (adjoining bathroom). That was the first time it had ever happened.

I'll check with him and update if he figured out why. I think there's a reason though you don't put them in bathrooms. Maybe steam affects how they work

I just googled:

"As soon as the door is opened post-shower, the cloud of steam comes out in the (considerably cooler) hallway, invariably triggering the smoke alarm, which I believe reacts to the sudden change in the number of particles in the air. More expensive smoke alarms (so I've been told) can detect the difference between smoke and steam."

So maybe the newer model you have can't detect the difference in particles whereas your older model could? You might have to move it or try a different kind, or vent the bathroom more.

You mean smoke alarm, right?

I'd call the manufacturer and talk to them about it. They may have seen this issue before and can advise you.