You're right, a smoke detector is detecting smoke... but some smoke is expected (like cooking) and some smoke isn't. The product addresses the problem of contex

You're right, a smoke detector is detecting smoke... but some smoke is expected (like cooking) and some smoke isn't. The product addresses the problem of context. When we expect the smoke, it is a false positive, when we don't...it's positive. Many of us have made the mistake of ripping out the battery in frustration and leaving the smoke detector disabled despite the risk of living without a smoke detector. As for your proposed solution. Drilling holes in the walls and ceilings, re-patching the the old installation point and doing this over and over to try and find a balance point of safe and convenient seems to fail the cost-benefit analysis compared to this product for me. I'd much rather buy the damn thing, leave it installed where it is as opposed to shifting it around. My analogy of the mine detector was more about false positives in general usage, I guess if I were to correct it further, it would be a mine detector that couldn't detect an inactive/benign mine vs a malicious one.