resi smoke alarm trouble

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hardworkingstiff

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Wilmington, NC
I don't do resi work and a friend who had a house built (finished about 4 months ago) just called and asked about his smoke alarm troubles.

The problem is they started alarming for about 60 seconds, then clear and 45 (+/-) minutes later they do it again. It's done it about 5 times today. He's checked around and the house is not burning down. The builder has not called back yet and he was looking for ideas as to what to look for.

Any idea's? I told him I didn't think a battery going out would cause this alarming, but I don't know anything about todays smoke alarms. They all go off since they are interconnected.

Thanks,
 
first he should find the one that's going into alarm (remember he's a homeowner - do not assume anything). For all you know he has an integral CO detector that is going into alarm for good reason.
 
nakulak said:
first he should find the one that's going into alarm (remember he's a homeowner - do not assume anything). For all you know he has an integral CO detector that is going into alarm for good reason.
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I told him he needs to contact the EC ASAP. He worked through the GC and of course needs to go through him. Being a holiday weekend, it may be a while.

Thanks for the tip on the integral CO idea.
 
I'm going to go with a rubbed open short around a A/C truckline.

IE something close enough to be cooled down then heated back up, like in the attic or crawl space!
I've seen the wrappers invlope the wires before. If the Alarm also has a main truck inline sniff tub check and clean that as well.

Have them change the filter, once per the season.

Turn off the system,and isolate the power to be off supply terminals, if there is alot of main truck lines you might establish this as a reference ground and test outward, as wild as that sounds.

You could low ohm megger the wires but that's alot of isolation work!

Besides wheres the yahoo who wired the beast to begin with ?
 
I have had this problem a few times, you can locate the offending alarm by looking for the one with a flashing indicator led, maybe just a bad smoke.

here is a list of things that can cause smokes to go off.

Attic's If he has attic smokes it is not too un common for an EC to install the wrong type, attic smokes can only be particle/high temp as they are too hot for standard smokes.

regular smokes can activate on a fast temperature rise time, if they are located in a location where a blast of hot air can get to them you will get false alarms, unsealed box openings to the attic can also cause this, when someone opens an outside door, and causes air to rush out of the attic by a smoke.

locating a smoke to close to a kitchen, most manufactures recommend not putting a smoke closer then 20' to any cooking or heating appliance, they do make model's that can go into a kitchen but they are expensive.

but first you have to know which one is activating, to do this just look at the indicator led of each unit, and you should find one the has either turned from green to red, or is red and flashing, try to reset it, by removing power and then battery, pushing the test button till the beep dies, then connect battery then power, this should make it reset.

also the signal sent between the smokes is a HF ac signal, so shorts between the neutral or ground and signal wire should not cause false alarms, and a short between the hot and signal wire will usually damage the interconnect. I have seen where MWBC home runs were ran to a smoke first ( a big no-no in my book) as the make up almost always gets tied to the smoke, takes out the inter connect every time, and lets the smoke out of the units:roll:

hope this can help as it can be aggravating,
 
One more thing: exposing the detector to fresh paint fumes too soon can cause problems, and that's usually addressed in the instructions. That's why they often come with those little shower caps. The only solution is replacing them, as far as I know.
 
A couple of long shots.....

A couple of long shots.....

Is the owner microwaving popcorn when this happens?

Even though the house was built 4 months ago, is new wall to wall carpet being installed? Some new carpeting can outgas a vapor that will trip the smoke detectors.....
 
Look for mismatched smoke heads from different manufacturers. Many times the co is a stand alone unit which is not compatable with the smoke common alarm. One township by me specs only a co detector with a digital display by a certain mfgr (i dont know what they plan on doing with this information). Weak or dead batteries can cause havoc intermitten.
 
hardworkingstiff, Although I don't have anything further to add to this post, I wanted to add a thank you to the following for their memory joggers/insights:
nakulak ”… integral CO detector…” Oh yeah....
cadpoint “…main truck inline sniff tub…” My first thought was, am I that out of touch?
hurk27 “…you can locate the offending alarm by looking for the one with a flashing indicator led…" and lots of other good hints.
quogueelectric “…One township by me specs only a co detector with a digital display by a certain mfgr. …”
quogueeletric, I live and work primarily in Suffolk Cty., which township is that?
Hope all had a work free Labor Day weekend, petey
 
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petey_c said:
hardworkingstiff, Although I don't have anything further to add to this post, I wanted to add a thank you to the following for their memory joggers/insights:
nakulak ”… integral CO detector…” Oh yeah....
cadpoint “…main truck inline sniff tub…” My first thought was, wtf am I that out of touch?
hurk27 “…you can locate the offending alarm by looking for the one with a flashing indicator led…" and lots of other good hints.
quogueelectric “…One township by me specs only a co detector with a digital display by a certain mfgr. …”
quogueeletric, I live and work primarily in Suffolk Cty., which township is that?
Hope all had a work free Labor Day weekend, petey
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Southampton ... And they dont allow any other inspectors other than thier own.
 
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I imagine this is resolved by now, but my money is with the batteries. I have had this exact problem before. Ran out and plunked down whatever for 8 brand new, brand name 9 volt batteries. Once they were all new and the same, problem solved, never happened again.

I hope it was that easy!
Mike:)
 
By any chance were these BRK.
Had similar problem with BRK.
Manuafacure said check for the blinking unit. it could be damaged.
He said that low batteries could not do it. The customer replaced the batteries and it seems fixed.
 
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