Never saw this before

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hbiss

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
Customer complains that this smoke falses ever since I installed this fixture for them. Beeps a few times, announces FIRE then shuts up- every few hours. It looks to me like it only does it when the fixture is on. Thinking the sockets are heating up and out gassing? Geeze, those are only 7-1/2W bulbs. Fixture and smoke are about two feet apart.

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Try putting a shade between the two.
It's remotely possible that some part of the lamp's spectrum is shining through the case and lighting up the detector.

If that seems to quiet it down, a permanent fix might be turning the detector 180° and re-installing it, or putting a piece of metal tape on the side.
 
Never seen that either, but smokes should be replaced if expired, and Photo-electric is less sensitive to smoldering.
 
If the detector is hardwired, I wonder if the reason it's falsing when the light's ON could be associated with having the power wire for the detector inadvertently connected to the fixture's switch loop? I say "associated" because I don't think this would likely cause falsing without some other factor involved.

If the detector is not wired up to other detectors, perhaps the interconnect wire is not properly capped off and is contacting the box or EGC and causing problems. Of course this would be assuming that you, Hal, did not wire it up. ;)

The smoke detector looks like it might be the following model from Kidde, although they have a similar one that's powered only from a battery.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Kidde-1...re-Free-Voice-Interconnect-21028757/302789401
 
did a service call once, met an 'ol buck who had beaten a smoke into pieces :eek: , told me.... 'Son, it just wouldn't stfu'!

i think he had a few in him......:rolleyes:but i can appreciate the sentiment......:cool:

~RJ~
 
romex jockey said:
did a service call once, met an 'ol buck who had beaten a smoke into pieces :eek: , told me.... 'Son, it just wouldn't stfu'!

i think he had a few in him......:rolleyes:but i can appreciate the sentiment......:cool:

~RJ~
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Don't have an explanation for one I've had short of haunted. Smoke removed from hard wired connection and battery removed but still continued to bleat for close to an hour even when taken to different building.
 
Fred B said:
Don't have an explanation for one I've had short of haunted. Smoke removed from hard wired connection and battery removed but still continued to bleat for close to an hour even when taken to different building.
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The capacitor in the smoke can support an awful lot of peridic single beeps. Press the test button to drain the capacitor and it will stop beepiing.
I have seen this many times, although not necessarily for an hour.
 
GoldDigger said:
Are those 7-1/2 W LED or incandescent? Possibly optical shadow of support wire rather than burn spot?

Is that ionization or photoelectric detector?
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I look like they are incandescent. We have one, the only one in the house, and it is krap.
 
It is a shadow.

BUT

I just went there this morning. What do I always preach about not listening to what the customer says? I'm thinking those alarms should have a memory and I did, last time, look for an LED on one that would indicate it has alarmed but didn't see any. So last night I downloaded the instruction manual and sure enough, it will tell you if it has alarmed if you press the test button. Nope, wasn't that smoke but the one on the first floor. So it looks like nothing more than the usual dust and I told them to vacuum around it. Well see how that works.

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
It is a shadow.

BUT

I just went there this morning. What do I always preach about not listening to what the customer says? I'm thinking those alarms should have a memory and I did, last time, look for an LED on one that would indicate it has alarmed but didn't see any. So last night I downloaded the instruction manual and sure enough, it will tell you if it has alarmed if you press the test button. Nope, wasn't that smoke but the one on the first floor. So it looks like nothing more than the usual dust and I told them to vacuum around it. Well see how that works.

-Hal
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It's funny how that happens in residential and often times commercial. In the industrial settings, I have found the opposite, that the machine operators know more about the machines than practically anyone.. I have always found their information to be valuable.
 
Fred B said:
Don't have an explanation for one I've had short of haunted. Smoke removed from hard wired connection and battery removed but still continued to bleat for close to an hour even when taken to different building.
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capacitor Fred?

~RJ~
 
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