Smoke Alarms keep going off

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nhfire77 said:
Those should be fine regarding the chamber but the 10 year thing is misleading. It's a best case scenario.

That 10 years may have been picked by NFPA with some science or it was a good round number to use- as are a lot of those types of things. If you have dusty house, a very humid climate, the alarm is close to a kitchen or you look at it funny on a Monday, it's functional life is reduced.

Unlike system smokes we cant measure their alarm threshold or test their sensitivity to tell if they should be replaced or are getting dirt that you cannot remove and more sensitive. Environmental contaminates that aren't able to be removed with a vacuum will make them more sensitive. Sometimes even dust sticks to the sensor and just won't let go.


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I thought the 10 year replacement was based on date of manufacture and had to do with decay of radioactive material used in the device and only applied to ionization type detectors.
 
The expiration period for CO or combined CO alarms, OTOH, is based on the actual chemical degradation of the sensor cell and is very much a hard deadline.
 
Smoke detectors are only good for ten years (check the mfg date). Some new ones have Lithium batteries that don't have to be replaced.
My detectors were going off intermittently, they were due for replacement, new ones solved that issue, plus I added three combos smoke/co.
 
tom baker said:
Smoke detectors are only good for ten years (check the mfg date). Some new ones have Lithium batteries that don't have to be replaced.
My detectors were going off intermittently, they were due for replacement, new ones solved that issue, plus I added three combos smoke/co.
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+1
 
kwired said:
I thought the 10 year replacement was based on date of manufacture and had to do with decay of radioactive material used in the device and only applied to ionization type detectors.
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It applies to all smoke alarms, including photo.


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nhfire77 said:
It applies to all smoke alarms, including photo.


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I realize that, but I though the decay of radioactive component in ionization type was a major factor in determining that 10 years is a good replacement period.
 
I checked and found out 3 detectors were BRK models dated Oct. 1999. I put in 3 new Firex detectors. (The value packs at the hardware I shopped at wern't really any cheaper than buying single detectors.)

That leaves 3 First Alert detectors in the house. If I have any more problems, I'll replace them with the same type of Firex detectors.

I wish I'd thought of the CO detector before I bought those. We have a battery powered CO detector just sitting on top of a curio cabinet. More than once I've searched the whole house for the smoke detector that keeps chirping only to find out it was the battery in the CO detector. (Again, usually at night:) )
 
Knuckle Dragger said:
What I noticed with this particular brand is when the neutral is loose or gets disconnected first, the detector will go into alarm.
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That definitely happened when I was replacing one detector. I'm not sure if it was the First Alert detectors, or the Firex detectors, or both.

when I took a wire nut off the neutral, and the wires separated, some of the detectors went off for about 5 seconds. Sounded very similar to what I've heard at night. It seemed like the same length of time.

anyhow, I'm still hoping replacing the old detectors fixed the problem.
 
steve66 said:
That definitely happened when I was replacing one detector. I'm not sure if it was the First Alert detectors, or the Firex detectors, or both.

when I took a wire nut off the neutral, and the wires separated, some of the detectors went off for about 5 seconds. Sounded very similar to what I've heard at night. It seemed like the same length of time.

anyhow, I'm still hoping replacing the old detectors fixed the problem.
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+1
 
goldstar said:
What brand are they ? Not trying to knock any brand in particular but I've had this problem with Firex in the past at several installations and always at 3:00 AM or so. If you have the where-with-all I would switch to BRK or another reputable brand.
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Yes the FireX are mostly what I have had problems with. Yep around from midnight - 3 am.
 
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